10 & 11 Holywell Street date from the end of the seventeenth or beginning of the eighteenth century and are owned by Merton College.
They are two parts of a Grade II Listed Building (1369394), with the following description:
Nos 10 & 11 SP 5106 NE 6/216 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House. RCHM 212. One building. Originally C17-Cl8, it now has a three-storeyed stuccoed timber-framed front with cellars, a slight overhang at the first floor, a moulded eaves cornice, small parapet, and brick stacks. Four sash windows, with glazing bars, those in the first floor in moulded wood frames and with architraves. No 10 has a modern bracketed wooden hood to the doorway, up to which are three steps with iron handrails.
Interior: RCHM p. 181b. Includes, in No l0, an original fireplace and in No 11 some bolection moulded panelling.
No. 10 (right)
In the mid-eighteenth century this house was occupied by a Dr Keill, followed by the mercer William Thorp 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.
William Thorp's 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 Francis William Joy). He served again as Mayor 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. He then moved across the road to a smaller house in Holywell Street.
No. 10 was described as “a desirable house with a large garden” when it was advertised as being to let on 14 May 1859.
No. 11 (left)
William Butler Huggins ran a lodging house here with his wife Louisa from 1884 until his bankruptcy in 1894.
It was then mostly occupied by academics. Tim Williams, the son of Dr Robert Williams (later Professor Bob Williams FRS) remembers living here 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
The 1841 census for Holywell does not give house numbers, but it is possible to deduce where people listed that year lived by examining directory entries between 1839 and 1842 and later censuses
No. 10
William Thorp (55), 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
Does not appear to be listed
1851
No. 10
William Thorp (65), described as independent, lived here with his orphaned nieces Sarah, Mary, and Susannah Joy, who are all mistakenly recorded as being 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 had an undergraduate lodger.
1871
No. 10
Joseph Chambers (56), a retired army officer, lived here with his wife Maria (43) and their children Emma (27), Catherine (24). Joseph (16), George (15), and Rose (12). They had two servants (a cook and housemaid).No. 11
George Barnes (37), a college servant, lived here with his wife Martha (49). They had one servant.
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.
1891
No. 10
Katharine H. Hopkins (60) still lived here with her daughter Gertrude (34) and her grandson Richard Hopkins (6). They had two servants (a cook and a house/parlour maid).No. 11
William Huggins (38), a post office clerk, lived here with his wife Louisa (43) and their children Louisa (15), who was a dressmaker's apprentice, Henry (14), William (12), Ada (9), and Elsie (6).
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 Cambray (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).
1921
No. 10
John Reginald Homer Weaver (39), a Fellow of Trinity College, lived here with his wife Stella (27) and their cook and housemaid.No. 11
Ernest Llewellyn Woodward (31), a Fellow of All Souls College & Lecturer at New College, lived here with his wife Florence and their servant.
1939 Register
No. 10
The physician & surgeon Harold C. Harley is listed here with his wife Anne, plus a retired barrister at law and his wife.No. 11
Fellow & lecturer in philosophy William C. Kneale lived here with his wife Martha, who was a fellow & tutor in philosophy, and their housekeeper
Occupants of 10–11 Holywell Street listed in directories etc. |
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| No. 11 (left) | No. 10 (right) | |
1758 |
Mr Reynolds |
Mr Green |
1772 |
Mrs Guy |
|
1838–1852 |
John Musgrove |
(Alderman) William Thorp, Esq (by 1840) |
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 |
Edward Cecil Foster, M.R.C.S. |
|
1921 |
E. Llewellyn Woodward, MA |
Keith Feiling |
1926 |
John Reginald Homer Weaver, M.A. |
|
1927 |
No listing |
|
1930 |
Geoffrey Commeline Williams, |
Raymond Greene |
1933 |
Not listed |
|
1935–1936 |
James Edward Meade, M.A. |
|
1938 |
No listing |
|
1940–1945 |
William Calvert Kneale, M.A. |
Harold Harley |
1947–1952 |
Gerard Alaric Ballance,
B.A., M.B., B.Ch. |
|
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 |
Today |
Merton College houses |
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