HOLYWELL MANOR, MANOR ROAD

The ancient manor house of Holywell, now a hostel for Balliol College, stands close to the church. It has passed through many vicissi­tudes. In penal times, it was held by the Napier or Napper family. A son of the house – George Napier – was trained for the priesthood at Douai, ordained in 1596 and worked in his native country. He was arrested and martyred in Oxford in 1610, probably at the gallows at the corner of Long Wall Street.

The well which gave the name to this district is in the basement of the manor house. Little is known of its history.

It seems more likely that Blessed George Napier was executed on the gallows next to the Castle, where the New Road now runs. He was born in 1550, and attended Corpus Christi College in Oxford, but was ejected for being a Catholic, in 1568. Having been ordained at Douai, he came on mission to England in 1603. He was arrested in Kirtlington, 19th June 1610, and was held in the Castle, where he reconciled a fellow prisoner to the faith. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on 9th November 1610. He was beatified in 1929. Ora pro nobis.

Much of the Manor house is of later date, but the grey stone block nearest the road is 16th Century; there is the remains of a priest-hole in the ceiling. Mass continued to be said in the house into the mid-18th Century.