BC

There have been two palaeolithic finds in Marston, but the Romans do not appear to have had a settlement there

AD 1086

Domesday Book: Marston (then a hamlet of Headington) was too small to be mentioned

AD 1100

Until this time, all the low ground of Marston is believed to have been under water. Old Marston village was now an island in the Cherwell. It had its own chapel, which was dependent on Headington

AD 1122

First written occurrence of the name of Marston. Its chapel is referred to as a church for the first time, and by the end of the twelfth century it was dedicated to St Nicholas

AD 1279

In this year the population of Marston consisted of the Vicar, two freeholders (the miller and a man appearing to live at Court Place, and 46 unfree tenants.
First mention of a Marston ferry.
John de Molendino held a mill at Marston. (Hundred Rolls)

AD 1349

An acre of the lot meadows of Marston was given to Oriel College

AD 1451

The benefices of Headington and Marston were united by a papal bull, as the two parishes were too poor to maintain two vicars

AD 1458

Marston’s King’s Mill Meadows (42 acres) passed from the Hospital of St John to the newly-founded Magdalen College

AD 1520

Beginning of enclosure in Marston: Magdalen College began to buy out the common rights in its meadows from the other tenants of the Manor

AD 1520

Brasenose College acquired the land of the Hay family in Court Place, and its holding in Marston grew to over 100 acres by 1800

AD 1529

Corpus Christi College acquired two half-yardlands and one quarter in Marston

AD 1605

The amount of arable land in the parish of Marston amounted to c.600 acres, or nearly half the whole area

AD 1637

A Vicar was instituted in Marston on the representation of the Crown, and Marston returned to being a separate parish from Headington

AD 1645

Unton Croke (who had inherited land in Marston through his marriage to Anne Hore) had to make room in his house for Fairfax’s headquarters when the parliamentary forces laid siege to Oxford. Oliver Cromwell visited the house, and it was used for the meeting of the commissioners from the two sides when Oxford surrendered

AD 1653

The surviving registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials of the Church of St Nicholas in Marston date from this time (except for marriages between 1753 and 1814)

AD 1661

Marston was granted 90 acres of land in compensation for its lost rights resulting from the disafforestation of Shotover and Stow Wood

AD 1691

Hill Farm, Marston built

AD 1730

About this time Marston became “a village where no one lived who pretended to the rank of gentleman” (Victoria County History)

AD 1801

First census. Marston had 45 dwelling-houses and a population of 264. Six pauper families were accommodated in Unton Croke’s old house

AD 1815

The Revd Jack Russell bought a bitch in Marston which he regarded as the perfect fox terrier

AD 1816

Evidence of a privately owned school for 20 children existing in Marston

AD 1830

Marston village cross was taken down and the material used for mending the roads, and the churchyard cross was taken down and used to mend the church wall

AD 1831

Population of Marston: 364

AD 1851

St Nicholas’s Church School for 145 children of all ages opens in Marston, with running costs borne by the Vicar (Canon Gordon) and that National Society

AD 1841

Population of Marston: 396

AD 1868

Boundary of Oxford parliamentary boundary extended to include 24 acres of Marston

AD 1871

Population of Marston 881. First evidence of nonconformity in the area, when Congregationalists established a mission hall called the Workman’s Hall (later used as the British Legion Hall)

AD 1877

First house built in New Marston village (William Street)

AD 1885

Marston was added to the area supplied with water by Oxford Corporation

AD 1888

A mission church (formerly two cottages) was opened on the Marston Road to serve the growing population of New Marston

AD 1911

A Chapel of ease of the Church of St Nicholas in Old Marston was built in Ferry Road

AD 1920

Marston was connected to the city sewage system

AD 1927

New Marston Church of England Primary School opened in temporary premises, moving the following year to a permanent building on land presented by Mrs G. H. Morrell

AD 1929

New Marston (216 acres) was taken into the Oxford city boundary

AD 1932

Construction of Northern by-pass brings first road of importance to run through Marston

AD 1938

Oxford City Corporation had built 165 homes in New Marston by this year

AD 1939

Milham Ford School moved from Cowley Place to the Marston Road

AD 1940

West Ham School was evacuated from London to New Marston

AD 1940

Main Road, New Marston, was renamed Marston Road and renumbered to follow on with the numbering of Marston Road, St Clement’s

AD 1948

New Marston Junior Mixed & Infant School opened in Copse Lane

AD 1950

Another 70 council houses were built in New Marston from this year

AD 1954

St Nicholas County Primary School opened in a new building, and the old church school of St Nicholas became the village hall

AD 1955

The Church of St Michael and All Angels on the Marston Road was consecrated as a chapel of ease to St Andrew’s Church in Old Headington, and New Marston Church of England School was renamed St Michael’s

AD 1963

The Church of St Michael and All Angels became the centre of a new parish taken from the old parishes of Marston, Headington, and St Clement’s

AD 1971

Marston Ferry Road opened, providing the first road-bridge between Marston and North Oxford

AD 2003

Completion of a return to a two-tier system of education: Marston Middle School and Milham Ford Girls’ School closed down

AD 2005

Oxford Brookes University School of Health and Social Care opened on the former Milham Ford site on the Marston Road

AD 2010

Russian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas the Wonderworker was consecrated in Ferry Road (9 October)