History depends crucially on data. Data takes many forms: written records, diaries, newspaper reports, sound recordings, photographs, and so on. We have only just begun collecting information. This post presents The Polstead Road History Project’s first data file; it is incomplete but it illustrates what can be discovered. We uploaded it so anyone can see it and extract information from it.
Table of Contents
The initial data
Following the Polstead Road History Project’s first meeting on 30 September 2025, Kay Symons began investigating the road’s early years by reviewing census records, which are available online. She also accessed records of the original land and house purchases. She will explain her methods and initial findings in due course.
She has stored the data in an Excel spreadsheet, which is available for download. You may select and sort cells, but you should not be able to make any other edits. In any case, the spreadsheet is mainly used to store data that cannot be easily manipulated or analysed directly.
You may count and perform simple eyeball analyses, but remember the sheet is incomplete and Kay will add more soon.
Details on the spreadsheet data.
I will outline the spreadsheet’s structure. I must stress that the spreadsheet is a ‘work-in-progress’ and incomplete.
The first column, Column B, lists the house numbers. The first set is the odd-numbered houses (1 – 33), and from row 130, the even-numbered houses (2 – 30).
The data for each house runs from 1888 (the date of the first lease) to more recent information. It is ordered from left (1888) to right (2018)
The first five columns show details of the original leases, running from 1888 to 1891. These often include the builder’s name and the purchaser’s name.
The following columns contain information from censuses between 1891 and 1921 (the last date available), with some from other sources. Data from electoral rolls and other sources are shown towards the right-hand end.
Other data collections.
We have met the archivist at St John’s College and anticipate finding much useful information. Philip and Pascale Lafeber would welcome help extracting facts from old documents.
Kay has also searched digitised newspaper records and started extracting information about events.
We are interested in obtaining oral and written recollections of living on the road from current and former residents, and in seeing any other contemporaneous records since 1890, such as diaries, photographs, booklets, and other ephemera, including tickets for parties in the hall at St Margaret’s Institute during World War II.
Currently, we are seeking advice on the best ways to collect and store data from local history groups in Oxford.
Postscript
The few people actively engaged enjoy the work and find it stimulating. If you are interested in joining the PRHP (Polstead Road History Project) meetings or groups, or helping in any way, please make contact. You can just be an interested observer, or you can help an existing workgroup collect, collate, and analyse data. If you have your own area of interest, you can start a new workgroup.
For example, someone might be interested in paintings and other art associated with Polstead Road. Would you consider the name, Malcolm Polstead, used by Philip Pullman in his trilogy, The Book of Dust, too tangential to include?
Please contact us.