The hamlet of Barton before 1946

Before the Barton council estate was built, Barton was an ancient hamlet of Old Headington, comprising the present Barton Village Road and a number of farms. Before Barton Lane existed, it was approached via an extension at the east end of Cuckoo Lane, or by a footpath roughly on the line of the present Barton Road that led on down through the hamlet and on to Wick Farm, as shown below on Jeffries' map of 1769:

An important Roman road in Oxfordshire passed through Barton and the eastern side of Headington on its way from Alchester near Bicester southwards via Roman Way in Cowley to Dorchester-on-Thames: more information on Roman remains in the area here.

The first inhabitant of the hamlet of Barton known by name was the master mason William Orchard, who moved there in 1478. His house may have been on the site of the present Barton End (which marks the southernmost point of the original hamlet).

Today the city of Oxford is bounded on the north by the Bayswater Brook, but the farms the other side of the brook were once considered to be part of Barton, namely Wick Farm and Barton Farm (now named Lower Farm), plus Stafford (or Stowford) Farm to the east spanning the Bayswater Road.

This boundary stone dated 1684 in a field to the east of Lower Farm may mark the end of the Manor of Headington and the beginning of the Forest of Shotover as established in 1298.

By the time of the Headington Enclosure Award of 1805 there were two roads leading to Barton, described as follows, plus an extension of the hamlet road leading to Wick Farm::

• Barton Lane: Also one other public Carriage Road and Driftway of the like breadth of forty feet numbered X beginning near a certain public House in Headington aforesaid called the Black Boy and leading from Headington aforesaid in an Eastward direction to the Hamlet of Barton aforesaid being the public Road from Headington aforesaid to Barton village
• Barton Road: Also one other public Carriage Road and Driftway of the like breadth of forty feet numbered VI likewise branching out of the said new Turnpike Road in a North Eastward direction and leading from thence in the present track along a certain Meer called Blackthorn Meer to the village of Barton in the County of Oxford the same being set out as the public Road leading from the said new Turnpike Road to Barton aforesaid
• Private farm road at the north end of the present Barton Village Road: Also one private Carriage Road and Driftway of the breadth of forty feet numbered XIV leading in a Northward, North Eastward and South Eastward direction from Barton near the cottage of John Smith to the Wick Farm in Headington aforesaid which said private Road and Driftway is hereby set out to and for the use of owners and occupiers of the said Wick Farm for the time being

The hamlet of Barton had two beerhouses, both in the present Barton Village Road, namely The Fox and the Prince's Castle, and one grand seventeenth-century building, Barton Manor.

• Early twentieth-century postcards showing Barton Village Road.

In the 1920s council houses were built on the London Road east of Bury Knowle, and these turned the corner into Barton Road: more information here.

In 1935 the Northern Bypass between the present Headington and Banbury Road roundabouts (unemployment relief work) was completed, effectively cutting the hamlet of Barton off from its mother village. Up until 1938 Kelly's Directory listed “The Village” at the end of the entry for Barton Road, but from 1940 Barton Road and Barton Village Road are treated as quite separate streets.

Barton estate (from 1937)

Oxford Mail cartoon in the 1950s

The development of Barton as a large housing estate began on a small scale in 1937 with just 54 council houses added to the existing hamlet.

Kelly's Directory for 1940 shows just twelve council houses in Barton Village road (the present Nos. 84–106), and the 1941 directory six more (the present 58–68).

Development began in earnest in 1945, and by 1950 there were over a thousand new homes in Barton, many of them semi-permanent prefabs of three kinds:

• Howard houses. These had a steel frame with asbestos cladding. They were named after the manufacturer John Howard & Company and designed by the architect Frederick Gibberd
• Orlit houses. On-site construction was based on a foundation which supported storey-high precast concrete columns at fixed intervals, supporting concrete beams fixed to the columns, resulting in a virtually monolithic frame. They were faced externally with large concrete slabs, and internally with interlocking foamslag blocks. Internal partitions were constructed of breeze blocks finished in plaster, as was the foamslag internal cladding. The floors were constructed of precast concrete flooring units, with timber flooring on timber runners
• British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) houses.

In 1949 Barton Junior Mixed School opened in Northway, and in 1952 Barton Infant School opened in Fettiplace Road: later school changes are listed here.

Underhill Circus shopping centre is first listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1956, when the shops were as follows:

  2: J. W. Reeve & Co., wallpaper, paint
      & hardware merchants
  4: Underhill Circus Sub-Post Office
      and Wel-Shod Ltd boot repairers
  6: John W. Jeffery, fruiterer
  8: G. A. Owen, ladies’ outfitter
10 & 12: Oxford Co-operative Society
14: Michael’s (R. & E. J. Wells), newsagents.

In 1956 Oxford became the first city outside London to adopt a green belt, but Barton was within the city and new houses continued to be built. By 1977 there were 1,600 council houses there.

• Changes in the street numbers of Barton Village Road in the 1940s