I was looking at local records of petty sessions for crimes in the 1860s and
1870s, and was surprised to read that sometimes the sentences included putting
the offender in stocks as punishment, for example six hours.

I think the stocks being mentioned were in Cowley, but does anyone have more
details about precisely where they were located, or any information on them, or
when they were last used?

Thank you to anyone who might be able to help!

I was going to suggest contacting the Cowley Local History Society, but their
website appears to have gone dead.

I have never seen any mention of stocks in Headington.

Did you know that with your ordinary county library ticket you could search the
British Library copies of Jackson's Oxford Journal online for the whole
nineteenth century? Just type the number on your library ticket in here:
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/oxfshlib

Then choose: British Library Newspapers
and what you want in the search box.
In the publication title box type
Jackson's Oxford Journal
(exactly like that: omit the apostrophe and there will be no results).

I get 8424 results for a basic search with the word Stocks in Jackson's Oxford
Journal (most of which are probably irrelevant, as the term is of course also
used for the Stock Market type), so you will need to think of a way of refining
the search. I am not sure it is going to be helpful, as I can't manage to find
anything, but I will send this message anyway in case people do not realize
they can access so much local history at home.

I see that Thame still has its stocks:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14594655.Town_council_makes_bid_to_reinstate_medieval_punishment/
and I have seen them in Woodstock.

Hello Simon

I was interested in your post and have given it some thought.

Headington defendants who were sent to the stocks went to Cowley.The old
'Stocks
Tree' stood at the junction of Temple Road and Oxford Road, Cowley and it's a
fair bet that the stocks themselves stood there. The old folk of Cowley used to
mention Stock Street but I wasn't sure of its whereabouts until Stephanie
kindly
found a picture by Taunt here:

http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/search/detail.aspx?uid=48254

http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/search/detail.aspx?uid=48254
This is most definitely the street now called Temple Road. The 'Stocks Tree'
was
felled in 1908 and I reckon Stock Street and the stocks went at about the same
time. The last recorded use of the Cowley stocks was in 1871.

Rest of post

Using stocks as punishment in 19th century Oxford

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Using stocks as punishment in 19th century Oxford

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