Headington Quarry is a residential district of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England, located east of

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. Th ...

and west of

Risinghurst Risinghurst is an outlying residential area of Oxford, England, just outside the Eastern Bypass Road which forms part of the Oxford ring road. It is about east of the centre of Headington and east of Oxford city centre. It is part of the Ri ...

, just inside the

Oxford ring road The Oxford Ring Road circles the city of Oxford, England. It is a dual carriageway ring road for most of its length apart from a short section between Woodstock Road and Banbury Road in the north of the city. The severe restrictions on traff ...

in the east of the city. To the south is Wood Farm. Today the district is also known colloquially as "Quarry". The area, now residential, is considerably uneven due to previous

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

ing in the area. Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry - geograph

The Church of England parish church of the Holy

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

was designed by George Gilbert Scott and built in 1848–49.Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 337 The east window of its

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was designed by

Ninian Comper Sir John Ninian Comper (10 June 1864 – 22 December 1960) was a Scottish architect; one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects. His work almost entirely focused on the design, restoration and embellishment of churches, and the de ...

. The Friends of Holy Trinity Church was founded in 2002 to raise funds and look after the church. In 1930,

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

academic and author of ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, tele ...

'', and his brother Warnie moved, with Janie Moore and her daughter Maureen, into "

The Kilns The Kilns, also known as C. S. Lewis House, is the house in Risinghurst, Oxford, England, where the author C. S. Lewis wrote all of his Narnia books and other classics. The house itself was featured in the Narnia books.Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

Chapel in Quarry High Street. The Headington Quarry

Morris Dancers Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may ...

are based in the area. Headington Quarry Morris Dancers were the first Morris dancers ever seen by

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...

, on Boxing Day 1899. This chance meeting was one of the events that sparked a lifelong interest in folk dance, song and music, to which Sharp devoted much of his life. Headington Quarry was designated a conservation area in 1971, and the Friends of Quarry is a residents' association which aims to preserve the distinctive character of the Conservation Area and its immediate neighbourhood.

Other features

Geographically central to the Quarry, the original school, variously named Headington Quarry National School, Headington Quarry Church of England Junior Mixed School, and Headington Quarry Church of England First School, was closed in 2003 due to a lack of enrolments. The school building was originally built in 1864. The school is now home to the Headington Quarry Foundation Stage School. The school building is conservation listed. Headington Quarry is noted for its array of narrow, winding roads and alleyways; for the undulating terrain on which houses have been built as a result of the quarrying that took place; and for the significant amount of greenspace in the area. The wartime

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years followin ...

cryptoanalyst Joan Clarke (1917–1996), colleague and briefly fiancée of

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical co ...

, lived at 7 Larksfield in Headington Quarry, from 1991 until her death. On 27 July 2019, a blue plaque was unveiled at her former home to commemorate her.

Headington stone

Headington Quarry had a number of stone quarries. Headington stone, a style of limestone, was traditionally used for some

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

college buildings, although it was prone to erosion by pollution. In 1396, stone from Headington was used to build the

bell-tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

for New College. Headington stone was also used for the foundations and walls of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

in the first half of the fifteenth century, and then in the 1520s by Cardinal Wolsey to build his

Cardinal College Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

(now Christ Church).

References

Sources

* {{Oxford Areas of Oxford Quarries in England History of Oxford