Oxford History: The High

Nos. 67 & 68 prior to 1846

The present shop at No. 67–68 awkwardly straddles two buildings: on the left, it cuts into the last, maroon-coloured house of a Georgian terrace; on the right it occupies a tall black-and-white building. This unlikely looking pair was already a single shop by 1846, but the upstairs premises were separately occupied.

No. 67

By 1834 John Hounslow was a wine & spirit merchant here, acting as the agent for the patent brandy of Messrs. J. T. Betts & Co. of London. His first wife Sarah died in February 1835 aged 33 shortly after giving birth: she had eight children altogether, but six died in infancy. At the time of the 1841 census Hounslow was a widower, living here over his shop with his son John Hounslow junior and his daughter Caroline, plus a female servant.

No. 68

By 1839 this shop was occupied by the gun-maker Richard Brown. The 1841 census shows him living here with Mary Brown and Thomas Brown (6), and a college servant and his family lived in one of the tenements attached to his premises. On 5 February 1842 the following auction notice appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

All those valuable FREEHOLD PREMISES, situate in the High-Street, Oxford, in the occupation of the proprietor, Richard Brown, and his under-tenants; consisting of a Dwelling House and Shop, fronting the street, wherein the business of a gun-maker has been carried on for nearly a century, and of Two Tenements and a Workshop, with good sized Yard at the back thereof. The only out-going is a Land Tax of 1l. 10s.

Nos 67 & 68 combined as one shop after 1846 (but upstairs occupied separately)

In the 1840s John Hounslow expanded his business so that he occupied both Nos. 67 & 68. In January 1851 he married his second wife, Ann Powell of Stanton St John, and the 1851 census shows him still living over No. 67 with his new wife and his 17-year-old daughter Caroline, plus an apprentice and servant. Living over No. 68 was a shoemaker called Samuel Hounslow (probably his brother) together with his wife and four children. John Hounslow was described as “the Radical grocer in High Street” by William Tuckwell in his Reminiscences of Oxford, and is recorded as giving this advice on sermons in Oxford: “’Obhouse and ’Ansell are below par; go to ’Olywell and ’ear Goulburn.”

On 6 February 1858 Jackson's Oxford Journal, advertised a forthcoming auction of No. 67 at the Golden Cross Hotel by direction of the Executors of the late Mrs Battin:

VALUABLE Freehold House, with Shop & Yard, No. 67, HIGH STREET,
In the occupation of Mr. Hounslow, Wine Merchant, ...
The House comprises a good shop, two sitting rooms, five bed rooms, kitchen, scullery, and extensive cellarage, used as wine vaults. At the back is a good outlet,

In 1859 James Jenkin, who ran a private school in Holywell, married John Hounslow’s daughter Caroline. The 1861 census shows that John Hounslow (66) was then still the grocer & wine merchant in the shop at Nos. 67 & 68. He lived upstairs at No. 67 with his second wife Ann and their housemaid, while his son-in-law James Jenkin (33), who was still working as a schoolmaster, was living over No. 68 with his wife Caroline and their servant.

On 24 February 1866 John Hounslow announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that he was handing the business over to his son-in-law James Jenkin. John Hounslow died at 67 High Street at the age of 76 on 31 March 1871 and the 1871 census taken very shortly afterwards shows Jenkin living above No. 67 with his wife, four children, half-brother, nephew, and two servants and described himself as a grocer employing three men and one boy, while the newly widowed Ann Hounslow lived alone upstairs at No. 68 with two servants.

At the time of the 1881 census the premises above No. 67 were described as unoccupied, while James Jenkin now lived over No. 68 together with his wife Caroline and their five children, his half-brother (described as a grocer’s assistant), and a general servant. Jenkin was elected Mayor of Oxford later that year.

By the time of the 1891 census the printer Cyril Vincent lived over No. 67 with his five children and their servant, while James Jenkin (62) still lived over No. 68 with his wife and two children, plus their 16-year-old servant girl. Vincent and his family still lived over No. 67 at the time of the 1901 census, but James Jenkin had died in 1898 and his widow Caroline Jenkin (67) was now the wine & spirit merchant here and lived here with her son Herbert Jenkin (35) who managed the shop for her, and her three daughters.

At the time of the 1911 census the widow Laurina Emily Penny and her daughter kept a university lodging house in the nine rooms above No. 67, while Caroline Jenkin (77) and her four unmarried children, including Herbert Jenkin (46), who still managed the shop for her, occupied the eight rooms above No. 68. Caroline died over this shop on 9 January 1912, and by 1914 her son had changed the shop's name from James Jenkin to Herbert Jenkin.

At the time of the 1921 census Charles Earle Freeman (70), who did work for Oxford University Press, lived over No. 67 with his wife Louisa and their servant, while Herbert Jenkin (56), the grocer and wine & spirit merchant on the ground floor, lived over No. 68 with his sisters Sarah (54) and Kate (52).

The shop continued to be occupied by a wine merchant’s business until 1962. The photograph below comes from a promotional booklet of photographs produced by W. H. Ryder & Son (Reading) Ltd, Architectural Woodmasters. As well as much work for churches, banks, and breweries they did shopfitting, and included in their list of clients Courage, which had taken over H. & G. Simonds. Their shopfront remains in place today, with the door on the right that led upstairs changed to a third narrow but matching window.

Photograph kindly supplied by Anthony Guy

These three houses are now owned by Magdalen College and are sublet to Stanford University. The large warehouse behind No. 68 has been converted into the Stanford House Library. The photograph below shows No. 66 and 67 from the back in 2015.