Blackbird Leys

There was a Bronze Age or Iron Age settlement on the site. Evidence has been found suggesting pits and roundhouses, with remains of pottery and a cylindrical loom weight of a kind previously known only from East Anglia.{{cite web |url= http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba7/ba7news.html |title=Earliest Oxford|work= British Archaeology|issue=7|date=September 1995|access-date=3 June 2015}} The area was originally called Blackford Leys; blackford after the dark-coloured ford which crossed the southern branch of Northfield Brook at the entrance to Blackbird Leys farm.{{cite book|last1=Oxford|first1=cartogr. notes by J. B. Harley. Sheet 70|title=One-inch Ordnance Survey of England and Wales.|date=1970|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0715346067|edition=[Repr.]}} The ford would be located where Windale Avenue crosses Northfield Brook.{{efn|In the early 1950s a gravel lane led from Sandy Lane to Blackbird Leys farm. This lane was lined, either side, with horse-chestnut trees and was known to local children as "Conker Alley".}} The farm was also called Blackford Leys farm.{{cite web |last1=Newbigging|first1=Carole|title=construction of Blackbird Leys The Development of Blackbird Leys|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2007/10/01/history_bl_feature.shtml|website=BBC Memoryshare|publisher=BBC Oxford|access-date=22 September 2016|date=24 September 2014}} The Middle English leys meaning pasture or meadow.{{cite book|chapter=Blackbird Leys|year=2005|first1=John|last1=Ayto|first2=Ian|last2=Crofton|title=Brewer's Britain and Ireland|location=London|publisher=Chambers Harrap|isbn=978-0-304-35385-9}}

File:Oxford, Evenlode Tower, Blackbird Leys - geograph.org.uk - 661901.jpg

The Blackbird Leys Estate was built mainly in the 1950s and 1960s to meet the then pressing need for housing.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/north-v-south-oxford-fights-over-a-girl-1291606.html North v South: Oxford fights over a girl], The Independent, 2 November 1997 It was part of a plan to re-house people from the dilapidated inner city. This included large-scale clearance of a site near to where the Oxford Ice Rink was built (The Oxpens). Many of the families that moved onto the estate originally came from this area. It was also a convenient site for factory workers at the Morris Motors Limited plant in nearby Cowley.

The area has traditionally been staunchly Labour. The Independent Working Class Association performed strongly in the mid-2000s, holding three of the four council seats on Oxford City Council between 2006 and 2008. Andrew Smith, the local MP from 1987 to 2017, lives on the estate. His late wife, Valerie Smith, was also a city councillor and county councillor for the area and former Lord Mayor of Oxford.{{cite news|title=Mr Smith celebrates with a takeaway|first=Tom|last=Baldwin|work=The Times|location=London|date=30 May 2002|page=1}}

In stark contrast to Oxford as a whole, which had a Remain result of 71% in the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, Blackbird Leys and neighbouring estates voted narrowly to leave the European Union.{{cite news |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=Martin |title=Local voting figures shed new light on EU referendum |work=BBC News |date=6 February 2017 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38762034 |access-date=21 June 2019}}

Around 1991, Blackbird Leys suffered from joy riding. Young men from the estate would steal cars and 'display' them (with a variety of high-speed stunts) to an audience gathered outside the estate shops (known locally as the 'Top Shops').{{cite web |url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1990s/1991/no-1048-december-1991/dreaming-spires-and-screaming-tyres |title=Dreaming Spires and Screaming Tyres |access-date=17 November 2015 |work=Socialist Party of Great Britain}} Following a crackdown by police on joyriding in September 1991, some 150 youths stoned police officers. Two women suffered stab wounds and two men suffered other injuries during the riots.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hhEwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=RQMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4034,871844&dq=riots+oxford&hl=en Google news] Local MP, Andrew Smith, stated in 1991 that the extensive national media coverage of confrontations with the police in August and September left the wider public with a distorted picture of the problem.{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1991-12-09/Debate-4.html |title=House of Commons Daily Debates 9 December 1991 5.38 pm |access-date=6 April 2007 |work=Hansard}} Some say journalists visiting helped encourage some of the action for filming.

Crime levels have decreased consistently since 2004, though both recorded crime and rates found in the British Crime Survey have fallen across England and Wales.[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/116417/hosb1011.pdf Chaplin, Flatley and Smith (2011)]

File:Kassam Stadium, Oxford.jpg, home to Oxford United Football Club]]

The Kassam Stadium is the home of Oxford United Football Club and is just within the greater boundary of Blackbird Leys in an area known as Minchery Farm. Initial construction began in 1996 and the first football match took place on 4 August 2001.

In 2006, residents from the estate took part in The Singing Estate, a Channel Five reality TV show following their progress from amateur singers to classical choir.{{cite news|url=http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.1254032.0.leys_choir_set_to_star_again.php |title=Leys choir set to star again |access-date=3 June 2015|work=Oxford Mail|location=Oxford|date=13 March 2007|first=Matt|last= Wilkinson}} The Blackbird Leys Choir emerged from the original choir and continues today.

Schools on the estate include Pegasus First School, Windale Community Primary School and Northfield School. City of Oxford College has a campus situated on Cuddesdon Way which provides further education, higher education, modern apprenticeships and community evening classes.

Blackbird Leys has no mainline railway station but is served by Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach in Oxfordshire which provides bus services between Blackbird Leys, central Oxford and Oxford railway station. The freight-only railway between Kennington Junction and the BMW Mini factory via Iffley and Littlemore forms the northwestern boundary of Blackbird Leys. It is part of the former Wycombe Railway that British Railways closed to passenger traffic in 1963.

Blackbird Leys has two places of worship, The Church of the Holy Family which was dedicated on 10 April 1965 and Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

• Hugh Laurie, actor, writer, musician and comedian who was born and grew up in Blackbird Leys.

• Banlieue
• Littlemore Brook, which flows from Blackbird Leys and through the Oxford Science Park to the south.

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{{cite web |url=http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Direct/75081FULLSouthEastSOAProfiles07.pdf |title=Super Output Area Profile Report For South East Area Committee |year=2008 |access-date=2 October 2010 |work=Oxford City Council, Government site |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111214163946/http://oxford.gov.uk/Direct/75081FULLSouthEastSOAProfiles07.pdf |archive-date=14 December 2011 |df=dmy-all }}

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• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/articles/2007/10/01/history_bl_feature.shtml BBC Oxford]
• [https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/oxford_blackbird_leys/ Municipal Dreams] Estate Appraisal

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Category:Areas of Oxford

Category:Housing estates in Oxfordshire

Category:Civil parishes in Oxfordshire