Grade II Listed Building: IoE Number 245555. This pair of houses dates from the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century. Owned by Merton College.
No. 10
This house was occupied by a Dr Keill and the next occupier was William Thorp, a mercer and his wife Joan Pitt. The following extract from a letter dated 13 January 1749/50 written by Dr Humphrey Owen, Principal Librarian of the Bodleian, to Dr Richard Rawlinson describes the house:
I have made enquiry about a house proper for a gentleman of your description but can hear of no one that is in a good situation where you can be properly accommodated, except at one Mr. Thorp’s a stocking weaver in Holywell and a very honest man: the same Dr Keill formerly lived in, which has a very pretty garden and outlet into the Parkes, who would be very glad to receive a gentleman of your character.
His great-grandson William Thorp (1785–1869), who was Mayor of Oxford for the first time in 1833/4, came to live here in 1834, when he was a widower of 49, with his orphaned nieces and nephew (Elizabeth, Sarah, Mary, Susan, and F. W. Joy). He was Mayor again in 1844/5 and 1848/9. By 1851 he lived here with his widowed sister Mrs Susannah Folker and his niece Mary Joy, plus two servants, and then moved across the road to a smaller house in Holywell.
No. 11
Tim Williams, the son of Dr Robert Williams (now Professor Bob Williams FRS) remembers living in the
street as a child around 1960:
The house was a funny house with a winding stair case that ran from the top to the bottom of the house. I fell down it several times. The top floor of the house only had two rooms. The ground floor had a dining room facing the street and a “dump” room with a sliding door. A corridor ran the whole length of the left hand wall of the house from the front door to scullery at the back through the kitchen. Between the dump room and the kitchen there was a light well which allowed natural light to penetrate to the dump room. On the first floor my father had a study at the back of the house. The living room was the room facing the street on the first floor.
10–11 Holywell Street in the censuses
1841
No. 10
William Thorp (65), now described as a Magistrate and Alderman and a retired hosier and mercer, lived here with his widowed sister Mrs Susannah Folker (57) and his niece Mary Joy (26). They had two servants. .No. 11
…
1851
No. 10
William Thorp (65), described as independent, lived here with his orphaned nieces Sarah, Mary, and Susannah Joy, who are all mistakenly put down as aged 15, and one female servant.No. 11
John A. Dale, M.A. (34), a natural philosopher and proprietor of railway shares, lived here with one servant.
1861
No. 10
Maria Chambers (33), a London-born officer’s wife, lived here with her children Josephine (11), Kate (10), Hugh (6), George (5), and Rose (2). The first four children were born in the East Indies, and the last in Leamington. The family had two servants, a cook and a nursemaid.No. 11
William Solloway (34), a Gloucestershire-born cattle dealer, lived here with his Oxford-born wife Kate (33) and their children Henry (8), Elizabeth (5), Frank (4), and Major (1). They have an undergraduate lodger.
1881
No. 10
Katharine H. Hopkins (50), a widowed fundholder, lived here with her daughters Gertrude (24) and Magdalen (22). They had two servants: a cook and a housemaid.No. 11
The head of the household was away, and the house was occupied by his/her unmarried niece Martha M. Gambel (22) and a 15-year-old servant girl.
1901
No. 10
William Chamberlain (51), a gardener, lived here with his wife Eliza (54), who was a lodging house keeper.No. 11
William Cambray (43), a house decorator, lived here with his wife Charlotte (32), who was a lodging house keeper, and his children Emily (15), who was a dressmaker’s apprentice; William (13); and Lottie (11).The enumerator lists a New College household between Nos. 10 & 11 Holywell Street: Professor John Townsend (32) lived here with an undergraduate. As they had no servants, presumably it was above the two houses and part of the lodgings.
1911
No. 10
William Cambrey (55), a university lodging house keeper, lived here with his wife Charlotte (47) and his children Louise (24) and William (23).No. 11
Arthur Ernest Higginson (35), a compositor, lived here with his wife Sarah (36).
Occupants of 10–11 Holywell Street listed in directories etc. |
|||
| No. 11 (left) | No. 10 (right) | ||
1772 |
Frontage: 10 yds 1 ft 6 in |
||
1846–1852 |
John Musgrove |
(Alderman) William Thorp, Esq |
|
1861 |
William Solloway |
Major/Lt-Col. Joseph Chambers |
|
1866–1872 |
George Barnes |
||
1875–1876 |
Mrs Christopher |
||
1881 |
Not listed |
Mrs Katharine Hopkins |
|
1884–1894 |
William Butler Huggins |
||
1894–1896 |
Frederick Augustus Dixey |
||
1899–1905 |
William Chamberlain |
William Cambray |
|
1914 |
Mrs Higginson |
||
1916 |
George Leonard Prestige |
Edward Cecil Foster, M.R.C.S. |
|
1921 |
E. Llewellyn Woodward, MA |
Keith Feiling |
|
1926 |
John Reginald H. Weaver, M.A. |
||
1935–1936 |
James Edward Meade, M.A. |
Raymond Greene |
|
1945 |
William Calvert Kneale, M.A. |
Harold Harley |
|
1947–1952 |
Gerard Alaric Ballancer, |
||
1954 |
Robert Joseph Paton Williams, |
||
1956–1962 |
Harold Charles Harley, M.A., B.M., B.Ch. |
||
1964 |
No listing |
||
1966 |
Roger W. Morgan |
||
1967 |
No listing |
||
1970–1976 |
C. Plumer |
John A. Godwin |
|
At 11 and 10 |
Merton College annexe |
||