December 4^th

Drains 1. The boss builder has decided to lay completely new drains through the house for the reasons I guessed last time. He asked me to vacate the house today so that he can connect various pipes to this new main drain, once it's laid

So off to the British Library to look up those auctioneers who sold off the 300 plus houses for Christ Church College, Oxford in 1955. I had ordered up an entire year's worth of Estates Gazette to look through and establish when exactly Jones, Lang and Wootton and Sons made the great sale. How much did it all fetch?

Scheduled for March 22nd,1955. So I started leafing through for the week after auction day, only to come across the following:

Why? I ask myself. I spent the rest of the day hunting for the auction later in the year but couldn't find it, although even the land registry have told me that my house was bought by the council in 1955.
I have a thought, though. In 1955 a new law came into force that was concerned with what condition properties had to be in to be rented. My guess is that would-be our purchasers of 300 houses were frightened off because all those houses were in a dreadful state. So there was never any auction at all. Only the council was willing to buy, intending to bulldoze the lot. It's just a guess, mind. Local archives tomorrow. 

Back at home in the evening. Bartek and Sebastian are even more unhappy. The main manhole out of the house into the sewer is so blocked that I cannot stay in the upstairs flat anymore. I have left for the night. Let's see what tomorrow brings.