Calthorpe is a ward in the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It contains the Cherwell Heights Estate and the Calthorpe estate.[1]
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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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[3]
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.
A Sainsbury's and Morissons supermarket in the estate.
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.
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.
The Horton General Hospital[4] 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.[5]
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,[6] these rumours proved to be unfounded, since the plans had already been abandoned by both the NHS Trust and the Health Minister.[7]
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.[8]
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 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[2] 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.
Prior to the arrival of James Brindley’s Oxford Canal 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.[9]
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.[9] 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’ looms 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.[9]
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 agricultureal 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.[9] 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.[2][9] 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.[9]
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.[9]
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[2] 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.
It has no parks, playgrounds, shops or schools in it.
There are a coupel of Stagecoach bus stops and a single Geoff Amoss bus stop next to it at variose locations.
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 Banbury and has many open areas and parks. The A4260 (Oxford Road) runs adjacent to the estate.
Cherwell District Council recently approved a plan to build a new estate of about 1,070 houses on land between Cherwell Heights and Bodicote, 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,[10][11][12][13] but this has now been suspended due to the credit crunch and local hostility to the plan, like the southern expantion towards Bodicote.[10][11][12][13][14]
The Hanwell Fields Estate was built in the north during 2008 and 2009.[10][11][12][13][14] It was intended to provide affordable social housing to the west and south of Banbury, and more upmarket housing in the Hanwell fields area.[14]
There are two primary schools in Cherwell Heights:
St. Louis Meadow park area was set for an £80,000 refurbishment on 3 September 2010.[15] A plastic play tunnel, some low wooden fencing, wood chippings, 2 cargo nets, a spring rider 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.[16]
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[17] 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.[18]
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.
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 Council 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.[19][19][20][21]
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