Isis House at Folly Bridge, Grandpont.

Phil’s History:

A ‘work in progress’ family history website starting from an Archer family of South Oxford, who were freemen, brewers, haulage contractors, and first ‘Archer & Co’ then ‘Archer Cowley & Co’ furniture removers in the 19th and 20th Centuries, inter alia, to whom are linked by marriage the Penfolds and Wells of Southwark and Surrey, the Reeds of Devon, the Gilders of Oxford and Hinckley, the Morgans of Petworth, Sussex, the Garners of Middleton, Lancs and many others. There are connections via Phil and the present generation (born 1930s/40s) with a patent law firm known as "UD&L" with motor-racing and Scottish antecedents.

So this is James Archer’s home in 1861, when his age was 25, and it was 4 years since he founded Archer & Co in 1857. The house had apparently only been built in 1849, 12 years before. The GWR’s Grandpont terminus is just across the river from Isis House, and a little upstream i.e. nearer the camera in this view. Its site was in fact probably exactly just to the right of the camera in this view. Hence James Archer’s consciousness of rail transport, the line to London running south alongside the Abingdon Road along which James must have daily driven his one-horse conveyance in the early days of Archer & Co.

Phil’s History:

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Isis House at Folly Bridge, Grandpont.