99 Holywell Street is an early seventeenth-century house, refashioned in the eighteenth century. Along with Nos. 96, 97, & 98 to the west and 100 to the east, it is is owned by Merton College, who were Lords of the Manor of Holywell.
It is a Grade II Listed Building (1369382), with the following description:
No 99 SP 5106 SE 9/227 12.1.54. II GV 2.
House. RCHM 221. Early Cl7, refashioned in Cl8. two-storeyed stone with cellars and two gables, the latter having modern wood bargeboards. There is a modern brown tiled roof and the stacks are of modern red brick. On the East is a stone-based stack with a modern red brick shaft. The West side has two-light casement windows in wood frames in the first floor and in the attic gables. The East side has sash windows.
Interior: RCHM page 182a. Includes some reset early C17 panelling.
J. R. R. Tolkien lived here in the early 1950s.
99 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
Thomas Walker (50), a college servant, lived here with Harriet (35), Caroline Slingo (20), and three students.
1851
Harriet Walker (48), a widowed laundress, lived here with her daughter Harriet (22), who was a dressmaker. They had a retired surgeon lodging with them, and one servant.
1861
Miss Sophia Munday (49), born in Wiltshire, was the head of the household, and lived here with her Oxford-born sister Mary Ann (42) and one servant. They had three lodgers: a German Chemistry assistant, and a widowed proprietor of houses with her 4-year-old son.
1871
The name of the head of the household, Dr Henry M. Tuckwell, is deleted. and only the cook and the housemaid were at home on census night.
1881
Henry Sanders (72), a widower and retired builder, lived here with his unmarried children Elizabeth (42), Annie (40), John (34), who was a banker’s clerk, Crisse (33), and Arthur (29), also a banker’s clerk). They had one general servant. Henry Sanders died in August 1885.
1891
John Sanders (44), a bank clerk, and his sister Crisse (43), son and daughter of the previous occupant, lived here with one servant.
1901
Uninhabited
1911
William Arthur Pernow Waters (42), an unmarried physician, lived here, and Arthur Latham Ormerod, the Medical Officer of Health, lodged with him. They had two servants.
1921
The physician William Arthur Pernow Waters (53 ) still lived here with two servants, and the medical officer of health Arthur Latham Ormerod (50) was still his lodger.
1939 Register
The New College tutor in Philosophy & Politics Werner Falk lived here with his wife Barbara and a schoolboy called Manfred Cassier, plus a children's nurse and housekeeper.
Occupants of 99 Holywell Street listed in directories etc. |
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1772 |
Mr Brazier |
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1841–1851 |
Thomas Walker (to 1846) |
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1852 |
Thomas Munday, Miss Sophia Munday by 1861 |
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1861 |
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1866–1871 |
Henry M. Tuckwell, M.D. |
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1872–1876 |
Revd C. H. Grundy, Curate of St Peter-in-the-East |
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1884–1899 |
Henry Sanders John Sanders by 1889 |
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1911–1936 |
William Arthur Pernow Waters, physician Arthur Latham Ormerod, Assistant school medical officer for city |
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1938–1949 |
Werner Falk |
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1950–1967 |
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, M.A. Christopher R. Tolkien, M.A. (from 1954) |
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1967–2000 |
Mrs D. G. Williams |
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Today |
Private house |
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