Residents
The most famous resident of Northmoor Road was the Oxford academic and author J. R. R. Tolkien. He lived at No. 22 in 1926–30 and then a larger house at No. 20 in 1930–47. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit and most of The Lord of the Rings while living at 20 Northmoor Road. There is now a blue plaque on the house. He later lived at Sandfield Road in Headington.
Another resident was Sir Martin Wood, who set up his company, Oxford Instruments, in his garden shed at his house in Northmoor Road. Oxford Instruments went on to become a leading company in medical technology. Later, in the 1980s, Wood founded the Northmoor Trust, aimed at promoting nature conservation at Little Wittenham and Wittenham Clumps in the Oxfordshire countryside south of Oxford.
Charles Firth, Professor of History at the University of Oxford, lived at No. 2 Northmoor Road, a distinctive house with a two-storey bow-front, designed by E. W. Allfrey in 1903–8. The house is in the Queen Anne style. The Oxford University historian of science, Professor Margaret Gowing, CBE (1921–1998), lived in Northmoor Place towards the end of her life. Michael Maclagan, Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Trinity College, herald, and Lord Mayor of Oxford 1970-71, lived for many years at No. 20, Tolkien's former home. The diplomat Sir Julian Bullard (1928–2006) lived in Northmoor Road during his retirement.
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Famous quotes containing the word residents:
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)