Rachel found the following The Encyclopaedia of Oxford - eds. C. Hibbert & J. Hibbert - Macmilan 1988 Boffin's Established in 1847 by Alfred Boffin, who advertised the business as 'Pastry cooks & Confectioners, Fancy Bread & Biscuit Bakers' and ran the Oxford Restaurant from No. 107 HIGH STREET. He also hired out plate and cutlery, and operated the University and City Bakeries in BLUE BOAR STREET. The business was taken over by James Boffin in the 1870s. He supplied 'Wedding Breakfasts and Ball Suppers' and had a cake shop at CARFAX on the corner of ST ALDATE'S and QUEEN STREET, where Marygold House now stands. The Carfax cake shop was traditional scene of 'high jinks' on the last Saturday of term, with bread rolls and pats of butter flying in all directions across the crowded first floor restaurant. Boffin's also had a shop at No. 71 ST GILES'. In the 1920s Boffin's business, which was mainly in cakes, was sold to G.H. Cooper, whose business was mainly in bread to form Cooper and Boffin Ltd. In 1936 that business went into liquidation and was bought by the brothers J>W> (Billy) and C. Roger Paine, who ran the bakery in SOUTH PARADE. They bought several other small businesses and in 1954 opened an automated bakery plant in OSNEY MEAD. It was sold to Spillers in 1959. It then has a drawing of the shop at 107 High Street and concludes with the description: A & W Boffin Pastry Cooks & Confectioners, Fancy Bread & Biscuit Bakers were established in the High Street in 1847. There are a few errors in this : James (the father) established the business and his son Alfred took it over. Presumably the W Boffin should be J Boffin. If G H Cooper bought the business in the 1920s who was he? Our records show that he died in 1910 and Rachel has found that his wife died in 1925. Did she carry on with the business using her husbands name or was the business acquired in the 1900s? Or is there some other explanation? The above does confirm Paul's acquaintance's memory (thanks Paul). Cliff