The ownership of "The Kilns", by James O'Fee

In the 1990s I was a founder member of, and then Chairman of, the C. S. Lewis Centenary Group whose website is http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/cslewis/home.html.

Although the group dissolved at the end of the Centenary year of 1998, when we stopped paying money to the server, the information on the website continues to be available. I feared all would disappear but this has not yet happened, thank goodness. Among that material are the monthly newsletters which we produced and distributed, both in paper and electronic form.

Prompted to think once more about C.S. Lewis matters, I was trying to confirm my impression that we obtained the surprising details of how the Lewis brothers (C.S. and his brother Warnie) financed the purchase of the home in Oxford, "The Kilns" from a copy of C.S. Lewis's will that turned up in Belfast. The Lewis brothers lived in "The Kilns" until their deaths, and today the house - seen in the film SHADOWLANDS - is a popular site on the Oxford tourist trail.

So I referred to these newsletters. I discovered that in fact we obtained the financial information on "The Kilns" from a source other from C.S. Lewis's will. [I'll plan to write about the will soon in another post.]

From CS Lewis News April 1998

MR CHRIS SHELLEY of Culver City, California, writes (8 March 1998): Regarding the ownership of the Kilns.....

I have been reading "Brothers and Friends" and came across the following from WHL's [Warren Lewis:Ed] diary 5th Sept 1931...

Cost of the Kilns $3300

Paid cash (I paid) $300

Mortgage held by J $1000

Mortgage held by me $500

Mortgage held by Askins trustees $1500

Thus the Lewis brothers invested £1800

The Askins only £1500...

Warnie states; "Minto is making a settlement whereby each of our shares is secured in the event of her death, she being the nominal owner of the property." So JKM was only "nominal" owner of the Kilns and CSL would have as much a right as any to build a cottage etc.

From CS Lewis News November 1998

THE KILNS

Dr Edwin Brown [of Indianapolis, USA:Ed] writes- ‘Although Mrs Janie ‘Minto’ Moore was the legal owner of the house, the Lewis brothers had the right of life tenancy. Maureen then sold the house to the Thirsk family after both brothers died. A group of us then bought the house in 1985 from the Thirsks in a limited partnership.’

In an earlier issue of ‘C S Lewis News’, we quoted Chris Shelley who discovered entries from Warren Lewis’s diary- "Cost of the Kilns 3300, Paid cash (I paid) 300, Mortgage held by J 1000, Mortgage held by me 500, Mortgage held by Askins trustees 1500."

Chris Shelley concluded, "Thus the Lewis brothers invested 1800. The Askins [sic] only 1500." I assume that the Lewis brothers paid for all the Kilns municipal expenses, upkeep, and expansions. But the papers they signed upon purchase deeded the property to Janie or her heir Maureen upon their deaths.'

Albert Lewis, father of C.S. and Warren, was a Solicitor; but you wouldn't need to be a lawyer to perceive that the Lewis brothers were getting a poor deal. They were providing more than half the capital to buy 'The Kilns' as well as the money to run and maintain the house. In return the brothers were receiving no interest in the property itself, only the right to live there during their lifetimes.

With Walter Hooper (right) in 1998

At the 'Aspects of Irish Writing' festival in Northern Ireland on Sunday 27 September 1998, I (James O’Fee) questioned Walter Hooper about the matter. Hooper's answer, in public, was what it had been in private. That the Lewis brothers were bachelors and had no intention of marrying, so there was no point in the brothers making any provision for themselves. Yet in 1930, when the brothers bought ‘The Kilns’, C. S. Lewis was 32 and Warren Lewis was 35, in the prime of life.

The nature of the arrangement continues to baffle me. Many have speculated on the nature of the relationship between C.S. Lewis and Mrs Janie Moore (née Askins). I don't propose here to spill any more ink on that subject. But I'll come back to the subject of C.S. Lewis's will shortly.

Will Vaus corrects - 'the real Kilns is not shown in either version of Shadowlands. In both films they used different houses. However, the Kilns was used in the more recent film "Beyond Narnia". '

I'm not aware of "Beyond Narnia". Can you please explain, Will?