Holywell Manor

Holywell Manor is a historic building in central Oxford, England, in the parish of Holywell. It currently houses the majority of Balliol College's postgraduate population. It is on the corner of Manor Road and St Cross Road, next to St Cross Church, which has become the College Historic Collections Centre.

The manor was held by the rectors of the Church of St Peter-in-the-East in the 11th and 12th centuries. It passed to Merton College in 1294 and was rebuilt by the College in 1516. It was leased to Edward Napper by the College in 1531. When occupied by Napper's family, the house became a refuge for Roman Catholic priests. The building was enlarged during 1555–72 and Napper's family remained in residence until the 17th Century. The building was partially demolished in 1761 and divided into three parts in 1828.

Balliol College has had a presence in the area since the purchase by Benjamin Jowett, the Master, in the 1870s of the open area which is the Balliol sports ground 'The Master's Field'. On the edges of this, along Mansfield Road and St Cross Road, have been built Fellows houses, notably 'The King's Mound' in 1894.

The oldest surviving part of the site is the 16th century farmhouse which now houses the 'Praefectus', i.e., the resident supervising Fellow. It was acquired by Balliol College in 1929, prior to which it had been a convent and home for unmarried mothers (though it was deserted by 1929). The purchase was planned by Kenneth Norman Bell in order to provide accommodation for undergraduates and was funded by donations to the Balliol Society which he had founded expressly for this purpose.

The extensive extensions to the original manor were designed by the architect George Kennedy an Old Boy of the College. These include the road facing façade, the entrance courtyard and the grand Queen Anne style wings surrounding the distinctive two rows of Ginkgo trees planted by C. S. Orwin.

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