In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Headington like this:
HEADINGTON, a village, a parish, and a district in Oxfordshire. The village stands near the river Cherwell, 2½ miles ENE of Oxford r. station; and has a post office under Oxford. The parish comprises 1, 780 acres. Real property, £7, 163; of which £61 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 1, 653; in 1861, 2, 110. Houses, 423. The increase of pop. arose from contiguity to Oxford. A palace of Ethelred stood at Court Close. The Oxford lunatic asylum stands on Headington Hill. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. ...
Value, £162. Patron, the Rev. T. H. Whorwood. The church is ancient, but has been mainly rebuilt; and consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with embattled tower. The p. curacy of HeadingtonQuarry is a separate benefice. There are a Wesleyan chapel, a national school, an endowed school with £20 a year, and a workhouse.—The district comprehends the sub-district of St. Clement, containing the parishes of St. Clement, St. John, and St. Giles, the colleges of Merton and Corpus Christi, and the hall of St. Alban, in Oxford city, and the parishes of Headington, Cowley, Iffley, Beckley, Stow-Wood, Elsfield, Marston, and Wood-Eaton; and the sub-district of Wheatley, containing the parishes of Cuddesdon, Holton, Garsington, Horsepath, Shotover, Forest-Hill, and Stanton-St. John, and the extra-parochial tract of Shotover-Hill-Place. Acres, 25, 727. Poorrates in 1863, £6, 499. Pop. in 1851, 15, 771; in 1861, 17, 185. Houses, 3, 495. Marriages in 1862, 120; births, 611, -of which 39 were illegitimate; deaths, 373, -of which 112 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1, 309; births, 5, 330; deaths, 3, 814. The places of worship, in 1851, were 20 of the Church of England, with 6, 225 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 500 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 274 s.; 2 of Wesleyans, with 260 s.; 2 of Primitive Methodists, with 170 s.; 1 of the New Church, with 50 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 80 s. The schools were 19 public day schools, with 1, 234 scholars; 42 private day schools, with 989 s.; 19 Sunday schools, with 1, 018 s.; and 3 evening schools for adults, with 32 s.
Headington through time
A Vision of Britain through Time includes a large library of local statistics for administrative units. For the best overall sense of how the area containing Headington has changed, please see our redistricted information for the modern district of Oxford. More detailed statistical data are available under Units and statistics, which includes both administrative units covering Headington and units named after it.
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