Calthorpe, Oxfordshire
Encyclopedia
Calthorpe is a ward
in the town of Banbury
, Oxfordshire
. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.
In 1247 The hundred of Banbury was valued at £5 a year and in 1441 'certainty money' due from the northern part of the hundred was 89s. 8d. It was made up of payments from Shutford
, Claydon
, Swalcliffe
, Great Bouton and Little Bourton, Prescote
, Hardwick
, Calthorpe and Neithrop, Wickham
, Wardington
, Williamscot, Swalcliffe Lea, and the former ‘prebend’ of Banbury
. By 1568 these, except the rent from Wardington and amounted to 69s. 4d. in 1652, when the total profits of court were valued at 103s. 4d. a year in ‘certainty money’. In 1875 payments were made only by Williamscot, Swalcliffe, Prescote, Great and Little Bourton, Neithrop, Claydon, and Shutford since the rest were freed from their rent obligations.
In 1853 Edward Cobb was lord of the hundreds of Banbury and Bloxham, which were leased, with Calthorpe House in Banbury, to Thomas Draper between 1862 and 1869 as was the hundred was in 1875 it was included with the house in an auction, but this auction failed to gain legal status, since in 1896 Edward Cobb was still the lord of the manor and that Thomas Draper actually was no longer there.
The estate was gradually being developed between 1900 and the 1930s. New housing only began to grow significantly between the 1950s and 1960s. The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe, Oxfordshire and Easington farm were mostly open farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordinance Survey maps of 1964, 1955 and 1947. It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field (now under the Sainsbury’s store), and the Municipal Borough of Banbury council’s small reservoir just south Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it. Two minor streams ran from a spring near the allotment gardens and the land under today’s Timms estate. An old clay pit
, kiln
and brick works lay near the Poet’ corner estate. The pit was of mid Victorian origin and the buildings were put up by the issuing of the 1881 O.S. map. The pit had been filled in by the 1920s, the buildings closed by the 1940s and the site built on by the late 1960s. It has a minority of recent South Asian and Chinese
immigrants amongst its residents.
and Foscote Private Hospital are in the ward.
The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service
run hospital, located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury
. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton. There is a 1980s mobile phone
mast on the north part of the hospital.
The Italianate Elms House on Oxford Road, is a substantial villa built in 1863 for Jonathan Gillet, one of the senior partners of Gillet’s Bank, is now the offices of the Primary Care Trust, which lies within the grounds of the Horton Hospital site.
In 2005, there were rumours that the hospital may have to close. This led Banbury's MP
, Tony Baldry
, plus a large proportion of the town's population to start a campaign to keep the hospital open, these rumours proved to be unfounded, since the plans had already been abandoned by both the NHS Trust
and the Health Minister
.
In 2006, the Horton came into the limelight because Benjamin Geen
, a nurse employed there, was convicted of two murders and fifteen counts of grievous bodily harm
in April of that year. During December 2003 and January 2004 he had poisoned patients because he got a thrill out of trying to resuscitate them.
Heyfordian buses also run a limited service on weekdays to the Timms estate.
in 1779, the 'Canalside' area comprised a undeveloped, low-lying watermeadows. The canal was then extended to Oxford
by Banbury’s engineer, John Barnes in 1790. Both Parker’s Wharf
and Bridge Wharf were serviced by 'fly-boats' to may distant cross country destinations and by market boats to Oxford and Coventry
. The canal brought much prosperity and growth to Banbury over the years and is still popular with boat users today.
After that date the Canalside area began to develop became a centre of Banbury’s agricultural, transport, and electrical engineering industry at about the same time as the arrival of the railways in 1850. Mr Samuelson’s Britannia Works and the Barrow & Carmichael’s Cherwell Ironworks were built close together at the southern end of the area. The historic background to Banbury’s industry began with a few grain merchants' mills and weavers’ loom
s under the Normans
and this was continuing in some form until the last tweed factory closed in the 1920’s, despite of the then new industry’s like the nearby lime kiln and cabinet manufacture works, Neithrop’s timber
yard or Grimsbury’s clay pit and clay kilns.
The industrial metal works in Canalside were by far the town’s largest employers throughout the second half of the 19th Century. Their sale of famed agriculture
al equipment and industrial steam engines were of a global near scale. The firms were housed in large, regular single-storey ‘ranges’ (a type of industrial building) and later proper warehouses, laid out to the same regular grid as the contemporary residential development of small 'Newlands' workers’ estate, forming a complete and self-contained industrial suburb on the edge of the town. Everything was said to be to be well planned, close together and organised. Some of the ranges still exist (as of 2011) like the one which houses the Wacky Wardrobe fancy dress shop. A few of the later warehouses survive as for example the Stagecoach bus depot.
This once thriving and prosperous Canal and Tramway estate areas of Banbury went declined during the first half of the 20th century due to industrial competition from bigger and better factories else ware, followed by widespread demolition in the 1960s and 1970s. The former estate was allocated for industrial development, the area became physically dominated by mixture of unattractive and by then rundown sheds and workshops that had soon spread to cover the once agriculturally vital water meadows that still existed between the river and the canal. The Tramway estate was in decline and the Canal side estate was in an utter shambles until the redevelopment plans of 1999-2001 took place.
With the arrival of the M40 motorway and the further growth of the town eastwards, fate rendered the industrial area as hopelessly inconveniently placed. Its decline was hastened in the 1990s by its isolation behind a now often criticized and regretted inner relief road, cutting it off from the town centre and isolating the town from its railway station.
The Tramway estate and Canalside estate are mostly built on land once owned by the Britannia Works. The Tramway estate is named after the industrial tramway that ran between factories on Windsor Street, Upper Windsor Street, Canal Street, Tramway Street and the plant next to Banbury station and the station's corporate freight siding between around 1881 and 1935. The estate is now a home to many businesses like the Stagecoach bus depot, a Wacky Wardrobe fancy-dress shop, Magnet Kitchens' show, Teamtalk clothing limited room and a small local oil tanker depot by the station. Several worker's flats were built, along with an allotment ground on the land that is now under the Morrisons supermarket, other houses were built by what is now the Gymphoboics/Sew Sublime shops. Some of the abandoned old workshops are being demolished and a few small flats and offices will replace them.
and has many open areas and parks. The A4260 (Oxford Road) runs adjacent to the estate.
, thus almost merging the village with the town.
Over the past few years there have been plans to build a new estate on College Fields adjoining both Bodicote and the Cherwell Heights housing estate. In February 2006 Cherwell District Council voted to proceed with the plans despite a 20,000 signature petition against it. About 1,070 houses will be built in the estate, which will include local shops, a public house, a church, a restaurant, a school and other local services.
A plan existed in the late 2000s to expand the Bretchill estate westwards into local farmland, but this has now been suspended due to the credit crunch
and local hostility to the plan, like the southern expantion towards Bodicote
.
The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north during 2008 and 2009. It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.
and a wooden climbing frame were added.
At about 10.15pm on 9 February 2011, fire fighters were called to the play area in St. Louis Meadow park, after a member of public reported a fire inside the play area. A plastic tunnel had been deliberately burnt by local youths. It will take £85,000 to repair the devastated park.
This was similar to an event in the Spaceball park that caused heavy damage on 8 February 2007, but did not deter the council from doing a planned £90,000 refurbishment and the 2006 arson
of 2 spring riders that lead to the closure of the Woodgreen Arcade play park in mid 2006.
There were some concerns over antisocial behaviour and heavier than average litter
levels in Princess Diana Park and Hillview Park and that fly-tipping
in Banbury
also affects some streets and footpaths such as on the Ironstones’ paths.
voted to approve the plans despite a 20,000 signature petition against it. About 1,070 houses will be built in the estate, which will include local shops, a public house, a church, a restaurant, a school and other local services.
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
in the town of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.
History
Calthorpe was once a small village outside Banbury. Easington was first mentioned in 1279 as a rural estate with a local mill, which was attached to the former Calthorpe Manor, whose demesne lands were subsequently leased out to local tenants over the years.In 1247 The hundred of Banbury was valued at £5 a year and in 1441 'certainty money' due from the northern part of the hundred was 89s. 8d. It was made up of payments from Shutford
Shutford
Shutford is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury in Oxfordshire. The village is about above sea level.-History:The manor house was built in the last quarter of the 16th century. In 1928 the architect Walter Tapper added a western extension and northwest wing...
, Claydon
Claydon
Claydon is the name of several places in England:*Claydon, Gloucestershire*Claydon, Suffolk*Claydon, Oxfordshire*Claydon Fields, Gloucestershire*Botolph Claydon, Buckinghamshire*East Claydon, Buckinghamshire...
, Swalcliffe
Swalcliffe
Swalcliffe is a village and civil parish about west of Banbury, Oxfordshire.-History:North of the village are the site of an Iron Age hill fort on Madmarston Hill, the site of a Roman villa at Swalcliffe Lea, and course of a former Roman Road...
, Great Bouton and Little Bourton, Prescote
Prescote
Prescote is a hamlet and civil parish about north of Banbury in Oxfordshire Its boundaries are the River Cherwell in the southeast, a tributary of the Cherwell called Highfurlong Brook in the west, and Oxfordshire's boundary with Northamptonshire in the northeast.-History:Prescote's toponym...
, Hardwick
Ruscote
The Ruscote, Hardwick and Hanwell Fields estates are three interconnecting Banbury estates that were built between the 1930s and first decade of the 21st century.-History:...
, Calthorpe and Neithrop, Wickham
Wickham
Wickham, formerly spelled Wykeham, is a small historic village and civil parish in Hampshire, southern England, located about three miles north of Fareham. It is within the City of Winchester local government district, although it is considerably closer to Fareham than to Winchester...
, Wardington
Wardington
Wardington is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Banbury. The village consists of two parts, Lower Wardington and Upper Wardington...
, Williamscot, Swalcliffe Lea, and the former ‘prebend’ of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
. By 1568 these, except the rent from Wardington and amounted to 69s. 4d. in 1652, when the total profits of court were valued at 103s. 4d. a year in ‘certainty money’. In 1875 payments were made only by Williamscot, Swalcliffe, Prescote, Great and Little Bourton, Neithrop, Claydon, and Shutford since the rest were freed from their rent obligations.
In 1853 Edward Cobb was lord of the hundreds of Banbury and Bloxham, which were leased, with Calthorpe House in Banbury, to Thomas Draper between 1862 and 1869 as was the hundred was in 1875 it was included with the house in an auction, but this auction failed to gain legal status, since in 1896 Edward Cobb was still the lord of the manor and that Thomas Draper actually was no longer there.
The estate was gradually being developed between 1900 and the 1930s. New housing only began to grow significantly between the 1950s and 1960s. The land south of the Foscote Private Hospital in Calthorpe, Oxfordshire and Easington farm were mostly open farmland until the early 1960s as shown by the Ordinance Survey maps of 1964, 1955 and 1947. It had only a few farmsteads, the odd house, an allotment field (now under the Sainsbury’s store), and the Municipal Borough of Banbury council’s small reservoir just south Easington farm and a water spring lay to the south of it. Two minor streams ran from a spring near the allotment gardens and the land under today’s Timms estate. An old clay pit
Clay pit
A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...
, kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
and brick works lay near the Poet’ corner estate. The pit was of mid Victorian origin and the buildings were put up by the issuing of the 1881 O.S. map. The pit had been filled in by the 1920s, the buildings closed by the 1940s and the site built on by the late 1960s. It has a minority of recent South Asian and Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
immigrants amongst its residents.
Schools
The Calthorpe estate does not have any major schools but is served by the Grange school, Cherwell Heights. There are 2 minor secondry and 2 primary schools on the estate.Recreational areas and parks
Calthorpe's biggest park, Calthorpe's Park', is beside the Sainsbury’s store, leading to the Cherwell Heights estate. There are 2 other small parks on the estate.Hospitals
The Horton General HospitalHorton General Hospital
The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service run hospital, located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton...
and Foscote Private Hospital are in the ward.
The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
run hospital, located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
. The hospital has 236 beds and was founded in 1872 by Mary-Ann Horton. There is a 1980s mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
mast on the north part of the hospital.
The Italianate Elms House on Oxford Road, is a substantial villa built in 1863 for Jonathan Gillet, one of the senior partners of Gillet’s Bank, is now the offices of the Primary Care Trust, which lies within the grounds of the Horton Hospital site.
In 2005, there were rumours that the hospital may have to close. This led Banbury's MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Tony Baldry
Tony Baldry
Anthony Brian 'Tony' Baldry is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Banbury.-Early life:...
, plus a large proportion of the town's population to start a campaign to keep the hospital open, these rumours proved to be unfounded, since the plans had already been abandoned by both the NHS Trust
NHS Trust
A National Health Service trust provides services on behalf of the National Health Service in England and NHS Wales.The trusts are not trusts in the legal sense but are in effect public sector corporations. Each trust is headed by a board consisting of executive and non-executive directors, and is...
and the Health Minister
Health minister
A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services....
.
In 2006, the Horton came into the limelight because Benjamin Geen
Benjamin Geen
Benjamin Geen is a former nurse convicted of murdering two patients and causing grievous bodily harm to 15 others while working at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire.-Crime:...
, a nurse employed there, was convicted of two murders and fifteen counts of grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm
Grievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861....
in April of that year. During December 2003 and January 2004 he had poisoned patients because he got a thrill out of trying to resuscitate them.
Transport
The local bus services to Banbury town centre via Easington and the Timms estate are run by the Stagecoach Oxfordshire bus company.Heyfordian buses also run a limited service on weekdays to the Timms estate.
The Tramway and Canalside industrial estates
The Tramway estate and Canalside estate are mostly built on land once owned by the Britannia Works. The Tramway estate is named after the industrial tramway that ran between factories on Windsor Street, Upper Windsor Street, Canal Street, Tramway Street and the plant next to Banbury station and the station's corporate freight siding between around 1881 and 1935. The estate is now a home to many businesses like the Stagecoach bus depot, a Wacky Wardrobe fancy-dress shop, Magnet Kitchens' show, Teamtalk clothing limited room and a small local oil tanker depot by the station. Several worker's flats were built, along with an allotment ground on the land that is now under the Morrisons supermarket, other houses were built by what is now the Gymphoboics/Sew Sublime shops. Some of the abandoned old workshops are being demolished and a few small flats and offices will replace them.History
Prior to the arrival of James Brindley’s Oxford CanalOxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
in 1779, the 'Canalside' area comprised a undeveloped, low-lying watermeadows. The canal was then extended to Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
by Banbury’s engineer, John Barnes in 1790. Both Parker’s Wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
and Bridge Wharf were serviced by 'fly-boats' to may distant cross country destinations and by market boats to Oxford and Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
. The canal brought much prosperity and growth to Banbury over the years and is still popular with boat users today.
After that date the Canalside area began to develop became a centre of Banbury’s agricultural, transport, and electrical engineering industry at about the same time as the arrival of the railways in 1850. Mr Samuelson’s Britannia Works and the Barrow & Carmichael’s Cherwell Ironworks were built close together at the southern end of the area. The historic background to Banbury’s industry began with a few grain merchants' mills and weavers’ loom
Loom
A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...
s under the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
and this was continuing in some form until the last tweed factory closed in the 1920’s, despite of the then new industry’s like the nearby lime kiln and cabinet manufacture works, Neithrop’s timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
yard or Grimsbury’s clay pit and clay kilns.
The industrial metal works in Canalside were by far the town’s largest employers throughout the second half of the 19th Century. Their sale of famed agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
al equipment and industrial steam engines were of a global near scale. The firms were housed in large, regular single-storey ‘ranges’ (a type of industrial building) and later proper warehouses, laid out to the same regular grid as the contemporary residential development of small 'Newlands' workers’ estate, forming a complete and self-contained industrial suburb on the edge of the town. Everything was said to be to be well planned, close together and organised. Some of the ranges still exist (as of 2011) like the one which houses the Wacky Wardrobe fancy dress shop. A few of the later warehouses survive as for example the Stagecoach bus depot.
This once thriving and prosperous Canal and Tramway estate areas of Banbury went declined during the first half of the 20th century due to industrial competition from bigger and better factories else ware, followed by widespread demolition in the 1960s and 1970s. The former estate was allocated for industrial development, the area became physically dominated by mixture of unattractive and by then rundown sheds and workshops that had soon spread to cover the once agriculturally vital water meadows that still existed between the river and the canal. The Tramway estate was in decline and the Canal side estate was in an utter shambles until the redevelopment plans of 1999-2001 took place.
With the arrival of the M40 motorway and the further growth of the town eastwards, fate rendered the industrial area as hopelessly inconveniently placed. Its decline was hastened in the 1990s by its isolation behind a now often criticized and regretted inner relief road, cutting it off from the town centre and isolating the town from its railway station.
The former industrial tramway
The Tramway estate and Canalside estate are mostly built on land once owned by the Britannia Works. The Tramway estate is named after the industrial tramway that ran between factories on Windsor Street, Upper Windsor Street, Canal Street, Tramway Street and the plant next to Banbury station and the station's corporate freight siding between around 1881 and 1935. The estate is now a home to many businesses like the Stagecoach bus depot, a Wacky Wardrobe fancy-dress shop, Magnet Kitchens' show, Teamtalk clothing limited room and a small local oil tanker depot by the station. Several worker's flats were built, along with an allotment ground on the land that is now under the Morrisons supermarket, other houses were built by what is now the Gymphoboics/Sew Sublime shops. Some of the abandoned old workshops are being demolished and a few small flats and offices will replace them.
Transport
There are a coupel of Stagecoach bus stops and a single Geoff Amoss bus stop next to it at variose locations.History
Cherwell Heights is a housing estate in Banbury, which was built on open fields during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is a relatively large estate in BanburyBanbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
and has many open areas and parks. The A4260 (Oxford Road) runs adjacent to the estate.
Planned expansion
Cherwell District Council recently approved a plan to build a new estate of about 1,070 houses on land between Cherwell Heights and BodicoteBodicote
Bodicote is a village and civil parish south of the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:A windmill that stood next to the grove at the top of Bodicote is mentioned in the Domesday Book of AD 1086...
, thus almost merging the village with the town.
Over the past few years there have been plans to build a new estate on College Fields adjoining both Bodicote and the Cherwell Heights housing estate. In February 2006 Cherwell District Council voted to proceed with the plans despite a 20,000 signature petition against it. About 1,070 houses will be built in the estate, which will include local shops, a public house, a church, a restaurant, a school and other local services.
A plan existed in the late 2000s to expand the Bretchill estate westwards into local farmland, but this has now been suspended due to the credit crunch
Credit crunch
A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...
and local hostility to the plan, like the southern expantion towards Bodicote
Bodicote
Bodicote is a village and civil parish south of the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-History:A windmill that stood next to the grove at the top of Bodicote is mentioned in the Domesday Book of AD 1086...
.
The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north during 2008 and 2009. It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.
Schools
There are two primary schools in Cherwell Heights:- Grange Primary SchoolGrange Primary SchoolGrange Primary School is one of the two primary schools currently in Monifieth. Monifieth is part of the Angus District. Most children living on the west side of Monifieth attend Grange Primary School. It is a mixed gender school for children ranging from of 5 to 12 years old...
- St John's Roman Catholic Primary School
Recreational areas and parks
- The Chatsworth Drive Play Park.
- The St. Louis Meadow Park is a large park in the Cherwell Heights ward. It includes a play park with swings, a slide and many climbing obstacles and a large open grass area with a hill.
- The Bankside Park is another large park in the Cherwell Heights ward. It includes a tennis court, netball ground, a small football pitch and several benches. There are many old trees in the park and it is one of the few that are not built on a hill.
Recent crimes and anti-social behaviour
St. Louis Meadow park area was set for an £80,000 refurbishment on 3 September 2010. A plastic play tunnel, some low wooden fencing, wood chippings, 2 cargo nets, a spring riderSpring rider
A spring rider or spring rocker is an bouncy, outdoors playing device consisting of a metal spring beneath a plastic or wooden central beam or flange, with 1 to 4 plastic or fiberglass seats above it. When a person sits on it, the structure moves and bounces...
and a wooden climbing frame were added.
At about 10.15pm on 9 February 2011, fire fighters were called to the play area in St. Louis Meadow park, after a member of public reported a fire inside the play area. A plastic tunnel had been deliberately burnt by local youths. It will take £85,000 to repair the devastated park.
This was similar to an event in the Spaceball park that caused heavy damage on 8 February 2007, but did not deter the council from doing a planned £90,000 refurbishment and the 2006 arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
of 2 spring riders that lead to the closure of the Woodgreen Arcade play park in mid 2006.
There were some concerns over antisocial behaviour and heavier than average litter
Litter
Litter consists of waste products such as containers, papers, wrappers or faeces which have been disposed of without consent. Litter can also be used as a verb...
levels in Princess Diana Park and Hillview Park and that fly-tipping
Fly-tipping
Fly-tipping is a British term for dumping waste illegally instead of in an authorised rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land, i.e...
in Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
also affects some streets and footpaths such as on the Ironstones’ paths.
Transport
The local bus services to Banbury town the centre via Easington and the Timms estate are run by the Stagecoach Oxfordshire bus company. Heyfordian buses also run a limited service on weekdays to the Timms estate.College fields
Over the past few years there have been plans to build a new estate on the undeveloped College Fields adjoining both Bodicote and the Cherwell Heights housing estate of Banbury. In February 2006 Cherwell District CouncilCherwell (district)
Cherwell is a local government district in northern Oxfordshire, England. The district takes its name from the River Cherwell, which drains south through the region to flow into the River Thames at Oxford....
voted to approve the plans despite a 20,000 signature petition against it. About 1,070 houses will be built in the estate, which will include local shops, a public house, a church, a restaurant, a school and other local services.