Summertown One-Place Study

The development of Summertown – from open farm land to an artisans’ village and then to today’s well-heeled suburb of Oxford – is traced by examining the lives of people who owned/occupied the land/property where the author now lives on Middle Way in Summertown. A series of fascinating stories are revealed. These include tales of a suspected murderess who was dramatically pardoned by King George II, an eighteenth century lovestruck member of parliament addicted to gambling who died in suspicious circumstances, the exploits of ruthless lawyers and land speculators in the nineteenth century, the butcher who mysteriously disappeared and changed his identity, and the art dealer of humble origins who became ‘the richest man in Oxford’. These, and other stories, will be published in a book titled ‘The Butcher, The Tailor, The Picture-Frame Maker…Stories of Middle Way’ (The Book Guild, February 2023).