Cutteslowe Park is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

Cutteslowe Cutteslowe is a suburb in the north of Oxford, in Oxfordshire, England, between Sunnymead and Water Eaton. Archaeology and toponym The toponym "Cutteslowe" is derived from Old English. The earliest known record of it is from AD 1004 as ''Cuð ...

North Oxford North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian architecture, Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the co ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was established in 1936 when

Oxford City Council Oxford City Council is the local authority for the city of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Oxford has had a council since medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974, Oxford has been a non-metropolitan district, wi ...

acquired land of the former Cutteslowe Manor farm, whose house still stands at its centre. More land was acquired in 1937 and 1938, including purchases from the Dean and Chaplain of Westminster. The original manor house dates from at least the mid-17th century, being shown on a 1670s map by Michael Burghers. To the north and east the park is bounded by working farmland, while it is bordered to the West by 1960s–70s

housing development A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

s of

. Sunnymead park, just inside the north-east arc of the Oxford ring-road, was once a council tip which was covered and reconditioned from the 1980s onwards. In 2006 Oxford City Council united the two parks, which now form a single administrative unit called Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park.

Overview

Cutteslowe Park has herbaceous borders and despite disease damage during 2009-2012 there remained many horse chestnut trees, until most of them were removed in 2017 by the City Council's order owing to concerns that after a disease their branches could possibly become fragile and pose danger. Until further disease management in 2010 and early 2011, the park also contained some superb examples of White Willow trees. The park has a children's play area,

crazy golf Miniature golf (also known as minigolf, putt-putt, crazy golf, and by several other names) is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of poi ...

duck pond A duck pond or duckpond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for waterfowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink. Often, as in public parks, such ponds are artificial and ornamental in desig ...

, beach

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

court, and

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both Types of tennis match, doubles and singles matches. A variet ...

s. There is a miniature steam railway run by the City of Oxford Society of Model Engineers. Purchases of farmland by the City Council in 1937-8 gave the park a large

recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...

ground on its east side, used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and rugby in autumn and winter. The increased size of the park enabled the creation of a "Peace Mile": a running circuit that encompasses most of the perimeter of the park, inaugurated in 1985 by world harmony advocate

Sri Chinmoy Chinmoy Kumar Ghose (27 August 1931 – 11 October 2007), better known as Sri Chinmoy, was an Indian spiritual leader who taught meditation in the United States after moving to New York City in 1964.parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for runners, walkers and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across five continents. Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinto ...

since November 2011. A public

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...

cuts diagonally across the lower recreation ground, originating on the line of an ancient drovers' path, part of which is still visible at its southern extent for about , bisected by the A40, the Northern Bypass. This linked Water Eaton and Oxford, and a short section of this path (at the bottom of Harpes Road, Islip Road and Victoria Road in North Oxford) is called Water Eaton Road. Further south this becomes a footpath and cycle route from Lonsdale Road, and it emerges near the Cherwell School.

Community interest

In the 1980s the condition of the former council dump within the ring-road inspired the creation of a ‘Cutteslowe/Sunnymead Group’ of local residents, which worked with the City Council to clear fly-tipping, create a sports zone, improve wildlife areas and paths and generally transform the site. On 21 February 2007 the Friends of Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park was formed "to promote the access, positive management and enhancement of the park and its facilities for the benefit of the local community and wider general public".

Wind turbine proposal

In November 2009 a city council proposal to lease an area of the park to an energy management company for the construction of a wind turbine was challenged by the Friends, who felt that fuller community engagement should first be sought. Eventually, the proposal was not implemented because of concerns about impacts on RAF flying on the approach to Brize Norton airbase, to the west of the area.

References

External links

Friends of Cutteslowe and Sunnymead
own site.

from the

.
Cutteslowe Park Miniature RailwayCutteslowe Park Management Plan
information from

(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

). {{coord, 51.78924, N, 1.25879, W, source:placeopedia, display=title 1935 establishments in England Sri Chinmoy Parks and open spaces in Oxford Parks and open spaces in Oxfordshire