3 - 9 Rock Street

The Oxhouses

The above plan dated 1880 shows the area around the junction of Outer Back Street (now known as Rock Street) and Bath Road.  There was a row of four houses on Rock Street, just to the south of the junction with Bath Road.  These were known locally as 'The Oxhouses', but when house numbering was introduced in the 1950's,  they became known as numbers 3 - 9 Rock Street.

Unfortunately we have not found any photos of these houses.  We understand they were very small with one room downstairs and one bedroom upstairs.  There were no doors fronting Rock Street.  Access was via the shared court at the rear, between the back of the houses and the gardens.  The toilets were at the bottom of the garden (you can actually see the block of toilets in the plan above).

The 1840 Tithe Survey shows the houses were owned by Hector Maclaine and occupied by William Jones, Henry Herbert, William Davies and William Herbert. 

There is a memorial on the wall of St Mary's Church which tells us that Colonel Hector Maclaine was the youngest son of Gillian Maclaine Esq of Scallasdale, Isle of Mull.  He served in the 64th Regt. in the West Indies and Surinam, joined the 57th Regiment in Portugal in 1811 as Captain, and was present everywhere with Lord Hill’s Division.  He fought at Victoria, Roncesvalles, the Pyrenees, in front of Pampluna, at Nivelle, Tarbes, Orthes and Toulouse.  Besides constant skirmishing, as he was attached to, and frequently commanded the Light Companies of Gen. Byng’s Brigade, he was wounded and received a medal for his distinguished conduct at Nivelle.  He served afterwards in North America and France.  After the war he resided many years at Kington in this parish, and died on 15th January 1847 aged 62.

Following Hector Maclaine's death, the properties seem to have passed to his son, William Osborne Maclaine as the Rate Books from 1876 to 1905 show him as the owner.  Both William's sons pre-deceased him and on his death in 1906, the property passed to Mrs Herbert Jenner-Fust.  Her maiden name was Flora Maclaine Ross, and she was thought to be William's cousin.  She is listed as the owner in the 1910 Rate Book.

We know from the Gazette that the property was put up for auction in 1913 described as 'four small cottages known as 'The Ox House Cottages'.  They were purchased by James Bevan of Thornbury for £140.  The 1926 Rate Book shows that James's son, Albert Edward Bevan was the owner of the 4 houses at that time.  We have been told that they were later owned by Frederick James Bishop who lived for a long time with his wife, Lily (nee Alpass), in a house called 'Auklands' on the Gloucester Road.  We understand that Frederick worked for Brocks, the firework makers and that Frederick invented a sort of rocket as a distress flare to be used by shipping.  We have not been able to confirm this story. 

The houses were demolished in the early 1960's as part of the town's re-development and replaced by the Police Station.   We would love to hear from anyone with any knowledge of these properties and the families who lived in them.

 This page was last updated: 22/08/2010