North Oxford and its Mother Church

An early (c.1900) history of the church of St. Philip and St James, illustrated with recent photographs.

The City of Oxford in olden times ended with St. Giles. There was the Church, the old Vicarage, and the School on the older Port-way, which we now call Banbury Road, while on the Woodstock Road was one row of stucco-built houses and an old Inn, with the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Observatory. A short distance beyond this, stood the well-known Hostel 'The Horse and Jockey' with a few houses around it standing fairly in the fields, and here Oxford ended. This was only fifty year ago. It was a clear mile then to the little hamlet of Summertown, with fields and farms and a few market gardens between: but of the great mass of North Oxford, which now is the aristocratic quarter of the city, with no less than four new churches besides numerous streets and villa residences, nothing was in existence. History takes us a long way back when it tells us this 'Hundred without the North Gate' belonged to the good King Ethelred, who was Lord of the Manor of Headington, 'with its Hamletts and all appurtenances,' of which this was one; and then it is recorded in the inquisition of 7th Edward I (1279) that Hugo de Plessets was feudal Lord, and held it under the King for one Knight's fee when scutage was required or needful, or when he had to go with the King in the host to battle, and to serve him for the space of forty days at his own proper charges, but if more, then at the King's charges. He also hath 'vayva' of whatsoever kind of bread come, and all measures signed with his own seal as well in the hundred as in the Manor, an judgement of any robber taken in the Hundred.

Hugo seems to have held this Manor the Hundred through his wife Isabel, who was one of the descendants of Thomas Basset, to whom the property had been given by King John, on the condition o paying £20 yearly into the King's exchequer. Hugo is spoken of as holding four carucates of land 'in dominico,' and the medes that belonged to the Manor are mentioned as 'Bradmore, Norham, and Linches;' names which are still remembered by the streets called after them. The property changed hands in the usual way several times, passing to John Byset and William Byset, then to Sir Richard d'Amory Knight, and from him to the Broomes of Halton (or Holton;) of whom Sir Christopher Broome with George Broome his son and heir, sold it in 1590 to the Citizens of Oxford.

How quaintly the story reads of the patch of ground called 'Rome,' where now Wycliffe Hall stands, and to which Non-ultra walk led from Smith Gate; there, we are told, was a little hill sometime containing a cave underneath with a meander therein, and on the top thereof a cross built of stone but plucked down in 1498; while in after days its place was usurped by a windmill. In St. John's Library is a letter from the Bishop of Winton to the College (24 July, 1609) for the taking down of the house and windmill at Rome in S. Giles' fields, as an annoyance and unprofitable to the College. Beyond this the way led by Brachnore to Greenditch and Woditch, where the City gallows stood. Gruesome tales are told of Greenditch and its gallows, but these we thankfully leave to-day and turn to more modem and pleasanter times. Rome was in later days made into pleasure gardens; where, as a 'truly rural' spot outside the City all the fashion and ton of Oxford made their rendezvous; but like all such places it grew vulgar and then went down. We recollect it sixty years ago as market or ordinary gardens before the houses began to be built, and even now the remnant of the nursery of plants and flowers holds the upper bit of the green island between the roads.

Most of the land of North Oxford was at length in the possession of the Abbeys of St. Frideswide, Osney, or Godstow before the Dissolution, and after these had been dissolved the property was conveyed by King Henry VII, with all the appurtenances, to George Owen, the King's physician, for the sum of £ 1, 174, conditionally that he and his heirs should hold them in 'capite' by the service of the tenth part of a Knight's fee, and to yield yearly £6 12S 9d to be paid into the Court of Augmentation. From him or his son these Manors together with the 'mediety' of that of St. Giles', were conveyed to Sir Thomas White, the Founder of the College of St. John Baptist in Oxford, and St. John's are to this day the acknowledged Lords thereof, and by them the property is leased to the present owners.

The clay pits at Summertown have supplied antiquarians with some interesting bits of the late Bronze era, while on the site of SS Philip and James School was fond a Briton or Dane, buried in all probability in a sitting position, for his skull was lying between his knees. The Romans left but a few tokens of their existence here: on the site of the Convent below the Church a few coins were found, and the late Professor Westwood was convinced that some remains fond there were of Roman construction, with some of the well-known Roman bricks intermingled in layers.

At one of the farms by the road side, not far from where SS Philip and James stands, we recollect a disastrous fire which consumed the wheat ricks garnered from the fields hard by, and the way the wheat ears were fused into heard lumps by the fierce heat, was one of the curiosities of the fire; but the farm and its buildings, the fields and the very idea of them all, have been swallowed up by the brick- built villas which now line the road. The Summertown roads were quite in the country then, with the Nightingale singing in the plantations, which lined them in places; but now the country has changed into suburb with tree-lined roads, and detached or semi-detached villas with few intervals.

The extension of Oxford began when Park Crescent was designed and laid out on the surviving insurance plan called a "Tontine," then a novelty to Oxford. This came to be looked upon as the fashionable part of Oxford sprung into existence. It soon began to be populated, but both the old Church of St. Giles' and the little mission-like Church at Summertown were found to be too far away to accommodate the many worshippers; so it was decided to build a new church on a site opening to the Woodstock Road and connected by a small street to the other main road.

This is the story of the place in early days, now to turn to later times. Before 1859 there had been correspondence between the Parish and St. John's College on the subject of a new church, but the actual movement which resulted in buildings of SS Philip and James, with its separate district taken to of the parish of St. Giles', and all the subsequent changes in North Oxford, arose out of a parish of St. Giles'. And all the subsequent changes in North Oxford, arose out of a parish meeting in St. Giles; School to consider the question of freeing the sittings in the Parish Church. These had been appropriated but not rented, and the parish was evenly divided between those who desired freedom of sittings and those aiming at a compromise. Arrangements were tried but did not work comfortably, and at length it was resolved to set about building a new church. Messrs Frederick Morrell, Thomas Mallam, and Captain Burrows were asked to undertake the work as a committee, to select an architect, and collect funds. St. John's College gave the site and accepted the advowson. Mr. Street was selected Architect, and the only directions given him were that the Chancel should be apsidal, that the Nave should be as wide as possible with very few pillars to obstruct the view of the East end, and that the Aisles should be quite small, one of them to contain the organ. This general plan gave Mr. Street an opportunity to save expense in buttresses for the Tower by making the Nave, Transepts and Aisles do that duty themselves, the lines of the Nave being carried inward towards the East end for that purpose. It was not supposed the Tower could be raised for many years. As it turned out, the whole fabric was completed except the Tower in two years, through the interest taken by members liberally responded, generously aided by Archdeacon Clarke at Christ Church, these were quickly built, and the Church consecrated by Bishop Wilberforce on May 8, 1862. At the luncheon given in St. John's College, the Bishop declared he was not satisfied at leaving such a beautiful church without a spire, and called upon the Ladies of Oxford to take the matter in hand. On every circular it had been announced that sittings should be free, and it was thought well to record it on stone near the western door before consecration. It was also judged that chairs would secure free sittings better than fixed seats, but there was really no choice as seats would have cost ten times as much as chair and funds were exhausted.

 

The foundation-stone was laid by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford on May 1st, 1860, and a small S on the angle of a capital near the south entrance records this. G.E. Street, R.A., the Diocesan Architect, designed the Church, and Joseph Castle was the Builder. The Church was built on the north west corner of a wide expanse of allotment gardens, which extended from the south boundary of the garden attached to "The Shrubbery," 72 Woodstock Road, then occupied by Thomas Mallam, Clerk to the Magistrates, to the garden road, now Bevington Road, and taking up all the space between the main roads.

72 Woodstock Road

In 1862 no houses existed between the Parks and Park Town on the east side of Banbury Road, the land was occupied by allotment gardens; nor were there any houses on the west side of Woodstock Road till the North Parade blocks were reached. Houses existed in St. John's Road (then Horse and Jockey Lane) as far as Walton Street, to the Hut Road now Kingston Road, Plantation Road, the Horse and Jockey Inn, and then came Professor Westwood's House, with the Hospital for Infectious Diseases a little farther northwards. The old Heyfield Hut public-house (The Anchor) and Canal Coal was under cultivation as allotment gardens and fields, one small rising in the midst being called 'Cabbage Hill;' and the St. Giles' Fair Caravans fond shelter before the event in the hollows under the hedges and ditches where gravel had been dug, which formed the sides of the roads to the north of St. John's and Bevington Roads.

Part of St. Margaret's Road, between Banbury and Woodstock Road, was called Gallows-Baulk-Road, and afterwards Rackham's Lane; and when the road was made by the Oxford Corporation, the remains of several who suffered death by hanging were fond. The farm was called Diamond Farm, which reached to Summertown, and on this, from July 11 to 22, 1870, the Royal Agricultural Show was held with the greatest success, and the days on which it was held are nearly a record for bright sunshine and intense heat.

The Mother Church of the district, SS. Philip and James, is a Cruciform Church, Early Gothic in style, with a few French details. It consists of a broad Nave with small aisles on either side, a central Tower and Spire, the arches of which form the choir, and lead into an apse at the east end, which completes the Chancel. The south transept, standing out from the Tower and Spire, the arches of which form the choir, and lead into an apse at the east end, which completes the Chancel. The south transept, standing out from the Tower, forms the Chapel called St. Mary's Chapel; the corresponding transept of the north side being utilised for the organ, which is elevated, with vestry beneath. The approaches are a shallow porch at the west end, a porch leading to the south aisle, and a door direct into the Mary Chapel. The western end is a gable with the porch before mentioned, above which are three lancet lights connected by a string-course, and in the gable a quatrefoil light, with brackets on either side carrying the hood- mould.

 

The tower rises square from the transepts and nave, with two open lancet lights on either side and a small turret staircase on the south-east; the Spire is octagonal and of the broach class of spire, having no parapet where it joins the spire-lights standing out on each side, and bands of coloured stone, with sunk quatrefoils &c. towards the top. A half skeleton clock with four faces was added in 1896 and placed between the lights in the tower; the whole is surmounted by the usual weathercock. The church and spire form a good centrepoint to every view of North Oxford, but the tower is not sufficient to carry a peal of bells.

The interior of the Church has an arcade of four bays with lofty and bold arches supported on massive shafts of polished Aberdeen granite, the caps of which are richly carved with stiff-leaved foliage and small figures. Above the string course of the arcade is a clerestory of six lights, with wagon roof, but the beauty of the nave is lessened by the way it narrows at the last bay towards the chancel arch. The chancel arch is lofty, and across its front is a beam carrying an ornamental rood cross, which nearly reaches to the top of the arch, but this is not altogether a success. The choir and apse have groined stone roofs, with bands of different colour stone-work, springing from handsome polished Devonshire marble columns with carved caps; the same style of column is used in the sedilia, and also in the windows of the aisles. The floor is laid with tiles, which are also used against the walls of the apse; the chancel floor was paved with marble in 1896. The Altar is of oak with cared front, the centre panel containing the sacred monogram with wheat and grapes, the side panels and initials of the patron Saints with palms and crowns; it stands against the stone wall which supports the reredos, while massive oak screens in connection with the choir stalls cross the transept. The reredos was designed and given by the Architect; it was in the great Exhibition of 1862. At first it consisted of three panels, with gothic tops, the two side ones having figures of St. Philip and St. James, while the centre represents our Lord in Gethsemane praying; over Him being an Angel bearing a cup, while two Disciples are sleeping at the foot of the scene. It was considerably altered in 1884, the centre panel raised up square with a cornice above, and the background filled in with carving, the details from a print of Albert Durer. On the left Judas and the soldiers are seen entering the Garden, behind them is a glimpse of the Holy City, and in the background the 'Hills which stand about Jerusalem,' while on the right are rocks and olive trees. The reredos has been completed with colouring and gliding. Immediately over the Altar is the sentence in Latin "By Thy agony and bloody sweat, Good Lord Deliver us."

The Piscina is of the same style as the Church, but a shelf and sanctuary have since been added with a bronze door of a Pelican feeding its young. The Sedilia is divided by marble columns with carved caps, and the three east windows are filled with stained glass. The choir rises four steps to the Altar, separated by a light ornamental railing from the Church. The Font, Standing at west end, is Early English in character, with omamented painted cover. The Church generally is lit by hanging electroliers.

  

The carving of the capital of the middle column on the south side was presented by the choir, and is emblematically of music; while on the cap nearest the pulpit are emblems of the four Evangelists: the Eagle for St. John, the Lion for St. Mar, the Man for St. Matthew, and the Ox for St. Luke. The effect of the interior of the Church is striking, the broad and lofty nave resting on grand polished columns, and the groining of the tower and chancel, springing from clusters of polished columns, together with a coloured pavement and decorated roof, produce an impression of richness not always met with even in Gothic Churches.

The south transept forms the Mary Chapel, it is separated from the Chancel by a carved oak screen; the altar and fittings were provided by members of the congregation bearing the name Mary. Built out on e north side of the nave is a little Chapel called the Advent Chapel, which is arranged for memorial services, with altar, and on the walls in panelling, are the names of departed Church Workers. The Altar Book also contains the names of those who are gone. This Chapel is the only one of its class in diocese. It dates November 1905.

The pair of candlesticks on the chief Altar have an interesting history: they were given years ago to the en Rector of St. Aldate's, and for a time were used on the altar of that Church. Changes took place, e candlesticks were returned to the donor, and were afterwards presented to this Church in 1884.

The consecration of SS. Philip and James Church took place on Thursday, May 8th 1862. The Bishop and Clergy met in a house near, and formed a procession to the Church, where they were received at the west door by the Vicar and Church-wardens, and the usual ceremony of consecration was proceeded with, the sentences of consecration being read by Mr. John M. Davenport, Clerk of the Peace. The musical setting of the Communion Service was written for the occasion by Dr. Hayne, Organist of Queen's College, and the Service was sung by the Rev. J. Bellamy, then Fellow, but afterwards President, of St. John's College.

Under the Rev. J.B. Gray, the first Vicar, the Church began to progress, and has never looked back. Its growth can be judged from the following accounts of the Church. The general and special Offertories in 1865 amounted to £2114 5 s. 6d. while in 1900 the same Offertories were £ 1, 145 16s 1 d. and money besides was raised in the various Societies connected with the Church amounting to £871 16s. 9d. making altogether for the year, £2,017 12s. 10d., a splendid record for a church. One curiosity in connection with the Offertories was, in 1863 there were no less than 419 Fourpenny-pieces among them, but in 1881 these had dropped to one solitary Fourpenny-piece.

Much of the story of the Church for the last fifty years is collected from the parish Magazines and other sources, kindly put into our hand by the Rev. Dr. Biggs the present Vicar; this is of the considerable interest, particularly to present and past parishioners. We read in 1864, the chancel bosses and caps were carved; in 1865 the spire was erected, and three memorial windows added in north aisle; in 1866 the last of the nave capitals were carved, and those in the south aisles, while two more memorial windows were added. In 1867 in the font cover was presented, and the next year the organ from Merton Chapel was purchased, and £700 out of the £865 require, subscribed. In 1870 three new stained windows completed the north and south aisle windows, and in 1874 the north east window in the chancel was completed; in 1872 a heavy gale blew in part of the west window, and this also again happened on November 14th 18 8 1. In 1872 also the first vicar, the Rev. Dr. Gray, became Rector of Crick, and on March 24th the new Vicar, the Rev. E.C. Denner, B.D., read himself in.

In 1873 the Magazine mentioned the eleventh dedication festival as a very pleasant one. "The church was beautifully dressed with flowers, many brought by school children. Certainly all the woods in the neighbourhood must know SS. Philip and James' Day, for never was such an attack on Cowslips, Primroses and Bluebells." July 1 873, Infants' School building paid for; a notice also in the Magazine of the death of Bishop Wilberforce, by a fall from his horse. 1874 saw a new east window in the Church by Clayton and Bell, and "out neighbour" the Rev. W.W. Jones, of Summertown, was consecrated Bishop of Cape town in Westminster Abbey.

1876 saw the cornerstone of the new vestry fixed in the presence of the choir and congregation, this vestry was completed next year at a cost of £339; while in December 1878, Dr. Clarke, 47 years Archdeacon of Oxford, a good friend to the Church died on Christmas Eve.

January 1881 tells the story of the great snow storm on the 18th and 19'h; it blocked up the paths and doors and got into every room. The schools had a compulsory holiday, and it too such possession of the Church that Evensong had to be stopped for two nights; happily no great damage was done. In July an accident, which might have been serious, occurred just before a baptism on the 16th; while the font cover was being lifted, the ropes snapped, and the balance-weight fell on the pavement, shattering several of the tiles, and almost embedding itself in the floor; the canopy also fell, but was prevented from slipping off the font, on the edge of which it made a great dent. November 14th , during a gale, part of the west window blew in as already noticed, and the chimney-pot belonging to the furnace fell through the vestry roof damaging the roof considerably.

In 1882, at the Easter Vestry, the question arose whether a Mission Room or a Church should be adopted for Heyfield Hut district; the feeling was strongly in favour of a Church to seat 500 people when completed. Plans and estimates were prepared, and it was arranged the chancel should be first built with a temporary wooden nave. In 1883, was a miserable wet day, but the rain just help up sufficiently for the laying of the foundation-stone at six o'clock. The proceedings will be fond in our account of St. Margaret's. The building of St. Margaret's, the daughter Church, for the district round Heyfield or Heathfield's Hut, shows the abounding growth of the Parish, which not only raised and fitted SS. Philip and James Church, but carried the work on to the building of St. Margaret's; and in the short space of a couple of years from the foundation, nearly £3,00 was raised for the building and fitting of that Church.

In 1886 two new windows were inserted in the north transept: the larger representing St. Michael with scales in his hand and a dragon under his feet; the smaller the Archangel Raphael holding a fish in his hand; the text is "The Lord bath sent me to heal thee." The windows are by Burlison and Grylls. In May 1890 another painted window was put into the transept, with a figure of St. Gabriel.

In September 1890 there was a curious alarm at the Church, a thin cloud of smoke seemed to be curling Round the very top of the spire; the Church and Belfry were at once examined, but there was no sign of fire, and it was discovered at last by the help of an opera glass that it was a swarm of bees.

August 24th 1900. The Rec. C.R.D. Biggs was installed as Vicar of this Church and Parish by the Bishop of Reading, who was also Archdeacon of Oxford. He could not be legally inducted with the quaint ceremonies of locking the door and ringing the bell, because he had been licensed and not instituted by the Bishop of Oxford. When this Parish was formed n 1862 the living was then termed a Perpetual Curacy; but a later Act of Parliament all Perpetual Curates became Vicars. Rectors and Vicars are instituted, but Perpetual Curates are only licensed. So the Vicar of a Church like this has the choice of being instituted or licensed. If he chooses the latter, he cannot be legally inducted; and as institution has become a ceremony performed in private, the other old and godly ceremony of putting the Vicar in charge of the Parish and Congregation has unhappily fallen out. The form used by the Bishop in installing the Vicar was:- "In the presence of God and of this congregation, 1 place thee in this Stall as Vicar of the Parish of SS Philip and James. May God give thee grace to feed this people faithfully, and with a true heart, and to rule them prudently with all thy power: In the NAME..." The Vicar "read himself in" on Sunday the 26th.

In January 1906 the four west windows were filled with stained glass by Kemp, given by the Rev. J.S. Treacher. The large quatrefoil in the gable contains the dove with seven rays of light proceeding from it, symbolical of the Holy Spirit as the source of illumination for the Church. In the triple lights below is the Judgement, the traditional subject of a west window , but adapted to suit the purpose of this memorial, as the welcome of the Blessed into their reward. The central light contains the figure of Christ as Judge, with St. Michael bearing the 'sign of the Son of Man,' below to the Saviour's right is his Mother with the two sisters of Bethany.

On June 25th 1905, the temporary church of St. Andrew was opened in Northmoor road, marking another point in the history of the Parish; and on November 28 h1905, St. Andrew's parish came into being, and the Rev. J.H. Harriss was nominated Curate-in-charge. The foundation-stone of the permanent Church in Linton Road was laid on St. Andrew's Day 1906, and the same afternoon the Rev. W. Pullan, was inducted Vicar of St. Margaret's. Thus now, two new parishes are entirely formed out of that district which belonged at first to the Mother Church.

Vicars and Curates of SS Philip and James

Vicars

Rev. James Black Gray, D. D., Fellow and Bursar of St. John's. Accepted the Rectory of Crick, Northants, in 1872

Rev. Edward Conduitt Dermer, B.D., Fellow of St. John's, 1872. Resigned 1900.

Rev. Charles Richard Davey Biggs, D.D., Fereday Fellow of ST. John's. 1900.

Curates

sRev. George Mullins. 1862	Rev. R. Hartley. 1888
Rev. Edward William Urquhart. 1864	Rev. J.C. Trevelyan. 1889
Rev. William Morrison.	Rev. K. Lake. 1896
Rev ... Hilton.	Rev. W.C. Annesley. 1903
Rev. Canon Cecil Deedes. 1867	Rev. C.J. Burrough 1903.
Venerable John Edward Stocks, D.D. 1869.	Rev. T. Davies. 1904
Rev. F.J. Brown, M.A.	Rev. W. Slater, B.D. 1892
Rev. A.T.C. Cowie, M.A.	Rev. S.C Gayford. 1897
Rev. R.F. Heath, B.A. 1876	Rev. F.L. Smihett. 1899
Rev. C. Janson. 1880	Rev. H.E. Polehampton. 1900
Rev. J.W. Reynolds. 1880	Rev. E.F. Smith 1906
Rev. J.T.M. Rumsey, M.A. 1884	Rev. A.H. Payne, M.A. 1907
Rev. A. Coates. B.A. 1885	Rev. F. Streatfield. 1908
Rev. J.M. Macdonald. 1887	Rev. C.A. Marcon
Rev. B.J. Kidd, B.A. 1887	Rev. J. Hughes. 1911

  The Jubilee of the Consecration of the Church was observed on Wednesday May 8, 1912, and had been prepared for the various improvements in the Church and Schools. At the latter 14 garden plots for the boys to receive instruction in gardening and ornamental borders, had been made in the playground of which the rest had been properly levelled and tar-paved, and garden borders made to them; the stone work in the south transept, which had been much with injured by a settlement of the building soon after its completion, was restored with great skill and care under the supervision of the Churchwarden Mr. G.W. Simpson, and the nine lights of the rose window were filled with stained glass, the design being successfully adapted from Van EEC's "Adoration of the Lamb." These completed the windows of this Chapel.

The Preacher of the Celebration of Holy Communion at 11 a.m. on the Jubilee Day, was Dr. Scott Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity; and the Reverend E.C. Deriner, the second Vicar of the parish, preached at the Evensong at 8 p.m., while among other friends who attended were the Rural Dean, the Vicars of St. Margaret's, St. Andrew's, and Holywell the Revs. Fr. Maxwell and Fr. Hodge S.S.J.E. T.O. Floyd, W.D. Sargent, F. Streatfeild, G.H. Bown, C.T. Borrough, F.J. Brown and Dr. Kidd. On the Sunday the Mayor of Oxford, (Ald. T.H. Kingerlee), with Sheriff and Corporation, attended in state at Morning Prayer, when the Sermon was preached by the President of St. John's College, Dr. H. H. James: the Bishop of Diocese, Dr. Gore, preached at Evensong, when the Church was filled to overflowing long before the time announced for the commencement of the Service. Amongst those who had been present at the Consecration of the Church who took part in the Jubilee Services, were the Reverends E.C. Denner, and H. Couchman, (who acted as Chaplain to the Bishop.) Mr. J.B. Hosier (forty years connected with the Church as Verger and Clerk,) and Miss Floyd, who still superintends the work of looking after the Church. During the Jubilee the collections amounted to GBP 49, and were assigned to the cost of repairing the south transept and providing an addition to the Choir Vestry Every recollection in connection with this jubilee is happy. There was a large gathering of Communicants at the first Celebration, and at each succeeding service the attendance grew, until at the Evensong on May 12'h, when the Bishop was to preach, large numbers had to be turned away.

What a change has taken place in fifty years, both in the district and the church. North Oxford has grown out of all knowledge, and only the older residents who knew it as it was then, can realise the many advances in the growth of the streets and population; and it is still growing. There is little doubt it is the best side of Oxford for healthiness, and this is recognised by the many better-class Houses and Villas, which have sprung up in every direction, and are tenanted by Dons and Professors of the University and opulent Citizens, or those who have retired from business. Many of the new streets are lined with trees, which, with the gardens and shrubs in front of the houses, give the whole district a pleasant air of rural charm, no to be found in other parts of Oxford.

Two noted old wells or springs were in this district, Walton Well and Aristotle's Well. Of the former we have the illustration photographed about 1863 when the spring still ran into the stone reservoir by the side of the road leading over the Canal into Port meadow, and even then the water was utilised, not so much for drinking, but as a remedy for sore eyes, the well was then in a neglected state. It was a favourite playing place for children, as was also the swing bridge, which crossed the Canal a few yards beyond.

The site is now entirely grown over with houses but the well is marked by a drinking fountain erected in 1885, which stands at the corner of the Walton Well and Longworth Roads, on which is this inscription

Drink and think of him who is the Fountain of Life."
"With the consent of the Lords of the Manor this drinking fountain is erected by
MR. WILLIAM WARD.
to mark the site of a celebrated spring known as Walton Well, adjacent to the ancient fordway into port Meadow, called Walton Ford."

Aristotle's Well was sometimes called Brumman's Well from Brumman le Rich, or de Walton, who owned lands around these wells, granted him by Robert d'Oili, and again given by him to St. George's College in the Castle, in 1074. Aristotle's Well was frequented says Wood, "in the summer season by our Peripateticks" and was by the side of the road leading by Heyfield's Hut over the high bridge crossing the Railways to port Meadow. In 1888 it was built over by the garden wall of a house erected on the south of the road leading to the Canal Bridge, and is not now recognisable.

The boundary of the parish on the west is the one little stream, no only a ditch, meandering through the fields beyond the Canal side was a pretty rural walk, with here and there a swing bridge crossing to the fields beyond, one of which formed the artistic bit below; but this now belongs to the past.

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