Oxford Brookes University – Headington Hill Campus Management Plan 2010 - 2015 Headington Hill Campus Management Plan Version 5.2 15/11/10 Page 1 DEPUTY DIRECTOR, Property Services Steve Simpkins– Executive Summary We in the Grounds Section of Property Services are committed to improving the surroundings of our campuses and creating grounds that are fit for our students, staff & visitors. To this end, we are committed to achieving the National Standards for Parks – the Green Flag Award. The University is entering into an exciting phase of redevelopment and the teams are playing a key role in making the vision of the Campus of the Future a reality.The staff are highly valued members of this Division, and encouraged and supported in furthering their natural abilities and professional skills.We maintain the functioning of over 180 buildings and over 190 acres of grounds to meet the expectations of all who work and visit our estate In this Management Plan we aim to tell you what you can expect from us and how we intend to make continuous improvements to the grounds at Headington Hill Campus over the coming years.We have set out details of what we do and what we provide to you, our customers, and this will be updated annually so you can be sure of our continued focus on our goal of achieving quality. Our team has more day-to-day contact with other staff,students and visitors than most of the University and as such we are well placed to deliver.We are passionate about our daily responsibility to our customers-present and future-in ensuring that the University estate is a safe,functioning,pleasant environment in which to live,work,study and visit.. Headington Hill Campus Management Plan Version 5.2 15/11/10 Page 2 Introduction & Background Headington Hill Hall has always been in the Parish of St Clements, and its original main entrance was via the grand park gates near the foot of the hill. But now its entrance is from the lodge at the top of the hill, Headington is pleased to adopt it as its grandest listed building. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family and was occupied by them for 114 years, and then Robert Maxwell leased what he described as the "best council house in the country" from Oxford City Council for 32 years, since 1992 it has been leased to Oxford Brookes University The Oxford brewer James Morrell senior (1773–1855) had married Jane Wharton, a 17-year-old girl who lived in Headington, at St Andrew’s Church on 17 December 1807, and visits to her family may well have influenced his decision to live there himself after her early death in 1814. He bought some grazing land near the top of Headington Hill from the Savage family in 1817 in order to move his three surviving young children from the damp unhealthy atmosphere of Fisher Row to a healthy country estate in Headington. The house that James Morrell senior completed in 1824 was relatively modest, but later he bought extra land extending all the way down to the Marston Road, comprising the present Headington Hill Park. Headington Hill Campus Management Plan Version 5.2 15/11/10 Page 3 James’s son James Morrell junior (1810–1863) had grander designs, and between 1856 and 1858 built an Italianate mansion: the architect was John Thomas and the builder Joseph Castle. This eclipsed his father’s old house to such an extent that thenceforth the latter was only deemed suitable for a kitchen and nursery wing. This mansion, which boasted nineteen indoor servants, is the present Headington Hill Hall. On 8 November 1856, Jackson’s Oxford Journal (p. 5) reported: The mansion now in the course of erection on Headington Hill for James Morrell, Esq, having been so far advanced that the roof is fixed, that gentleman celebrated the "roof rearing" by an entertainment, on Saturday night last, to all the workmen and boys employed directly or indirectly on the building. Thus by 1858 the small country house had become a 51-room mansion housing 19 indoor servants. James Morrell junior also developed the exotic gardens that are now Headington Hill Park, and they were laid out by a Mr Baxter. The house had four lodges, and its laundry building was built well out of sight on the other side of the London Road, near Gipsy Lane. Its vegetable garden was also situated away from the house, just to the east of Cheney Lane, so as not to spoil the landscape. But the couple only enjoyed the house they had built for five years: James Morrell junior died in 1863, and his wife Alicia in 1864. Their only child Emily Morrell (1854–1938) was left an orphan at the age of ten, so the Morrell Trustees took over responsibility for the Hall and let it out to Richard Corbet, a blind landowner from Shropshire. The wealth of the child Emily was enormous: at the age of 19 she is listed in the Return of Owners of Land of 1873 as owning over 569 acres in Oxfordshire with an estimated rental income of £2,046. In 1874 young Emily Morrell married her third cousin George Herbert Morrell (1845–1906) and returned with him to her family home. The interior of the house was extensively remodelled at this time by William Wilkinson, the architect who also designed the Randolph Hotel and much of north Oxford. Headington Hill Campus Management Plan Version 5.2 15/11/10 Page 4 In 1876 the family of the deceased Tyrrell Knapp were planning to sell the farmland attached to his home at the Rise in Cheney Lane to developers. The Morrell Trustees stepped in to purchase the land, thus doubling the size of the couple’s estate, and linked it to Headington Hill Hall by a bridge over the road. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 12 October 1878 (p. 8c) reported: A new set of stables have been built near "Joe Pullin’s" tree, Headington Hill, for G. Morrell, Esq., by Mr. G. Castle. In their construction the latest improvements have been introduced, and they are considered some of the best stables in the County. Accommodation is provided for 17 horses, and there are ten coach houses, harness rooms, &c., with buildings for coachmen and grooms. A handsome bridge now connects the old portion of the estate with that purchased from the Knapp family, and this is also the work of Mr. G. Castle. The enlarged garden was described in detail in the Gardeners' Magazine of 1880. The new part of the garden comprised the present South Park as well as the area covered by Morrell Avenue, a road of high-standard council houses which was built in South Park in 1929–-31. Herbert Morrell died in 1906, and his wife Emily at the age of 84 in September 1938. A year later the government requisitioned the Hall for use as a military hospital, and its contents were sold. After the war the Hall became a rehabilitation centre run by the Red Cross and the Order of St John. Headington Hill Campus Management Plan Version 5.2 15/11/10 Page 5 In 1953 Emily’s elder son, James Morrell III , sold Headington Hill Hall to Oxford City Council for a mere £13,700: this price included 37 acres of land, as well as its four lodges and outbuildings, and there was applause in the council chamber when the purchase was announced. The original plan was to demolish the Hall and build council offices on the site, but finances did not allow this, and so the council appropriated 20 acres to form Headington Hill Park and offered the rest of the estate on a 21-year lease to the highest bidder. This proved to be Robert Maxwell , Director of Pergamon Press, with a tender of £2,400 a year. Initially he rented the estate purely as business premises for the Press, but soon he and his wife Betty and eight children took up residence in the Hall, relegating the Press to the old stables. Maxwell restored the house, which had become dilapidated, ripping a 150-year-old chimney piece out of the old Pergamon offices in Fitzroy Square, London to put in his new home. He filled shelves with dummy books, and installed cinema-screen televisions in most of the rooms. The original Victorian stained-glass window on the stairs, showing Samson at the gates of Gaza, was damaged during the war, and was replaced by the Maxwell’s. The new window ( left ), created by an Israeli artist, casts Robert Maxwell himself as Samson. He has around his neck a large pendant, which is supposed to depict the head of Penelope and to indicate that behind every successful man there is a strong female presence. (This seems rather odd; in view of the damage Delilah did to Samson, and the fact that Penelope is a figure from Greek myth, not the Old Testament….) The grounds, meanwhile, were becoming littered with ugly prefabs to house Pergamon Press, and when Maxwell requested a longer lease in 1962, one of the conditions was attached was that he must erect, "within a period of 36 months from the granting of the lease, a new building of a type and design and on a site approved by the Council, to replace the existing five temporary huts, and within three months of the completion of this building, to demolish the five huts, clear their concrete bases, and reinstate the sites to their original condition".