Boulderdyke House, Clifton

Rob Forsyth

History

The following information has been extracted verbatim from British History OnLine (formerly Victoria County History) in the section on The Wootton Hundred, Deddington. Vol XI 

"Magdalen College held a small estate in Clifton, acquired in 1483 by the gift of Richard Berne (Barnes), a fellow. It seems to have originated in a grant of c. I210 by Guy de Dive and his wife Lucy of 1/2  hide in Clifton and a residual payment was made to the Windsor manor in the 15th century. The estate was held by a family named St. Paul by c. 1230 until the mid 14th century. In the 15th century, called ‘Sympolle’ or ‘St. Paul’s thing’ , it passed from the Dene family of Shutford (in Swalcliffe) to John Phipps of Banbury, whose heirs sold to Richard Berne. At inclosure in I808 Magdalen College and its lessee William Merry were awarded c. 40 a. of meadow for their 2 1/2 yardlands of open-field land.The house belonging to the ancient estate survives as Boulderdyke House, presumably named after some 17th-century lessees, the Bodendike family."

197?? The original house in the image above was demolished and the present house of the same name was built on the same site

Occupants

1938-39 The Goldsmith family An interesting facet of the history of the house to light in 2024.  Through a chance contact Mary Robinson learned of the story of Matt Goldschmidt [subsequently anglicised to Goldsmith] an engineer who had fled to London from Nazi Germany prior to WWII and moved to Clifton as a tenant of the Welfords in Boulderdyke House in order to avoid the bombing, only to be briefly interned as a suspected high-risk enemy alien. His son John, who lives in Basle Switzerland,  tells their subsequent story

1940-45 The Bowler family The following is extracted from a longer article about the Bowler [Hat] family;

"In 1940, in order to avoid the London bombing, Leslie [Bowler] and family moved back to Deddington where the Turner family still lived. After a brief stay in lodgings they rented Boulderdyke House from the Welford farming family in Clifton. The house probably dated back to the 15th Century. It was demolished after WWII and a modern house built on the site. George Harris, who did odd jobs for the Bowlers, says that from its outdoor privy there was the most outstanding view of the Cherwell Valley."

The full article can be found HERE and John Bowlers' (Leslie's son) memories of Clifton as young boy during the war can be found HERE

1945-to date The Welford family 

Ruth Johnson's article about the family history

Donald Welford's obituary December 2002