Lime Walk: numbering

Lime Walk: Development and renumbering

Lime Walk has been completely renumbered twice as development took place, so beware of pre-1953 house numbers, which will not be the same as those today.

Lime Walk map 1908

In the late 1870s, the Revd John Taylor of the Rookery in Old Headington sold the lands of Highfield Farm for a new housing development to be attached to New Headington Village, and the southern part of Lime Walk was the first street to be laid out. It could not be extended up to the London Road, however, as the large Britannia field occupied this area (see 1899 Ordnance Survey map, left).

Lime Walk’s main entrance was then from the High Street of New Headington village via a short spur (then known as New Road, and now named All Saints Road after the 1910 church). Hence the original numbering of Lime Walk (first recorded in the 1891 census) started and finished at the All Saints crossroads thus:

East side (south of All Saints Road): 1, 2, 3 etc southwards to 29 at Old Road
West side: 30, 31, 32 etc. all the way up the west side, continuing the other side of All Saints Road as far as 66 and then crossing the road
East side, north of All Saints Road: 67, 68, 69 etc. running southwards down to 76 & 77 (demolished to make way for All Saints Church.

By 1910, the Britannia had sold its field, and the top end of Lime Walk began to be developed. At first the new houses were just given names, but in about 1919 the whole street was renumbered, with the east side having odd numbers from 1 to 77 and the west side having numbers from 2 to 30, both running southwards.

Nos. 13 & 15 Lime Walk bear the date 1910.

Infilling since that date meant that the street had to be renumbered again in 1953, so that the numbers now run from 1 to 125 on the east side and 2 to 134.

For more on the origins of Lime Walk, see Malcolm Graham, “Housing Development on the Urban Fringe of Oxford, 1850–1914”, Oxoniensia LV (1990), pp. 152–6 (Highfield Estate)

The table below shows the four different sets of numbers given to the houses in Lime Walk

Lime Walk, east side, north to south
Today	1976	c.1919–1952	1891 census
1 [& 3] Britannia Inn		1	Britannia Inn
55		3	Britannia Field
7
9 “The Willows” 11 “Glendale”		5 “The Willows” 7 “Glendale”
13 15		9 11
17		13
19
21		13A
23		13B
25		15
27		17
29 31		[notionally] 19
33
35
37 39		21 (“Ellenville”) 23
43	43	No number allocated
45
Lime Walk Methodist Church [notionally 47]
49 51		25 27	67 68
53 “St Leonards” 55 “Lime Walk Villa”		29 31	69 70
57		33	[Plot for 71]
59
61 63		35 37	72 73
65 67		39 41	74 75
All Saints Church [notionally 69 & 71]			76
			77
Here is All Saints Road
73		43	Unnamed house
75–81 (flats)	75 77 79 81	No number allocated
83 85		45 47 (Arthur Cottage)
87 “Ferndale” 89		49 “Ferndale” 51
91 “Summerville”		53 “Summerville”	“Summerville”
Entrance to Cecil Sharp Close	95 97	55 57 (?Milton Cottage)
99 “Woodbine Cottage” 101 “Rose Cottage”		59 “Woodbine Cottage” 61 “Rose Cottage”	“Woodbine Cottage” “Rose Cottage”
Entrance to Nursery Close (built 1964)
109		63	Unnamed house
111 “Daisymede”		65 “Daisymede”	21 “Daisymede”
113		67	22
115 “Launton Villa”		69 “Launton Villa”	“Launton Villa”
117 “Fern Cottage”		71 “Fern Cottage
119 “Ivydene”		73 “Ivydene”	“Ivydene”
121
123 “Hazledene” 125		75 “Hazledene” 77 ?”Ingledene”	“Hazledene” Unnamed house
129 (double width)
131 “Netherbury”		79 “Netherbury”

Lime Walk, west side, north to south
Today	1976	c.1915 to1920–1952	1891 census
2 Nine flats	2: Headington sorting office & driving tests	2–8: Headington Telephone Exchange	Britannia Field
4 6		10 12
8
10		14
12 14		16 (“Hildadene”) 18
16 18		20 22
20 22		24 26
24		28
26 28		30 32
30–34 St Ebbe’s in Headington	30–34 Shirley Memorial Hall	34–36 Shirley Memorial Hall
36 38		38 40
40 42		42 44
44 (double plot)		44A
48		46
50 52		48	66 65
54		50	64
54A
56		52	63
56A 58A
58 60		54 56	62 being built 61 being built
60A
62 64		58 60	60 59
66
68 70		“Durlston” “Donhead”	Plot for 58 Plot for 57
72			Plot for 56
74		62	55
Here is All Saints Road
76		64	54
78 & 80		66	53
82		68	52
84 (rebuilt) 86 (rebuilt)		70 72	51 50
88		74	49
90 92		76 78	48 47
94 96		80 82	46 45
98 “Minster Villa”		84 “Minster Villa”	44
100 102		86 88	43 42
104 106		90 92	41 40
108		94	39
110 112		96 98	[38A?] [38]
Lime Court (ten flats)	114 & 116 demolished; 118 never built	100 102	37 36
120 122		106 108	[35] [34]
124		110	33]
126		112	[32]
128		114	[31]
134: “Longworth” (triple plot)		116: “Longworth”	Large house on Plots 30, 29, and 28

Back to photographs of Lime Walk

Headington history: Streets

Lime Walk: Development and renumbering

Lime Walk, east side, north to south

Lime Walk, west side, north to south