History Resources
This page brings together or links to a range of documents, photos and articles on the history of Fitzharris Manor House and our estate. It draws on the work of Dick Barnes, who researched our area in detail, and on that of Frank Close, who has studied the stories of our spies and defectors
Dick Barnes BEM
Dick, who was born in 1919 and died in 2019, worked at Harwell from its earliest days, and first moved to our estate in 1951. He was a pioneer in the development of computing, and a co-designer of the Harwell Dekatron – since recognised as the oldest working digital computer (see this BBC article). You can read more about Dick and his career in this obituary from the Oxford Mail.
Professor Frank Close OBE FRS
Frank Close lives in Abingdon and is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford and a former head of the Theoretical Physics Division at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell.
He is the author of many bestselling books, some of which feature the spies and defectors closely linked with our estate:
Half Life: The Divided Life of Bruno Pontecorvo, Physicist or Spy
Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of Klaus Fuchs the Most Dangerous Spy in History.
Frank Close is very involved in the history of science in the Vale of the White Horse and has given a recent public talk:
How 70 Years of Science changed Abingdon
He is one of the founders of the Atom Society which hosts monthly talks in Abingdon, and of the annual ATOM Festival of Science and Technology.
Articles about Fitzharris Manor and our Estate
The Town Council website includes a short history of our area. It includes information on the Tesdale and Bostock families who leased the Manor.
“Fitzharris Manor, Abingdon
From Gentleman’s Residence to Demoliton”
An article by Dick Barnes, published in the Journal of the Berkshire Local History Association no 23, 2006.
“Fitzharris Manor Estate”
A short article by Dick Barnes, published in Cameos of Abingdon by Abingdon Town Council in 2006.
Aerial Photographs
Fitzharris Manor grounds from the northwest in 1920
The south-east part of the estate in 2017
The estate photographed by the RAF in 1949, shortly after completion
Fitzharris Manor House and Estate
Sale particulars for the house and estate in 1874
Sale particulars for the house and estate in 1912 (courtesy of Abingdon Museum
Sale particulars for the house and estate in 1939
Ordnance Survey maps
These extracts are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
Photographs of Fitzharry’s Estate under construction
Crown copyright, supplied via the UK Atomic Energy Authority
Photographs of the estate in 1951
These photographs were taken for the Ministry of Supply on the 1st of May 1951, and are now in the Historic England Archive.
The entrance to Fitzharry’s Road seen from Boxhill Walk with numbers 2 and 4 Fitzharry’s Road in the foreground
The view looking across Letcombe Avenue towards numbers 6 and 8
Numbers 1-6 Stanford Drive
The view looking north east along Letcombe Avenue with the estate depot buildings in the right foreground
The view along Fitzharry’s Road with the entrance to Letcombe Avenue visible to the right beyond numbers and 18 and 20 Fitzharry’s Road
The view across Letcombe Avenue looking towards the entrance to Nuneham Square and 5 Letcombe Avenue
Photographs of life on the estate
We’ll be adding photos here showing life on Fitzharry’s over the years – starting with these 1960s views of the removal of some very large trees from in front of 8 Letcombe Avenue. The pictures were supplied by Silvia Joinson, who lived at number 8 for many years.
Priscilla Nicholson, who lived at 18 Fitzharrys Road in the 1960s and 1970s has sent these evocative images
House Plans
The 140 houses on Fitzharry’s Estate were built to four different designs.
Other resources
Electoral registers
The electoral registers for Berkshire list all those living on the estate who were qualified to vote. They exclude young people under 21 (prior to 1970, when the voting age was reduced to 18) and foreign nationals.
1949 Register for Fitzharry’s Estate
In the first decades of the estate, all of the families who lived here were tenants of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. The UKAEA published a handbook for the estates linked to Harwell.