Oxford boundary markers: Woodstock Road (1892)
[City coat of arms showing
ox crossing ford]
[1 8 9 2]
[F. W. A N S E L L
M A Y O R]
[W. S. C A R V E R
S H E R I F F]
Although this stone is now illegible, the inscription can be deduced as it is exactly aligned with the first of the stones listed below that stands on the canal to the west of St Edward's School.
This stone is on the west side of the Woodstock Road, just to the north of South Parade. It is not a listed structure.
It belongs to the following series of boundary stones that were set up at the time of the Mayor's perambulation of 1892 (the first such inspection to take place after the 1889 Oxford boundary change):
- Canal towpath
- Opposite Headley Way
- Godstow Road
- Sunnymead
- Woodlands Road
- Hogacre Ditch
- Iffley Meadows
- Port Meadow (probably)
Frederick Ansell was Mayor of Oxford in 1891/2, and there was a special perambulation that year.
William Stevens Carver (1859–1917), the Sheriff of Oxford who would also have been named on this stone, was at the time of the 1891 census a 32-year-old accountant & auditor who lived at 7 Longworth Road with his wife Eliza and their three young daughters. He was the City Accountant from 1894 until his death (obituary in the Oxford Journal Illustrated of 26 December 1917, p. 9).
This map shows the new 1889 boundary of the city marked in blue.