Rose Hill, Oxfordshire
Coordinates: 51°44′06″N 1°14′31″W / 51.735°N 1.242°W
Rose Hill is a city council estate on the southern outskirts of Oxford, England. According to the 2001 Census, the population of Rose Hill and the adjoining village of Iffley was 4,667.
Location
The estate is largely to the west of the road of the same name, part of a historic route from Oxford to London via Henley, running out towards the river. The centre of Rose Hill estate is the Oval, a large expanse of grass in the centre of a turning circle. Also on the Oval are Rose Hill Community Centre, Rose Hill Primary School (formerly Rose Hill First) and two convenience stores. A focal point of the road of Rose Hill is a small landscaped triangle adjacent to a row of shops built in the 1940s that have a part-timbered Tudor style facade.
Origin
The toponym Rose Hill is derived from the name of an old farmer's cottage on the A4158. Prior to the building of the present buildings between the A4158 and Lamborne Road, the land was used primarily for agriculture.
The oldest homes were built between 1936 and 1939 to house people from the dilapidated slum dwelling around Jericho and St. Ebbes. Much of this housing was designed by George C Robb (1903–80), Chief Housing Assistant to the City Engineer's Department of Oxford City Council between 1938 and 1941. Many of the streets are named after local councillors and national politicians. The most notable of these is Asquith Road, named after the UK Prime Minister and Earl of Oxford H. H. Asquith.
After the Second World War, Orlit and Self-Built homes were built in the 1950s and 60s to meet the then pressing need for accommodation, particularly for factory workers at Morris Motors LImited factory in nearby Cowley.
Old Rose Hill comprised farm houses and farm cottages along the main road of Rose Hill and along the lane that led from Iffley to Cowley (part of which is called Tree Lane). There is a stone towards the foot of Rose Hill marked 'Ifily Hy Way 1635'. Ifily Hy Way was then the name of the road that the council, in 1930, renamed Rose Hill. Old Rose Hill now also includes housing built from the 1920s and 1930s around the road of Rose Hill. There is an old turnpike on Rose Hill road, as a part of an old route between Oxford and London, engraved '56 miles to London'. Cardinal Newman, beatified in 2010, had connections with old Rose Hill as well as Littlemore. His mother lived on Rose Hill. Frank Pakenham (later Lord Pakenham) also lived on old Rose Hill.
References
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