Walton Street: Plater College
The Catholic Social Guild founded the Catholic Workers’ College at Holyfield House, 1 Walton Well Road in 1921 in memory of Father Charles Plater, a young Jesuit who had dreamed of founding an English Roman Catholic college.
The college remained here for 34 years. It moved to Boar’s Hill in 1955, and was renamed Plater College in 1965.
It then moved up to Pullen’s Lane in Headington in 1975, where it had demolished the house known as Fairfield and put up new buildings. Plater College closed down permanently on 31 July 2005.
Earlier history
This large house at 1 Walton Well Road was originally called Holyfield House, An inscription on the side reads: “ALAN J.H. JOHNSON / LAID THIS STONE / AUGUST 13TH 1891”. Alan James Holyfield Johnson was only seven years old at the time: he was born in 1883/4 at 16 George Street, Oxford, the son of the wheelwright Thomas Edwin Johnson and his second wife Ada Rebecca Habbijam, who were married on 3 September 1881. Thomas Edwin Johnson (71) and Ada were living here in retirement at the time of the 1901 census with their daughter Ada Elizabeth (19), and their son Alan (17). Thomas died at the age of 84 near the beginning of 1914, and Holyfield House was then listed in directories as being occupied jointly by the widowed Mrs Thomas and her son Alan.
Holyfield House is a Grade II listed building (list entry 1392943)