This area is on the borderline between Cowley and Headington, and although its postal address is Headington, it is in the parish of St James’s in Cowley. The 38-acre site was purchased by Oxford City Counil from Pembroke College, with the houses to be sold rather than rented. Malcolm Graham writes that the houses were built for sale to better-off Morris Motors employees who could afford to take out a mortgage, and that the difficulty which some experienced in keeping up the payments led to the area being nicknamed Misery Town. The 436 houses were designed by George Stubbings of Erdington in Birmingham.

Bulan Road and Dene Road were named after the area of land at the foot of Shotover called Bulandene Green (later Bullingdon Green), which was the heart of the Bullingdon Hundred.

The photograph below (Historic England EPW022539) shows the Bulan Road estate looking south from the air on 11 August 1928 when it was nearly built. The Slade is on the left, and Hollow Way (with the Barracks) runs off to the right. Both Headington and Cowley to the east of the Boundary Brook were still outside the city of Oxford at this time.

By 1930 there were 144 houses in Bulan Road, 140 in Dene Road, 50 in Benson Road, and 29 in Coverley Road, and by the following year the following shops had opened in Cinnaminta Road:

 1: George John Simpson, grocer, & post office
 3: Charles E. Prescott, tobacconist
 5: Robert Henry Bennett, butcher
 7: James A. Alder, boot repairer (24-hour service)
 2: Edwin Willis, grocer
 4: R. Brooks, dairyman
 6: William James Giles, fishmonger

Bulan Road

Dene Road, facing the Slade, with Bulan Road running off to the right in the distance.
This is now a crossroads, as Bulan Road was extended when Peat Moors was built

In 1938 Glebelands (with 56 houses) and Town Furze (with 29) were also built up, and a start had been made on the road called Lye Valley. By 1943 Lye Valley had 33 houses, and the following new road were also built up: Peat Moors (with 46 houses), Inott Furze (17), and Fairview Road (16). By 1960 a beer retailer (later the Fairview Inn) had opened at 16 Glebelands.

The houses in Lye Valley and Glebelands (below) are larger, and were private homes.

Photographs of the shops in Lye Valley in 1957:

• Cinnaminta Road: No. 1, No. 4, No. 6, No. 7
• Coverley Road
• Glebelands