Warneford Meadow - Oxford

Robert F.

Warneford meadow is a remnant of a meadow which was once one of many meadows that stretched from Hill Top Road all the way around Oxford golf course to Lye valley. I never discovered who owned the farm but it was probably one of Oxford University’s colleges - there might even have been more than one farm.

In the early 1970s when I took the bus to work in the morning I often saw cows/sheep grazing in the meadow along Old Road, west of Boundary Brook. I never paid too much attention to it, firstly, because the meadow was out of bounds to the public and, secondly, it seemed the farm/s would always be there. How wrong I was. I also worked in what used to be called the Oxford Regional Health Board on what is now Oxford University’s Old Road campus.

What led to the demise of this pastureland was the construction of Roosevelt Drive. In the early 1970s the only entrance to the Churchill hospital was via a very narrow road, Churchill Drive. The hospital couldn’t expand/upgrade without a new road to facilitate greater and faster traffic flows.

The route taken by the new road, however, was planned with the intention of parcelling up the pastures to make them ripe for development. This road wasn’t intended merely to improve access to the Churchill Hospital but to the whole area thereby enabling it to be “developed”. In this sense, the road was no different from one of the logging roads that opened up the Amazon to gold miners, wealthy farmers, and those involved in the wildlife trade.

The remnant of pasture between Roosevelt Drive and Old road was used to construct Warneford Halls, accommodation for Oxford Brookes University students, and a small private housing estate. Another pasture was used for a huge extension of the Churchill Hospital including a Transplant Centre as well as Churchill Hospital Car Parks One, Two, Three, Four, and Five.

The vast expansion of the Churchill (and JR) was mirrored by the slow decline and contraction of the motor industry along the eastern bypass. Tens of thousands of car workers lost their jobs but almost as many new ones were created by the huge expansion of Headington’s hospitals. There seemed to be such a cast-iron inverse relationship between the two that it was tempting to suspect that car workers weren’t so much being made redundant as they were simply being retrained as nurses, doctors and consultants.

Developers were also interested in Warneford meadows but local residents, with the help of Andrew Smith, a local MP, opposed its “development”. It has now been granted the status of a Town green which hopefully will give it greater legal protection from future “development” proposals.

Ironically, Warneford Meadow is the least meadow like of all meadows that used to exist in this area because it has dozens of trees and new ones have also been planted.

Local residents have also planted an orchard along the western edge of the meadow. I remember often trying to find the least unpalatable apples growing in this area. Thankfully the new orchard will have a wider selection of fruit trees than it did in the past. This is yet another community orchard in Oxford.

Mike S.

A long walk to the house.
There is transport available but it's not always available

Judy

Thank you to sll the people who worked to save this beautiful meadow

tim J.

Clara T.