Littlemore is a district and civil parish in Oxford, England. The civil parish includes part of Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Leys, Cowley, and Sandford-on-Thames. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 5,646, with the electoral ward (which also includes several streets in southern Cowley) having a total population of 6,441.

History

In the Middle Ages, and perhaps earlier, most of Littlemore was a detached part of the parish of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford. Between 1517 and 1518 the local priory became subject to the Littlemore Priory scandals. The rest of the township was in the parish of Iffley. Until the early 20th century Littlemore was rural. Extensive development started in the 1920s and continued in the 1950s. Sir Robert endowed the priory with six virgates of land in Sandford parish. Subsequent members of the de Sandford family made further endowments: another nine virgates of land in Sandford, 10 shillings a year from Wytham, tithes from Bayworth and Lambourn, and land at Garsington, Kennington, Sydenham, Oxfordshire and Liverton in the parish of Chilton. At one time the priory also claimed the advowson of St Mary's parish church at Puttenham, Hertfordshire and held land at Bureweya or Bergheia (Barway) in the parish of Soham in Cambridgeshire. King Henry III paid 40 shillings a year to maintain a prebendaria at the priory and in 1232 granted the priory one hide of land at Hendred. It found walls of a well-built Medieval stone building at right-angles to the farmhouse. Finds of fine pottery, metalwork, decorated tiles and animal bones suggest it was a domestic building. In about 1600 it was remodelled as Minchery Farmhouse. As Littlemore became more developed, the house was changed first into a country club and later into the "Priory" pub, which closed in 2013. The house became a Grade II* listed building in July 1963, when it was being used by the country club. and consecrated in 1836. After it closed, some of the rear blocks were acquired by Yamanouchi (now Astellas Pharma) for use as a research facility but then sold on, in 2008, to the SAE Institute for use as a training establishment. Meanwhile, the Littlemore Mental Health Centre, which includes the Ashurst Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), has been established on the opposite side of the road.

Railway

The Wycombe Railway opened Littlemore station in 1864 as part of its extension from to . In 1963 British Railways withdrew passenger services between and Oxford and closed all intermediate stations including Littlemore. The line through Littlemore remains open for freight traffic between the –Oxford main line at Kennington Junction and the BMW Mini factory at Cowley. A new passenger railway station has been proposed in the parish, which would serve Oxford Science Park.

Notable residents

John Henry Newman

thumb|The college

Littlemore may be best known for the work of Cardinal Newman, whose connection with the village began in 1828, when he was appointed vicar of St Mary the Virgin and soon began holding classes for the residents of Littlemore. He organised a successful petition to have a new church built. From 1842 to 1846 Newman lived at Littlemore, in a house in College Lane, under quasi-monastic discipline. The Birmingham Oratory bought the property in 1951,

See also

  • Littlemore Brook

References

Sources

  • Littlemore Parish Council Oxfordshire