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Cowley, Oxford
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Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. It has a population of about 16,500 people. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across fields to the east.
Cowley should not be confused with Cowley Road, which links central Oxford with Cowley.
Cowley area has been inhabited since early times.
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Encyclopedia
Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. It has a population of about 16,500 people. Cowley's neighbours are central Oxford to the northwest, Rose Hill and Blackbird Leys to the south, New Headington to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across fields to the east.
Cowley should not be confused with Cowley Road, which links central Oxford with Cowley.
History
The Cowley area has been inhabited since early times. The line of a Roman road runs north-south along the eastern edge of Cowley. It linked a Roman town at Dorchester-on-Thames with a Roman military camp at Alchester near Bicester. A road called Roman Way follows part of its route. It is behind the Mini car factory, starting opposite the Stagecoach Group bus garage.
Cowley originated from the former villages of Cowley, Temple Cowley and Cowley St John (also occasionally referred to as 'Church Cowley'). Cowley was a manor from Mediaeval times, and a 16th-century manor house stood on Oxford Road near the corner with Hollow Way. The house became part of a military training college which was built on its grounds in the 19th century. In 1864, the Wycombe Railway between High Wycombe and Oxford was built through Cowley, but at this time the village was so small that the railway company did not provide it with a station.
In 1866 the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican religious order, was founded in Cowley. SSJE was the first long-lasting Anglican religious order since the Reformation. The members were frequently known as the "Cowley Fathers".
In 1868, the Oxford Steam Plough Company was founded in Cowley. This later became John Allen & Sons, manufacturing small agricultural and horticultural machinery including the famous Allen Scythe powered by a small Villiers petrol engine. In the early 1980s the works closed, and the John Allen Centre retail park has since been built on the site.
The Cowley area was transformed after 1912 when William Morris bought the former military college and moved the Morris Motor Company into it from its former premises in Oxford. He expanded into 'The Old Tin Shed' in 1914 and then into a huge complex of purpose-built production lines in Cowley, as Morris pioneered Henry Ford-style mass production in the UK.
The Great Western Railway, which had taken over the Wycombe Railway, opened a station called Morris Cowley to serve some of the thousands of workers commuting to the factory. In 1933, a goods yard was built beside the line to bring supplies into the factory and take completed vehicles away. This yard still exists and serves the current vehicle-manufacturing plant, though the railway beyond has long been lifted.
From the 1920s through to the 1960s, Cowley expanded into a huge industrial centre. In the Great Depression many people left areas of high unemployment such as South Wales and moved to the Cowley area to work in Cowley's factories. Large areas of housing were built and rented out to the migrants.
Florence Park was one area built in the 1920s for a private landlord to rent to new workers. The houses looked nice but they were badly built and maintained, until the tenants held a rent strike and forced the landlord to make repairs. Most Florence Park houses are now owner-occupied, and the area's tree-lined roads are now an attractive neighbourhood in which to live.
Between 1980 and 1992 the Headquarters of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was located in a converted barracks complex on James Wolf Road, Cowley. The UKWMO was the organisation responsible for initiating the famous Four-minute warning in the event of a nuclear attack on the UK and was disbanded at the end of the Cold War. Co-located with HQUKWMO was the Headquarters of No 3 Oxford Group Royal Observer Corps whose underground protected nuclear bunker at the Cowley site opened in 1965 and was demolished and filled in during 1995. The site now houses a student accommodation block for Oxford Brookes University.
During the 1960s, the centre of Cowley was demolished and replaced with Templars Square shopping centre (previously it had been known as "Cowley Centre"). In the same decade the railway between Princes Risborough and Oxford closed, but the track between Kennington Junction and Cowley remains open for freight in and out of the car factory.
Despite successive company mergers and name changes, "Morris's" is still often used as the name of the car factory to this day. In 1952, Morris Motors became part of the British Motor Corporation (BMC), in 1968 BMC became British Leyland, in the 1980s the group was known as Austin Rover, in the 1990s it was Rover Group and since 2001 the factory has been owned by BMW. But the name "Morris's" is ingrained in local culture and speech habits, particularly amongst older inhabitants.
By the early 1970s, over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the vast Morris Motors and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. Unipart is also a major employer in Cowley, with premises next to the car factory. Also notable is the high level of political consciousness within the working class based in and around the Cowley area. Indeed, the workers are well known for not accepting wage cuts, union-busting or anything else of the sort. Among the militants involved in trade unionism at Cowley are Alan Thornett.
In later years Morris Motors and Pressed Steel became one company. Subsequently the Morris's site was closed down, demolished, and redeveloped as the Oxford Business Park.
Outlaw comedian Bill Hicks called Cowley the "Alabama of Britain" and mocked the city on subsequent UK tours.
Cowley today
The car factory is now owned by BMW and has been extensively redeveloped. It remains the largest industrial employer in Oxfordshire employing more than 4300 people. It was the original base of Morris cars when the marque was founded in 1912, and production continued at the factory until 1982, although the Morris marque was not abandoned until 1984 when production of the Longbridge-built Morris Ital finished. The factory then became the production facility for the Maestro and Montego, which continued in production until 1994 by which time the facility was totally given over to production of the Rover 600 and Rover 800. These models were replaced by the Rover 75 in late 1998, but BMW broke up the Rover Group in 2000 and Rover 75 production moved to Longbridge, while BMW retained ownership of the Cowley plant to build the all-new MINI that was launched in the spring of 2001. It has been the best selling car to be built at the plant since the Maestro and Montego in the 1980s.
The business park has attracted a large David Lloyd fitness centre and offices of numerous companies including the European headquarters of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles and the headquarters of international aid charity Oxfam GB.
Sports and leisure
Cowley has a strong sporting tradition. Between the two World Wars, Oxford Stadium was built to host the then new sport of greyhound racing. In 1939 the equally new sport of motorcycle speedway moved to Oxford Stadium. After a few years Oxford's speedway team were named Oxford Cheetahs, a name they still bear today. In 2001, Oxford United FC moved from its former ground in Headington to the new Kassam Stadium at Minchery Farm, which is just outside Cowley.
On Watlington Road, opposite the MINI factory, is Johnson's Café, which has fed thousands of Morris Motors workers in the past. It was founded decades ago by Len Johnson and to this day its interior is decorated with bold murals of early speedway stars. Len's son Joe Johnson was an international motocross star in the 1960s until he settled down to take over the family café. The café remains in the family today under Len's grandson Bob Johnson.
This cafe suffered an armed robbery on 16 January 2008.
Temple Cowley Pools in Temple Road is a public swimming and gymnasium complex run by Oxford City Council . Its main pool is 25 metres long. Next door is Cowley Library, and opposite is Oxfordshire Record Office both run by Oxfordshire County Council. Morris Motors Athletic & Social Club in nearby Crescent Road has a large sports ground and club house.
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