Short history of Blackbird Leys (extracts from the book "The Changing Faces of Blackbird Leys" including photographs courtesy of the author Carole Newbigging,) from most local bookshops priced at �9.50 or from Robert Boyd, Printing and Publishing Services, 260 Colwell Drive, Witney, Oxon OX8 7LW. A Roman road, sixteen miles long, has always formed the eastern boundary of Sandford parish. This major north-south route linked two minor Roman towns, Aichester (to the north near Bicester) and Dorchester-on-Thames to the south. The Road was recognised as the estate boundary in Anglo-Saxon times and was referred to as 'thaere Straet', or 'the Street'. In 1820 the Road was named as 'Blackbridge Lane' and was included within Blackbridge Leaze Farm, as Blackbird Leys Farm was then called (Oxford City Archives K/37/2b-c). Later in the 19th century it was referred to as 'Blackber's Lane'. At some time in the 16th century the small tenant-farmers of Sandford parish, exchanged and consolidated their many widely-scattered and mixed strips of arable land in the Open Fields. This created larger and more convenient fields from blocks of strips. Several groups of fields in the south and east of the parish were taken out of the normal pattern of arable and fallow in the Open Fields and became 'Leys' - land used as pasture or arable as circumstances dictated. Knapps Leys lay in the south of the Sandford parish, Goulds, or Golden, Leys in the middle, Fursey Leys, now known as Sandford Brake Farm, in the south-east corner and Black-Ford Leys in the north-east corner. Farms were built on some of these Leys - one of them being Blackford, later Blackbird Leys Farm. North of Blackbird Leys Farmhouse, a stream flows west in a channel that may have been man-made, perhaps to clear the land for farming in the 9th or 10th centuries. This stream was known as Black Brook; now known as Northbrook Stream. Blackbird Leys Estate was developed on the site of Sawpit Farm, in the parish of Littlemore, but taking its poetic name from Blackbird Leys Farm, in the neighbouring parish of Sandford. This council housing estate to the south east of Oxford, was built in the 1960s. With the growth of the nearby car industry homes were required for additional factory workers.
(This photo was taken early on the morning of Sunday 5th November 1961. 200 gelignite charges were laid to demolish the old railway bridge in Long Lane.)
The City Council planned to build an estate of 2800 dwellings on land used by the sewage works and Sawpit Farm, and outline planning permission was granted in 1953. The farmland belonging to Blackbird Leys Farm was owned by the City of Oxford from 1895 and was brought within the City boundary in April 1991. (Based on The History, Landscape and Buildings of Blackbird Leys Farm, Oxford, by David Sturdy, a survey for Ealing Family Housing Association.) 'The field known as Spring Piece was one of the fields which used to flood from time to time, converted into a black, evil smelling bog which encouraged flies and mosquitos in their thousands Other parts of the sewage farm were dug by hand into gridiron shapes known locally as the beds and on these, that is the raised or banked portion, was grown such crops as marigolds, cabbages and Brussel sprouts, which needed very little further encouragement to grow As youngsters we would search for the nests and eggs of the lap wing or pee-wit, leaping from quaking bog to quaking bog, often as not getting a shoeful of the vile muck as a reward for our pains Looking at the fields one day, when the first faint murmurings of building on them began to be heard, the wiseacres of the locality shook their heads and said, with what emphasis they could muster, "they'll never build on them", but they did, as witness the Evenlode and Windrush Towers standing there now' (Memories of George Bampton of Littlemore) Blackbird Leys Farm Blackbird Leys Farm, as part of Sandford parish, belonged to the Powells for several generations, a family of staunch catholics. In 1581 Edmund Powell sold off much of the parish, probably including the Farm. The owners of Blackbird Leys Farm, between the 1580s and 1750, are unknown. During this period several families were tenants of the Farm, including the Russell, Woodley, Wood and Powell families. In 1751 Blackbird Leys was described as 'one messuage (house), two gardens, 50 acres of arable land, 20 acres of meadow and 30 acres of pasture.' At this time it belonged to Edward Sadler, a prosperous farmer, whose family flourished in the adjoining parish of Garsington, from the 1680s to the 1810s. Edward Sadler died in 1787, at which time the tenant at Blackbird Leys Farm was Richard Yeats, In 1807 Richard Wootten, an Oxford mercer and City Councillor, acquired all the shares in Blackbird Leys, but sold these in 1825 to Richard Costar, coachmaster of Cowley and Oxford. Costar had built a sizeable business and Oxford was a main centre for stage-coaches outside of London. At Blackbird Leys Costar grew oats, beans and hay for his horses, as he did on the nearby Sawpit Farm in Littlemore, In 1842 his heirs sold the two farms to Christopher Waddell, his junior partner. By the 1850s Waddell was competing with the railways and soon coaching-inns stood deserted and there was no money to be made from stage-coaches. In the census of 1851 the tenant was John Eglestone, farm steward of 413 acres, employing five servants. In 1857 the Waddell family sold the farms to the wealthy James Morrell. James Morrell's magnificent mansion, Headington Hill Hall, looking down over the City of Oxford, was completed in the year he bought Blackbird Leys. In 1856, the year before the purchase, he had bought five large farms in Culham and had added Sandford Brake Farm of 84 acres to the 326 acres he had inherited at Sandford. A few years later, in 1861, he bought another large farm just across the Garsington boundary to the east. At Blackbird Leys James built new east and north ranges of farm buildings around an enlarged farmyard. He died in 1863, leaving his estates to his daughter, Emily, a minor, in the care of Trustees. James Morrell's Sandford Estate, including Blackbird Leys, was the home farm for Headington Hill Hall. In 1863 the farm bailiff was William Blackall, the last bailiff being John Gilkes. The Oxford Local Board took over the western part of the Morrell estate in 1877, as a Sewage Farm, In 1895 both Blackbird Leys Farm and Sandford Brake Farm were sold to the City of Oxford. (Based on The History, Landscape and Buildings of Blackbird Leys Farm, Oxford, by David Sturdy, a survey for Ealing Family Housing Association.) The Farmhouse at Blackbird Leys Farm was built between 1525 and 1580, possibly by Cardinal Wolsey. The house faced south and measured approximately 39 feet by 24 feet, made from thick stone walls, presumably from rubble from the dismantled Nunnery at Minchery Farm. Massive chimney stacks stood at each end with four main rooms on two floors, with two attics in the roof space. A later wing at the back, of stone and brick, was added about 1750. The aisled barn stood at an angle to the south of the farmstead. In July 1982 this building was noted as being an eight-bay aisled barn constructed in elm timber Although built in the 19th century, most probably mid-century, this type of barn was usually found in medieval and early post-medieval building periods. During development of this site the barn was moved to its current position south of Windale Avenue, with a plan to incorporate it into a new City Farm. Sadly this plan did not materialise.