25 High Street, The Old Parsonage

  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
  • Old Parsonage, 25 High Street
Archive Notes:

Photos, internal & external.

This may have been the site of the “church house” built for the curate of Wheatley chapel on land belonging to the Lewknors, tenants of the Manor at the end of the 15th century.

There was a house, whether this one or a re-build, on this site in 1612, although the present house is 18th century. Wheatley, being part of Cuddesdon parish, would have had a curate when it had a chapel at the top of what-is-now the Memorial Garden and before St Mary’s Church was built. The house name derives from a parson being a generic term for any member of the clergy. Rev Elton rejected the house finding it ‘dilapidated and unfit for use’ and instead built the rectory, now Morland House, the doctor's surgery.

Listing details state 'House. Early and mid C18. Coursed and uncoursed limestone rubble with some ashlar dressings and timber lintels; old plain-tile roof and brick stacks. L-plan. 2 storeys. Earlier range to rear has entrance with early C18 hood on scroll brackets between 2-light casements; 3-light casement above door and to left. Lower range to left has 3-light casement and hipped dormer, and there is a small projecting rubble wing to extreme left. Casements have C18 leaded lights, some with 4-centred heads. To right, later range beside road has ashlar quoins, lintels and flush banding plus a stone eaves cove and gable parapet. 4-window road front has blocked door to left of centre with blocked window above; to
right, pairs of sashes with a blocked subsidiary door to extreme right; to left single windows, the lower sash replaced by a 3-light casement. Interior not inspected'.

In the 1930s, the house name is recorded as 'Ivy Lodge'. Before this and, presumably the same house, Mrs Gale lived at Ivy Lodge as shown in the street directories for 1899 and 1911. In 1920, Miss Harding was living here, and, in 1939, Herbert Brazil was living at the re-named Old Parsonage. By 1939, when Herbert Brazil was living here, it was called The Old Parsonage.

In the 1960s the Scully family lived here.

In 1970, it was bought by Peter Street but he was killed in a car accident in Argentina two years' later. Major Eric Peter Street, MC, OBE was a veteran of the 2nd World War, serving from 1942 to 1946 in the 7th Armoured Division. He was at Oxford University where he studied chemistry while resident at Exeter College gaining a B.Sc. Oxon. His son, Richard Street, who lives in Wheatley, has self-published a book Up the Blue: One Man's War (copyright RNS 2019). This contains no records of Peter's time in Wheatley, rather his enlistment; training; the battles of El Alamein, Italy, D-day; Normandy to Berlin; Berlin and the BAOR; and with several Appendices. Richard can be contacted via the Archive volunteers.

There is a copyright image from Sites and Monuments Records from 1987-9 held on https://www.pictureoxon.com/

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