| Cowley | |
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Cowley
Cowley shown within Oxfordshire |
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| Population | 16,500 |
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| OS grid reference | SP543040 |
| Parish | unparished |
| District | Oxford |
| Shire county | Oxfordshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Oxford |
| Postcode district | OX4 |
| Dialling code | 01865 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Oxfordshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Oxford East |
| Website | Oxford City Council |
| List of places: UK • England • Oxfordshire | |
Cowley in Oxford, England, is a residential and industrial area that forms a small conurbation within greater Oxford. 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.
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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 in Oxfordshire bus garage.
Cowley coalesced 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. In 1139, Matilda of Boulogne founded Temple Cowley here for the Knights Templar.[1]
The house became part of the Oxford Military 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, a Church of England 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 Eddison and Nodding Company factory was founded in Cowley. John Allen bought it in 1897 and renamed it the Oxford Steam Plough Company. He later renamed it again as John Allen and Sons, and diversified into manufacturing other agricultural and horticultural machinery including the successful Allen Scythe powered by a small Villiers petrol engine. The works closed in the early 1980s, and the John Allen Centre retail park has since been built on the site.
The Oxford Military College bought the former Cowley Middle Class School in 1876. The College hall, a former manor house, was built in the early 17th century. The Chapel of 1870 was designed by the architect Edward George Bruton. An east wing designed by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson was added in 1877. The Oxford Military College closed in 1896, developed from 1912 by William Morris as the Cowley plant.
During the 1960s, the centre of Cowley was demolished and replaced with Templars Square shopping centre (previously it had been known as "Cowley Centre", and sometimes still is). 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.
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[2] 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.
The Cowley area was transformed after 1912 when William Morris bought the former Oxford 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 poorly 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 a popular neighbourhood in which to live.
In World War II the Morris factory produced many de Havilland Tiger Moth training aeroplanes for the war effort and there was also the No 1 Metal and Produce Recovery Depot run by the Civilian Repair Organisation to handle crashed or damaged aircraft and even the wreckage of enemy aircraft was processed here. Paul Nash was inspired to paint Totes Meer based on sketches he made of the recovery depot.
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.
The car factory is known today as Plant Oxford and is now owned by BMW and has been extensively redeveloped. It remains the largest industrial employer in Oxfordshire employing more than 4,300 people.[3] 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.
Cowley has a strong sporting tradition. Between the two World Wars, Oxford Stadium was built to host the then new sport of greyhound racing.[4] 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,[5] 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.
Until 2009 on Watlington Road, opposite the MINI factory, stood Johnson's Café, which fed thousands of Morris Motors workers in the past. It was founded decades ago by Len Johnson and until its final day its interior was 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 remained in the family to the end under Len's grandson Bob Johnson. This cafe suffered an armed robbery on 16 January 2008[6] and closed in 2009. The building is now occupied by Oxford Spin & Fitness centre.
Temple Cowley Pools in Temple Road is a public swimming and gymnasium complex run by Oxford City Council.[7] Its main pool is 25 metres long. It is built on the site of part of a former Knights Templar estate. [1] Next door is Cowley Library,[8] and opposite is Oxfordshire Record Office,[9] both run by Oxfordshire County Council. Morris Motors Athletic & Social Club in nearby Crescent Road has a large sports ground and club house.
Schools serving Cowley include St Gregory the Great VA Catholic Secondary School.
On his 1992 tour of England (heard on the posthumously released Shock and Awe album), the comedian and satirist Bill Hicks stated that he had found the 'Alabama of Britain' whilst attending a radio interview in Cowley.
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