A brief history of Osney Island
The history of Osney Island dates back to the Middle Ages when it was described as an area to the east of the Island today, and part of an area called Burgess’s Meadows. It even features in great medieval literature – the miller in Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale was actually the miller of Osney Mill.
It is unclear whether the Osney name originates from the combination of Osa (an early Oxford landowner) and ‘ey’ (the Old English word for an island), or from ‘ouse’, the ancient British word for a river.
In the Middle Ages, the area was dominated by the Augustinian Osney Abbey founded in 1129 by Robert d’Oyley, one of William the Conqueror’s henchmen. The nave and transept were located in the open space now occupied by Mill Street cemetery. The Abbey accumulated great wealth from river trade when the Osney Cut was dug in 1227. Several ecclesiastical councils were held there during the 13th century and Parliament met there in 1330.
After the Dissolution, the Abbey fell into disuse and the area reverted to a rural backwater with river channels and quiet meadows. The area was frequently water-logged, earning it the nickname ‘Frog Island’. Increasing traffic to the west of Oxford created pressure for a bridge over the main river channel, which was built by 1456 and replaced in 1888 by the present cast-iron structure. Ferry Hinksey road was commissioned in 1467, and the forerunner to the Botley Road was built in the 1520s.
Osney Island was developed for housing in 1851 when George P. Hester, the Town Clerk, bought the Island and sold freehold plots. By the mid 1850s most of the small terraces of the Island had been built, serving the train station which moved to its present site in 1852. Railway-workers made up about a third of the Island’s working inhabitants at the time of the 1861 census, when the population was recorded as 780. At this time women predominantly worked as dressmakers, seamstresses and milliners. By 1891 the population had grown to 867 and another 40 dwellings had been added.
St Frideswide’s Church was originally sited at the corner of Bridge St and South St, but the current building opened in 1872. Its construction was frustrated by financial difficulties which prevented the building of a spire. The last hope for this was only finally relinquished in 1985. In the north east end of the nave, stands the Alice Door, carved by Alice Liddell, on whom the story of Alice in Wonderland was based.
A school was first established on the Island in 1854, with the current West Oxford Primary School on Ferry Hinksey Road opening in 1914. Four pubs stood on the Island in the early 20th century along with four general stores, a dairy and a bakery. The Waterman’s Arms opened in 1871 to serve the burgeoning river-trade which used Osney Lock en route from the Midlands to London. The owners of the Hollybush Inn used to incur the wrath of the local turnpike trust as horses were left tied there to avoid paying the Osney Bridge tolls.
8 Comments
Geoffrey Berriman (Co. Durham)
December 16th, 2009
This is most interesting. I should like to visit. I know some descendants of the Liddell family, so will mention the Alice Door to them.
Wonderful site!! I will need some time to ponder this blog.
G Webber
January 31st, 2011
Osney Island could not have featured in The Miller’s Tale because Osney Mill is not on Osney Island. Or was the Island different then?
Osney Cemetery is not on Osney Island either, nor was the Abbey.
Osney Island is just a collection of houses and pubs isn’t it?
alan
February 7th, 2011
With reference to G Webber’s comment, Osney Island in the middle ages seems to have referred to the area between the current Thames channel (past East Street) which was then a side channel, and the Castle Mill stream which runs past the Castle. This was the site of Osney Abbey to the south and Rewley abbey to the north. Nowadays the northern part is occupied by the station and Said Business School, and the southern part by Mill Street, Osney Cemetary, Becket Street, Hollybush Row and St Thomas Street. What is now called Osney Island is more properly called ‘Osney Town’ as shown on the original sign still visible on the bridge at the north end of Bridge Steet.
Sheila Mitchell
June 20th, 2011
Very interested to read about Osney. I’m descended from Robert D’Oyly so now feel a personal connection with the place.
Robert Brechin
December 6th, 2011
my grampy , Joe Scully, lived in one of the huts on Ferry Hinksey Road and was a regular patron of the Hollybush pub . I was born in the Radcliffe Hospital in 1944 and lived until i was about 4 years old in the hut until we moved to another hut at the Slade Camp, before getting a new council house at Northway.
Jacqueline Clark
January 3rd, 2012
My great-great grandmother, Ann Measey, was born on a canal boat parked up near the Holly Bush in 1841.
Geri Brooksbank (Oxfordshire)
May 6th, 2012
Further to Geoffrey Berriman’s comment: I would love to contact any descendents of the Liddell family as my sister and I are reseraching our family. Our great aunt worked for and lived with Miss Louisa Napper who was dressmaker to the Liddell family including Alice. We have a couple of items of correspondence and some needlework of Miss Napper’s and we would be interested to know if anyone has any more light that could be shed on this relationship as we would like to donate these items to an Oxford museum which has a section on Alice.
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