Oxford boundary markers: St John's College
The lower half of this boundary stone is buried in a path. The only part of the inscription now visible reads:
ST. / JOHN'S
The photograph below shows this stone in context at the foot of a low brick wall outside the north end of Gee's Restaurant at 61A Banbury Road:
This boundary stone would have been erected by St John's College, and is situated at the north end of a block of buildings that it owned until 1966. Although the land immediately to the north of the stone (including North Parade) did not belong to the college, the college did own more land on the north side of North Parade, so the stone does not mark the northernmost extent of its North Oxford estate.
The land occupied by the proprietors of the Victoria Nursery (first the Day and then the Gee family) in the nineteenth century did however stretch further north than the present Gee's Restaurant, right up to North Parade, as follows:
- The freehold part to the north comprised a dwelling house in North Parade with buildings, and also garden ground fronting the Summertown (Banbury) Road (all occupied by the nursery owner). (There was also a separately occupied six-bedroom house adjoining.)
- The leasehold part to the south (owned by St John’s College) comprised the rest of the Victoria Nursery's land. (Gee's present conservatory and house were later built on this part.)
It seems likely that St John's College erected this stone to clarify exactly where their leasehold land to the south ended and the freehold land began, as it appears that the nursery owner's market garden straddled the boundary, making the boundary invisible. The stone may have been erected in 1845 when the freehold land to the north was sold, with the following auction notice published in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 5 July 1845:
The three owners of the Victoria Nursery on the Banbury Road
(1) Joseph Humphrey (1831–1836)
An advertisement inserted in Jackson's Oxford Journal by Joseph Humphrey on 11 October 1834 shows that this nursery on the Banbury Road adjoining North Parade was already called the Victoria Nursery and helpfully mentions that he had been three years in business.
On 18 May 1833 there was an advertisement of a sale of 41 lots of freehold land “adjoining the Nursery and Flower Gardens of Mr. Humphrey, St. Giles's, Oxford”. By July 1836 he had given up the nursery business and was working as a publican.
(2) The Day family (1836–c.1882)
By 15 September 1836 William Day was the owner of the Victoria Nursery, and on that day in an advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal he thanked the public for “the liberal support he has met with during the short space he has taken to the above business”. It was listed as follows in early directories:
1839: Robson's Commercial Directory: “Day, Wm. St Giles field ....... Victoria Nursery”
1847: Post Office Directory: “Day William, nurseryman, North Parade, Banbury Road”
1852: Gardner's Directory: “Day William (Victoria Nursery), North parade”.
On 5 May 1838 a forthcoming auction was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal of “all that FREEHOLD HOUSE and PREMISES, well known as Victoria Nursery, St. Giles’s, Oxford, and the House adjoining”. William Day was named as the current lessee of this nursery, and probably also already held the St John's leasehold land to the south.
On 5 July 1845 Jackson’s Oxford Journal announced another auction of the same freehold part of the Victoria Nursery in North Parade fronting the Summertown (Banbury) Road, comprising a dwelling house occupied by William Day with buildings and part of the garden ground, for which he paid £35 a year. William Day announced on the same day that he intended to continue to run his business there after the sale.
The following advertisement appeared in Billing's Directory of 1854:
At the time of the 1861 census the widower William Day, described as a nurseryman & florist, was living in North Parade with one servant. Also living in a separate house in North Parade with his wife and children at the time of that 1861 census was David Day, a market gardener aged 39 who had been born in Chelsea.
William Day died at the Nursery at the age of 72 on 13 December 1866, and his son David evidently took it over.
On 2 October 1869 David Day announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal that he was holding a sale of shrubs and trees because the land in front of his house was required for building purposes.
The 1871 census shows David Day (49) living at the Victoria Nursery with his wife Eliza (58) and one servant. His wife died at the age of 64 near the beginning of 1876, and in 1877 in the Wycombe district David Day married a new and younger wife, Elizabeth Merrick of Penn, Northamptonshire. The 1881 census shows them living at the Victoria Nursery with their children Ann and David junior, plus Elizabeth's unmarried sister Anne Merrick and a granddaughter Caroline Grace (15).
- Make full-screen and then enlarge this streetplan to see the size of the Victoria Nursery in 1876
(3) The Gee family (from c.1882)
At the time of the 1871 census John Gee (29) was living on the Banbury Road and running his own market-garden business, quite separate from the Victoria Nursery. He was described as a market gardener employing three men, and the 1881 census describes him as living in a “House on Gees Garden” in the Banbury Road (Ss Philip & James's parish).
In about 1882 Gee took over the Victoria Nursery from David Day and moved into his house there. On 11 October 1884 it was reported in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he had replaced the small greenhouse in front of his house there with a shop (with J. C. Gray of 82 (now 181) Cowley Road the architect).
By the time of the 1891 census John Gee, a widower of 49, had moved to Ivy Lodge on the Banbury Road, where he lived with his son John Payne Gee (26) and his daughter Elizabeth (25), who acted as housekeeper; also still at home were Amy (20), Maud (19), and Grace (18), who all worked as florist assistants, and his youngest son Henry (12). Both John and his son John junior were described as “Farmer, Nurseryman, etc”. His married son Charles William Seaborne Gee was now living at the Victoria Nursery with his wife and son, but John Gee still ran the family business.
On 30 January 1892 John Gee took out a large advertisement in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, inviting people to inspect his numerous stock at Diamond Farm, Banbury Road, listing many trees, shrubs, and climbers, and stating that orders could be received at the Victoria Nurseries, Banbury Road and at the Market, Oxford. On 2 February 1895 he advertised fruit trees and shrubs available for inspection at the Blackhall Farm Nurseries, Banbury Road. Mavis Batey wrote: “Ferns and spikey plants in pots to echo spikey finials and gables were much in demand”.
In 1897 Gee built a house and large conservatory on the St John's land. Confusingly, Gee's Nursery is numbered 63 in Kelly's Directory up to 1916, but from the 1920s it is numbered 61A Banbury Road as today.
John Gee died at Black Hall Farm at the age of 55 on 8 February 1898.
Gee's business survived (latterly as a garden centre) into the 1980s, and the site is now occupied by Gee's Restaurant.
More information about John Gee and his nursery
The former Gee's Nursery on Streetview, showing the freehold land
to the north stretching up to North Parade
Another St John's College boundary stone (outside Oxford)
A St John's College boundary stone dated 1822 on a footpath near Pen Barn, Lodge Hill,
Abingdon (SU504998)
photographed by David Clark. The stone now appears to be missing.