All Saints Road dairy and 73 Lime Walk
The present house at 73 Lime Walk was built in c.1886, It was variously and haphazardly numbered until 1919, when Lime Walk was rationalized with odd numbers on one side of the street and the evens on the other, and it then became No. 43 for the next 33 years. Since the second renumbering of the street in 1952, it has settled down as No. 73.
The house had a back yard running along the south side of All Saints Road as far as the long back garden of 70 New High Street, and its accessibility to the street means that this yard until recent years was used by various businesses.
(The present All Saints Road was originally just a short spur connecting New Headington village to Lime Walk, but it grew in length with the development of Highfield, and became known as “New Road”. The church was opened there in 1910, but it was not until 1929 – when the name New Road was given to the present Kennett Road – that it was renamed All Saints Road.)
These three extracts from Ordnance Survey maps show how the corner site developed. The building with the high door for loading carts (with two small buildings behind) was already there in 1899. The dairy shop was built at some point between 1903 and 1921. |
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The long warehouse running from north to south down the back of 73 Lime Walk appeared between 1921 and 1939. There were no buildings on the site to the south of the house on these maps: that area is now occupied by the new flats at 75, 77 81, and 83 Lime Walk. |
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Goodgame the Carrier, c.1887–1901
The first occupant of 73 Lime Walk in 1887 was Thomas Goodgame, who operated as a carman (a carter/carrier) from his backyard. At the time of the 1891 census Thomas (47) and his wife Emma (50) lived here with their son John (20), who was working for his father, and their younger children William (13), and Mary (11); they also had two lodgers. Thomas’s wife Emma died at the age of 55, and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 25 February 1897. In 1898 Thomas Goodgame remarried: his new wife was Isabella or Isabel Ellwood. At the time of the 1901 census Thomas (58) and Isabella (recorded as 60, but in fact 70) were living alone in the house, and Thomas was still working as a carman; but soon afterwards they moved out, and from 1902 his business is not listed in Kelly’s Directory. Isabel Goodgame died in 1910 at the age of 76 and was buried in Headington Cemetery on 11 June, and at the time of the 1911 census Thomas Goodgame was working as a farm labourer at the age of 66 and lodging with a laundress in Lime Walk. He was buried with his wife on 14 September 1918, and was described in the burial register as a haulier.
This building (left) first appears on the 1899 OS map (see above). It was probably built by Thomas Goodgame soon after 1887, and presumably the door on the first floor was used for loading his horse-drawn carts.
As the next occupant, the Highfield Dairy, did not get rid of the building, it was probably lsyrt used to load milk churns.
Highfield Dairy (Hathaway's, Burton's, and Job's), 1903–1964
In 1903 William Hathaway, who was born in Headington but had been working as a milk carrier in London, moved into 73 Lime Walk and started up his own dairy business there. He and his sons kept a herd of cows near Lime Walk and delivered milk all over Headington and Quarry. Soon they rented the Wootten’s meadow between Old High Street and Osler Road (now built up with houses, including Stephen Road).
It was the Hathaways who built the dairy shop facing All Saints Road at some point between 1903 and 1921.
William Hathaway (45) is shown in the 1911 census living with his wife Clara (46) and four of his children at 73 Lime Walk. He is described as a dairyman working at home on his own account, while his eldest son William (20) was his father’s milk carrier, and his daughter Ellen (19) was an assistant in the business. His other sons, Frank (13), who was to die in the First World War, and Harry (10), who was eventually to take over the business, were still at school.
William Hathaway called his shop in All Saints Road the Highfield Dairy, and he was still listed as a dairyman in Kelly’s Directory for 1938. He died at the Radcliffe Infirmary the following year at the age of 73 and was buried at Headington Cemetery on 6 October 1939. In the latter days of Hathaway’s Dairy the horse and delivery cart were still kept in All Saints Road, but the milk was picked up from Burton’s Dairy depot in Stephen Road by William’s youngest son Harry, who did the deliveries.
Right: Milk bottle inscribed
W. HATHAWAY,
HIGHFIELD
DAIRY, HEADINGTON, OXFORD
Highfield Dairy in the 1930s
Following her husband’s death in 1939, Mrs Clara Hathaway had moved to 8 Alexandra Road (now Gathorne Road). She died there at the age of 79 and was buried with her husband on 30 August 1943.
By 1941 the Hathaway shop had been taken over by Burton’s Dairies Ltd (based at the present 89 London Road), and for the first time the house at 73 Lime Walk became a private dwelling, separate from the commercial business in All Saints Road.
In 1948 Job’s Dairies was granted planning permission (48/00151A_H) for a pasteurizing plant and milk processing building, and in 1956 (56/05466/A_H) to convert their garage into a cold store. From that date it was just a distribution centre
Grocer's shop and Post Office, with dairy distribution centre, 1956–c.1986
The former dairy shop in All Saints Road became a joint grocer’s shop and post office. This explains the letter box in the adjoining dairy building, although as it is a George V box dating from 1910–1936, it may have been moved from the earlier Highfield Post Office at 74 Lime Walk.
On 27 April 1964 Oxford City Council wrote to H. A. Job Ltd of Feltham, Hampshire saying that they had made an Order “requiring the use of certain land at 73 Lime Walk, Headington, as a milk distribution depot to be discontinued”. The Minister of Housing and Local Government must have confirmed this Order, as the depot closed shortly afterwards (64/00003/E_H).
The post office closed in 1984, but the grocer's shop continued to operate.
Jones & Reeves, painters & decorators, 1998–2011
The old shop ended its days as the office of a painting & decorating business.
Redevelopment of commercial buildings beside and behind 73 Lime Walk
In April 2011 planning application 11/00648/FUL by C. G. Burton and E. L. Woodhead relating to 73–81 Lime Walk was approved by council officers. The old buildings in the back garden of 73 Lime Walk that face All Saints Road (the former Burton’s dairy and loading shed) and the large warehouse behind accessed from Lime Walk were demolished in January 2012 and replaced by two x 3-bedroom houses fronting Lime Walk, plus an enlarged garden area for existing properties at 73 and at 75 to 81 (odd), and a two-storey office building fronting All Saints Road.
Summary of commercial occupation of the site
73 Lime Walk |
Buildings behind 73 Lime Walk |
Shop in All Saints Road |
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1887–1902 |
Thomas Goodgame, Carrier |
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1903–1938 |
William [Alfred] Hathaway, Dairyman |
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1941–1947 |
Robert Henry M. Killey (listed in Kelly’s Directory |
Burton’s Dairies Ltd |
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1949 |
Burton’s Dairies (forced to close in 1964) |
Edward F. J. Simmons |
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1952–1964 |
Highfield Post Office (D.M. Foster, proprietor) (Mrs D. M. Foster from 1964) |
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1954–1956 |
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1958–1964 |
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1966–1967 |
Private individuals listed at |
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1970–1984 |
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Highfield Stores |
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1998–2011 |
Private house |
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Jones & Reeves |
The adjoining City Council land to the east of the former dairy
The land to the east of the dairy in All Saints Road was formerly the back garden of 70 New High Street and then belonged to Oxford City Council for many years. Latterly it was derelict, and in August 2012 planning permission (12/01112/FUL) was granted for the demolition of the existing building on the site and the erection of three one-bedroomed flats. These have now been built..
