Hi Susan
I'm beginning to think that Bede House Row must have been close to where I was born and grew up. I've looked on the census docsand it appears to be close to St Johns and St Annes Church/hospital, in Gas St - later called William Dalby Street. William Dalby Street ran onto Westgate and I think Bede House Row may have been in between. I was born in 13 Westgate - possibly a stones throw away!
Oakham Council in their wisdom decided to build a large bridge over the centre of Oakham back in the 60s & 70s and slapped compulsory purchases on many of the houses in that area. The empty houses soon became derelict and they knocked many of them down. Fortunately, they ran out of money before they built the bridge and started to redevelop the neighbourhood in the 80s. I suspect that Bede House Row was demolished as part of this redevelopment sadly.
I've attached an old photo of Westgate looking towards William Dalby St. The bike is propped up against our house (no. 13). In the background you can see an old stone wall infront of a greenhouse. This stone wall belonged to St Johns and St Annes. I think that may be Bede House Row may have been the row of houses between the car and the stone wall? Or it may have been on the opposite side of the road just past the pub called the Kings Head (you can't see it from this photo as it juts in but you can see the start of the next row of houses).
I was quite young when they knocked the houses down on the right hand side (the ones I think may be Bede House Row) but I remember that there you went through a passage and there were some other houses around the back too. It was quite a poor area.
Jill
