Gravel Walk connects Coxwell Street to the Lechlade Road and thus acts as a bypass for the town centre.
Many old Faringdon families lived in Gravel Walk,eg. Druett, Flo & Sid King, Gerring, Rixon, Harris, Cox, Pocock, Abel (jewellers), Jim Brown (carrier), and Mr & Mrs Indge (coal merchant and hairdresser). In 1844 & 1863, houses here were addressed as ‘Westbrook‘.
Also see our house by house tour of Gravel Walk in the Year 2000.
See Faringdon Streets for an indexed list of all streets in Faringdon.
Views of Gravel Walk in the 18/1900s
1910, 1940s, 1953, & 1987. Four photographs showing the top corner of Marlborough Street looking down Gravel Walk. In the first photo, the White Hart Hotel is on the right. Just in front of it can be seen a small building which was the public weigh-bridge (more visible in the second photo). The small buildings beside the pub have had a variety of uses including storage, Boffin & Gill’s butcher’s shop, then Aladdin’s Cave, Book Corner, and an antique centre. The other large building shown further down the road, called The Lindens, is still there and has now been converted into three houses. The second and third photos show Ann’s garage next door to the pub in the 1940s and 50s. The garage was later demolished, certainly by the 1980s, and is now the Faringdon Garage (Peugeot) showroom.
1990s. By this time the hotel had been closed and had become a long-standing eyesore. Permission was given in 1993 for the hotel to be converted into six flats and to replace the outbuildings with five new houses. Also, all the old buildings and weigh-bridge shown earlier were demolished to make way for a large block of flats, shown here just visible under construction in the first photograph. As can be seen in the later photo taken in 2020, the new building was built to closely resemble the old hotel building. A road, called the White Hart Walk between it and The Lindens, gives access to the new houses behind.
1960s. Boffin & Gill’s butcher’s shop on Gravel Walk to the left of the White Hart Hotel. Standing outside are Lewis (Lou) Boffin and Thomas Boffin, his father, who later died in 1971. Thomas Boffin’s first shop was in Station Road but that was demolished in order to build the new fire station in 1961. Thomas eventually retired and Lewis took over the running of the shop. The lease for the shop, owned by Morrell’s Brewery, was put or possibly renewed in Lewis’s name in 1975. Lewis went into partnership with fellow worker Harry Gill and set up a new business here called Boffin & Gill’s.2 In 1977 they moved to #7 London Street and the shop became Aladdin’s Cave, an antique centre. The shop was later demolished to make way for the large blocks of flats mentioned above. Lewis left the running of the business in London Street to Harry when he retired in 1989 but it went into receivership at the end of 1993 and the premises became the current fish and chip shop.
Looking back towards the junction with Marlborough Street, Station Road and Coxwell Street. The white house on the left is Westbrook House, a Grade 2 listed building, and next is The Lindens showing above the trees. Westbrook House was a Ladies’ Boarding and Day School run by Temperance Kent in 1844. The Wrens were billeted in Westbrook House during WWII; they had to march up to the Royal Marines Camp off Butts (now Park) Road each morning. The Lindens, in the second photo, also shown in many of the previous photos, was once the home of at least two of Faringdon’s most eminent solicitors. It has now been converted into three houses, #8-12 Gravel Walk.
1982. Looking back along Gravel Walk from the junction with Lechlade Road and Gloucester Street. On the right was Faringdon Motorparts owned by Ian Stringer. The garden wall was later removed to make room for a parking area. The shop was closed and demolished in 2014 to be replaced with an extension on the house behind. The house, known as Chase House, was previously occupied by Mr & Mrs Indge, coal merchant and hairdresser. At the next lamp post on the right is the turning to Faringdon Bowling Club, which used to lead to the Town Pound. Quickly following this is another turning to a row of old white terraced cottages. Then at the next lamp post on the right, opposite the white car is a public footpath up the side of that white house, leading to Oakwood House (sheltered housing) and Ferendune Court (care home) on the new Pines Housing Estate, which has vehicle access only via Canada Lane. The small arch in the wall just behind the white car is an entrance to a row of old houses.
Business Directories & Advertisements in Local Media
The following shops and businesses were advertised in Gravel Walk or Westbrook, Faringdon in the years stated:
BELCHER John, blacksmiths & coach spring maker, Westbrook, PIG 1844
BELLERD William, fellmonger, Westbrook, PIG 1844
BOUCHER J., Gravel Walk, FA 1927
Budd Rev Joseph, boarding and day school, Westbrook House, DG 1863
CHURCH William, registrar of births and deaths, Westbrook, PIG 1844
CLARK Richard, Retailers of Beer, Westbrook, PIG 1844
Davies Mary, shopkeeper, Westbrook, DG 1863
FARINGDON MOTORPARTS, 51 Gravel Walk, FDS 1984-89, 2002. FCC 2006.
Harris Thomas, builder, Westbrook, DG 1863
HERBERT Herbert, bakers, Westbrook, PIG 1844
HORN William, Retailers of Beer, Westbrook, PIG 1844 and pig dealer DG 1863
Jackson Henry, Duke of York, Westbrook, DG 1863
Jeffrey Joseph John, baker, Westbrook, DG 1863
KENT Temperance, boarding and day school, Westbrook House, PIG 1844
LAPWORTH James, shopkeepers & dealers in groceries & sundries, Westbrook, PIG 1844
Pusey John, While Hart, Westbrook, DG 1863
Sly James, carpenter and builder, Westbrook, DG 1863
TARRANT R.W., Gravel Walk Stores, agent for Morrells, FA 1907, 1908, 1909.
TOWNSEND James, wheelwrights, Westbrook, PIG 1844
Warman Charles, gardener, Westbrook, DG 1863
Media Key: FA = Faringdon Advertiser; DG = Directory & Gazetteer of Oxon, Berks & Bucks (Dutton, Allen & Co. 1863); FCC = Faringdon Chamber of Commerce 2006; PIG = Pigot & Co.’s Directory of Berks & Bucks 1844.
Reference:
- The Changing Faces of Faringdon and Surrounding Villages – Bk1 p16-17. By Rosemary Church, Jim Brown, Millie Bryan and Beryl Newman. Robert Boyd Publications. Now out of print.
- Faringdon Folly, November 1993, p1 – The end of the butchers & the Bakers.
Researched by Ian Lee, February 2020.