The area included in the West Oxford Community Nature Plan is bounded by Binsey village to the north, and by Pot Stream, a branch of the river Thames, to the south (Map 1). The Hinksey Stream, another branch of the Thames, forms the western boundary and the Oxford to Birmingham railway line makes up the eastern boundary.
West Oxford, like South Oxford, is situated in the Thames flood plain and the area includes a section of the main river as well as a bewildering network of side streams and ditches. In Anglo-Saxon times, the first settlers in West Oxford looked for slightly higher ground in this watery landscape and the suffix -ey in the place names Binsey, Hinksey, Medley and Osney derives from the Old English word for an island. These areas could be virtually isolated by winter flooding and, writing about Binsey in 1872, Herbert Hurst remarked on "the doleful aspect of the place when it was hemmed in by floods."
Osney Abbey, one of the architectural glories of medieval Oxford, was founded in the West Oxford water meadows in 1129 and difficulties with drainage probably led to an extensive re-shaping of the site in the 13th century. The last but one abbot, John Burton complained in 1537 that "if he was to remain in such a damp place as Oseney his life would be shortened". After the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, the church briefly became the cathedral of the new Oxford Diocese in 1542 but the bishopric was transferred to Christ Church in 1545 and the abbey buildings were gradually quarried away; today, just a small portion of a 15th century waterside range survives above ground in Osney Marina.
Although the West Oxford area was so flood-prone a prehistoric trackway probably crossed the Thames at North Hinksey before continuing north along the ridge towards Banbury. This route seems to have been followed by secondary Roman roads and would have involved fording a much broader river channel between the modern Hinksey and Bullstake streams. This crossing was called Oxenforde in 1352 and is one of many fords from which Oxford might have taken its name. There was a ferry at North Hinksey by 1370 and, because of this feature, the village was also known as Ferry Hinksey. In 1467, John Heyns the ferryman obtained permission from Osney Abbey to build a causeway from Botley Road to the ferry and this would have made the route passable for much of the year (Map 2).
Botley Road is first recorded in about 1210 but it was only a seasonal footpath through the meadows until about 1530 when a causeway was built at the expense of John Claymond, President of Corpus Christi College. Narrow and poorly maintained, Botley Road was turnpiked in 1767 as part of an ambitious scheme to improve the road from Oxford to Eynsham. The causeway was widened and arched stone bridges were built over the many branches of the river Thames, giving Botley Road the alternative name, Seven Bridges Road. With the building of a new coach road up Cumnor Hill in the late 18th century, Botley Road became for the first time the main route from Oxford to Faringdon and the South-West, supplanting the old way via Abingdon Road and Boar's Hill.
The Thames and its side streams have played an important part in the history of West Oxford. There was probably a mill on the Seacourt Stream at Botley by the twelfth century, and the monks of Osney Abbey are thought to have formed the present main stream of the Thames south of Medley as a stream to power their mill in the 13th century. Waterways were a practical alternative for moving materials around this low-lying area. The main navigation stream around Oxford, at least in the 17th and 18th centuries, followed Pot Stream from a point near the present railway bridge and went round Bullstake Stream to Four Streams, Walton Ford and Medley (Map 2). Use of this roundabout route, which crossed Botley Road beside the modern Duke Street, was demonstrated in January 1686 when a boatman drowned in the Bulstake Stream and was later buried in St. Thomas's churchyard. With the building of Osney Lock in 1790, the present navigation stream was established on the old Osney millstream (Map 3). Boats must have used the millstream to bring building materials and other heavy goods to Osney Abbey since Osney Bridge was known as Hythe Bridge in 1467.
Until the mid 19th century the area west of St. Thomas's was entirely rural and visitors to Oxford were encouraged to watch undergraduates riding to hounds along the Botley road. Then, with the coming of the railways, the low-lying meadows of West Oxford gained a new value as potential development land. The site of Osney Town was laid out for building in 1851 and, despite regular flooding, the new district housed 795 people in 141 houses within 10 years. The first lots in New Botley or Bullstake Town were sold in 1868, planting a population of between 400 and 500 on another flood-prone meadow by the mid 1880s. From the late 1860s, Christ Church gradually released for building the land between the railway line and the main river Thames, creating the area that became known as New Osney. The gap between Osney Town and New Botley was gradually eroded from 1895 when Hill View Road was laid out across part of Oatlands Meadow. North of Botley Road, new roads occupied land between St. Frideswide's ditch and Binsey Lane from 1902 (Map 1). House-building progressed steadily on these estates and houses were still being built in Riverside Road in the late 1920s.
Oxford's growth between the Wars was focused on Cowley and the motor industry and there was comparatively little housing development in West Oxford. The City built a few council houses and private builders added a ribbon of semi-detached houses along the Botley Road between Binsey Lane and the City boundary by 1939. Large business premises occupied more meadowland beside an increasingly busy Botley Road and commercial development in Ferry Hinksey Road began before 1939 (Plate 1). The Osney Mead estate was developed in 1963-64 "for [the] relocation of badly sited industries in the City of Oxford" but, elsewhere, Green Belt policies have largely restricted postwar development to older built-up areas. From the air, West Oxford is still strikingly green and Binsey village retains a remarkable air of remoteness (Plate 2).
The undeveloped areas of West Oxford are the property of a very few landowners (Map 4).
Christ Church, which inherited the local estates of Osney Abbey in the 16th century, owns most of Binsey, including all the fields and the allotments west of Binsey Lane. Charles Gee owns Medley Manor Farm east of Binsey Lane, having purchased the land from Christ Church, possibly in the 1950s. Christ Church land extends south of Botley Stream, formerly known as the Dunge, but Oxford City Council owns allotments and an adjoining field behind Bullstake Close. Nearest to the Seacourt Stream, the Oxford & Swindon Co-operative Society Ltd., own the remnants of the firm's former sports field, the rest of the site having been developed as Seacourt Park & Ride car park since 1974. Oxford City Council owns Botley Park, Tumbling Bay and the Twenty Pound Meadow allotment. South of Botley Road, the City Council owns King George's Field, Willow Walk and the western half of Oatlands Road recreation ground; the eastern half of the recreation ground is really West Oxford School playing field and belongs to Oxfordshire County Council as local education authority. West of King George's Field, Hinksey Meadow and two further meadows south of Willow Walk have been acquired by the Oxford Preservation Trust to secure the future of these green spaces between Oxford and North Hinksey. A field between Bullstake Stream and Osney Mead industrial estate is thought to belong to the Oxford & Swindon Co-operative Society, Ltd.
The streets of West Oxford have generally been raised above historical flood levels but, away from the built-up area, the landscape is very much part of the Thames flood plain. A few meadows are still used for grazing in summer and, north of Botley Road, much of the land between the river Thames and the Western bypass is still farmed (Plate 2). Nearest the bypass, small fields have been amalgamated and some ancient field boundaries lost but, throughout West Oxford, many significant hedgerows remain, often associated with historic watercourses and ditches. In the past 50 years arable has tended to replace pasture, but Medley Manor Farm has kept much of its ancient meadowland with ridge and furrow recalling the open fields of medieval farming (Plates 1 and 2). Much former agricultural land has, since the late 19th century, been converted to allotments or to recreation use, usually preserving old field boundaries as well as giving public access to a generous network of green spaces. Parks such as Botley Park, Oatlands Road recreation ground and King George's Field form an important transition between urban and rural West Oxford. Botley Park, for example, leads to Tumbling Bay, the former river bathing place on the Bullstake stream and King George's Field now links into Hinksey Meadow, a large area of unimproved grassland. Significant rights of way include a section of the Thames Path National Trail between Pot Stream and Binsey, Willow Walk and the ancient causeway to North Hinksey.
Overall, the landscape of West Oxford forms a precious asset, a green lung for residents and wildlife alike. In wildlife terms, nothing is perhaps more inspiring than to look up from a Botley Road traffic jam and to see a lone heron flying overhead. The overriding purpose of of the West Oxford Community Nature Plan, currently under preparation, is to help conserve and enhance for future generations the landscape we have inherited from the past.
References
Maps
1. Ordnance Survey, 1:10560 City of Oxford, 1919
2. John Rocque, Map of the County of Berkshire, 1761
3. Richard Davis, Map of the County of Oxfordshire surveyed in 1793-4 , 1797
4. Landownership map based on Ordnance Survey, SP40 1:25000, 1992
Photographs
1. Ordnance Survey, SP40 NE Air photograph 1:10560, 1947
2. Geonex, Air photograph, 1991
Gazetteer of historical sites with wildlife interest
Binsey Green
Formerly a large open space of 18.5 acres in front of the houses with a pond next to the Perch. Until the early 20th century, Binsey householders grazed their flocks of geese on the green and these were described in c.1910 as being "a spirited feature of the little hamlet." Since the 1960s, the green has been fenced to limit access by motor vehicles.
Botley Park
Part of Twenty Pound Meadow and acquired by the City as a recreation ground by 1924.
Probably on or near the site of a prehistoric route and a secondary Roman road.
The medieval causeway, for foot traffic only, led to a ferry at North or Ferry Hinksey. When Willow Walk was opened up as a public path in 1923 the ferry became redundant and the older route gradually became overgrown.
The right of way was restored with bridges over the Bullstake and Hinksey Streams in 1994 and it is now sometimes called 'The Monks' Causeway'.
Hinksey Meadow
Area of ancient grassland north of Willow Walk, saved by public enquiry in 1961 from being zoned for industry and now owned by the Oxford Preservation Trust. Towards Botley Road, contains traces of the old course of the Hinksey Stream which formerly marked the boundary between Oxford and Berkshire.
For more on the restoration of the Hinksey Meadow Old Meander wetland feature, including a map and photographs, see our Hinksey Meadows pages.
King George's Field
Donated to the City as a recreation ground by St. John's College after 1935 as part of a national scheme to commemorate George V's Silver jubilee.
Oatlands Road recreation ground
The southern portion of Oatlands Meadow, left undeveloped before the First World War and acquired by Raymond ffennell of Wytham Abbey in 1926 to make sure that it would remain as open space. He persuaded the City to buy it as a recreation ground in 1927.
Osney cemetery
Formed on part of the site of Osney Abbey church, the cemetery was created in 1848 for the combined parishes of south and west Oxford. Until the 1960s, there was a chapel inside the lych-gate and a keeper's house on the corner of Mill Street and Osney Lane. Most of the older gravestones were then removed to make grass-cutting easier.
For more on Osney Cemetery, including photographs and plans for planting and management, see our Osney Cemetery page.
St Frideswide's churchyard
St Frideswide's church, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, was built between 1870 and 1872 on a triangular piece of land bordered by the Botley road and by side-streams of the river Thames. The churchyard forms an attractive green space with mature horse chestnut trees fronting the road.
River Thames towpath
The present navigation stream follows the course of a mill stream dug by the monks of Osney Abbey in the 13th century. In 1790 prisoners from Oxford Castle built the first pound lock at Osney and boats began to use the improved river channel up to Medley. The railways robbed the upper Thames of most of its commercial traffic in the mid 19th century. Horse-drawn boats needed a towpath clear of all vegetation but waterside plants and trees flourish by the towpath today.
Tumbling Bay
On the Bullstake Stream, the former Thames navigation stream, and named after the lasher or weir installed in about 1790. Became a city bathing place for males only in 1853 and for females as well from 1892. It was officially closed as a bathing place in 1990.
For a comprehensive history of Tumbling Bay and plans for bridge restoration and landscaping, see our Tumbling Bay page.
Willow Walk
Built in 1877-78 as a road link between Oxford and a proposed middle class housing estate above North Hinksey. After that scheme failed Willow Walk remained a private road until 1923 when it was opened up as a public path.