The Evington Footpath (Gartree Rd/Via Devana)

The old Roman Rd, the Via Devana, ran into Leicester from Stoughton and Evington in the south-east along the Evington Footpath and down New Walk into the city centre. Halfway along the footpath is Oxford Avenue, a small cul-de-sac. This was built in 1891 by a builder, Mr Jewsbury of 188 London Rd, and was sited at the bottom of his garden. Today, the Jewsbury's house has gone but the terraces remain.

From 1-7 the photos follow the path up the hill from Mayfield Rd to the London Rd/Evington Rd junction, where a parish boundary marker can be found. The gate through which Mrs Jewsbury came to collect the rent can be seen in the background of photo 5.

For more information about the Via Devana visit the Leicester Chronicler.

Below are the recollections of a lady who lived in Oxford Avenue all her life.

Oxford Avenue  3.32 minutes  848kb

Mr and Mrs Jewsbury lived in a large Victorian House on the London Road facing the Victoria Park, and Mr Jewsbury had his own building business, so he built these 13 houses, six facing seven, on his garden, and Mrs Jewsbury used to come every Monday morning and collect the rents.

Well, Mrs Jewsbury was very particular about her tenants. You'd either got to be a policeman, a railway worker, or a post... work for the post office; she said they were three very reliable livings and she was sure of her rent, you see. So any rate, my parents moved into number ten. Well, I was born after 13 years of marriage, I was born 1912. Well, you see, it was really Mr Jewsbury having his own building business. He, it was very, he made a real good job of building these houses, and you see with his wife collecting the rent, you see, we could always say, 'Well Mrs Jewsbury, er, could I have a tile put on my roof?', or 'Could I have the chimney pot mended?'. You see it was very easy to get any repairs that you wanted done.

And he did own a lot of property in different parts of Leicester. And of course he started, when his wife died, he went to live on, I think it was Toller Road, off of the London Road, and he had a housekeeper, and um, he used to have an agent come round to collect the rents, and um any rate, he started to sell his property in other parts of Leicester, and so Mrs Harrison, that used to live in this house, she, er, took it upon herself to see Mr Jewsbury and she said that the, um, tenants of Oxford Avenue were feeling very uncomfortable because he had, er, parted with a lot of his property in other parts of Leicester, and was he ever going to sell the Avenue? So Mr Jewsbury said, 'Mrs Harrison', he said, 'you can tell the tenants of Oxford Avenue not to worry'. He said, 'I am not selling the Avenue', he said, 'I have decided to keep the Avenue as a hobby', he said, 'I shall keep it in repair,' and he said, 'and I shall come and collect the rents and see the, the um, tenants, and', he said, 'there's nothing to worry about'. Well, she told us all and we all sighed with relief, and then three weeks after, he came to my mother and he said he'd sold our house to a Mr and Mrs Green and we could either take them to live with us or we could get out.