Cowley () is a residential and industrial area in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England. Cowley's neighbours are Rose Hill and

Blackbird Leys Blackbird Leys is a civil parish and ward in Oxford, England. According to the 2011 census, the population of the ward (whose boundaries may change occasionally so as to ensure minimal malapportionment) stood at 6,077. Unlike most parts of the ...

to the south,

Headington Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. T ...

to the north and the villages of Horspath and Garsington across fields to the east. Internationally, Cowley is best known for its automotive industry - historically it was the home of the car manufacturer Morris (later absorbed into

British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly ...

, then the

Rover Group The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (compri ...

), which has now evolved into

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

History

The Cowley area has been inhabited since

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–5 ...

. The line of a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

runs north-south along the eastern edge of Cowley. It linked a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

town at

Dorchester-on-Thames Dorchester on Thames (or Dorchester-on-Thames) is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. The town is a few hundred yards from the confluence of the River Thames and River Thame. A ...

with a Roman military camp at Alchester near Bicester. A road called Roman Way follows part of its route. It is behind the

car factory, starting opposite the

Stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dr ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

bus garage. Cowley coalesced from the former villages of Middle Cowley, Temple Cowley and Church Cowley (around St James church), though the ancient

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of Cowley covered much of the area now known as East Oxford. The western portion of the original parish of Cowley was split off and became part of the city of Oxford in 1889, and was given the name of Cowley St John, though today it is often called the Cowley Road area, after the road across the fields from

to Cowley villages. The term Cowley today usually refers to the remainder of Cowley (the parish of Cowley St James where the original Cowley villages stood), which became part of the city of

in 1928. However, because the settlements of Cowley were situated within the larger Cowley parishes, there are still some modern contexts (such as the Cowley Fathers mentioned below) when the term "Cowley" is used to refer to other areas in East Oxford outside of Cowley proper. Cowley was a manor from

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

times, and a 16th-century manor house stood on Oxford Road near the corner with Hollow Way. In 1139,

Matilda of Boulogne Matilda (c.1105 – 3 May 1152) was Countess of Boulogne in her own right from 1125 and Queen of England from the accession of her husband, Stephen, in 1136 until her death in 1152. She supported Stephen in his struggle for the English throne ...

founded Temple Cowley here for the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, o ...

. The house became part of the Oxford Military College which was built on its grounds in the 19th century. In 1864, the Wycombe Railway between

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

and

was built through Cowley, but at this time the village was so small that the railway company did not provide it with a station. Cowley St James C of E school, situated on Beauchamp Lane adjacent to the church, was established in 1834 and continued to operate as a primary school until 1975. Its most famous pupil was William Morris, later Lord Nuffield, who founded

Morris Motors Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same vehicles. By 1926 its production represen ...

which was the source of a great deal of local employment leading to substantial growth in the area. A

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

is named after him located in the nearby Templar Square shopping centre. Another well-known pupil of the school was the actress Dame Maggie Smith. In 1866 the Society of St. John the Evangelist, a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church record ...

religious order A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practic ...

, was founded near Cowley Road in the parish of Cowley. SSJE was the first long-lasting Anglican religious order for men since the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

. The members were frequently known as the "Cowley Fathers". In 1868 the Eddison and Nodding Company factory was founded in Cowley. John Allen bought it in 1897 and renamed it the Oxford Steam Plough Company. He later renamed it again as John Allen and Sons, and diversified into manufacturing other agricultural and horticultural machinery including the successful Allen Scythe powered by a small Villiers petrol engine. The works closed in the early 1980s, and the Templars Shopping Park formerly known as John Allen Centre retail park has since been built on the site. The Oxford Military College bought the former Cowley Middle Class School in 1876. The College hall, a former

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals wi ...

, was built in the early 17th century. The

Chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common type ...

of 1870 was designed by the architect Edward George Bruton. An east wing designed by Sir Thomas Graham Jackson was added in 1877. The Oxford Military College closed in 1896, developed from 1912 by William Morris as the

Cowley plant Plant Oxford located in Cowley, southeast Oxford, England, is a BMW car assembly facility where Mini cars are built. The plant forms the Mini production triangle along with Plant Hams Hall where engines are manufactured and Plant Swindon w ...

. During the 1960s, the centre of Cowley was demolished and replaced with Templas Square shopping center (previously it had been known as "Cowley Centre", and sometimes still is). In the same decade the railway between

Princes Risborough Princes Risborough () is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Aylesbury and north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end o ...

and

closed, but the track between Kennington Junction and Cowley remains open for freight in and out of the car factory. Between 1980 and 1992 the headquarters of the

United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was a British civilian organisation operating to provide UK military and civilian authorities with data on nuclear explosions and forecasts of fallout across the country in the event ...

(UKWMO) was located in a converted barracks building at

Cowley Barracks Cowley Barracks (originally Bullingdon Barracks) was a military installation in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. History The barracks were built in a Fortress Gothic Revival style at Bullingdon Green using Charlbury stone and completed in spring ...

James Wolfe James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army officer known for his training reforms and, as a major general, remembered chiefly for his victory in 1759 over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. ...

Road, Cowley. The UKWMO was the organisation responsible for initiating the

four-minute warning The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile a ...

in the event of a nuclear attack on the UK and was disbanded at the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

. Co-located with HQUKWMO was the Headquarters of No 3 Oxford Group

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December ...

whose underground protected nuclear bunker at the Cowley site opened in 1965. Parts of the bunker were demolished in 1995, however most of it was refurbished including the air filtration systems. The site now belongs to

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The university was named ...

who built student accommodation on the site, and now use the former bunker as a storage facility making it the only student halls in the country with its own nuclear shelter.

Morris Motors

The Cowley area was transformed after 1912 when

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

bought the former Oxford Military College and moved Morris Motors Limited into it from its former premises in

. He expanded into "The Old Tin Shed" in 1914 and then into a huge complex of purpose-built production lines in Cowley, as Morris pioneered

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that m ...

-style

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batc ...

in the UK. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, which had taken over the Wycombe Railway, opened a station called

Morris Cowley Morris Cowley was a name given to various cars produced by Morris from 1915 to 1958. Morris Cowley ''Bullnose'' (1915) The Continental Cowley, shown to the press in April 1915, was a larger engined (1495 cc against 1018 cc), longer, ...

to serve some of the thousands of workers commuting to the factory. In 1933, a goods yard was built beside the line to bring supplies into the factory and take completed vehicles away. This yard still exists and serves the current vehicle-manufacturing plant, though the railway beyond has long been lifted. From the 1920s through to the 1960s, Cowley expanded into a huge industrial centre. In the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...

many people left areas of high

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

such as

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards t ...

and moved to the Cowley area to work in Cowley's factories. Large areas of housing were built and rented out to the migrants. Florence Park was one area built in the 1920s for a private landlord to rent to new workers. The houses looked nice but they were poorly built and maintained, until the tenants held a

rent strike A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent ''en masse'' until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord. This c ...

and forced the landlord to make repairs. Most Florence Park houses are now owner-occupied, and the area's tree-lined roads are now a popular neighbourhood in which to live. In World War II the Morris factory produced many

de Havilland Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft ...

training aeroplanes for the war effort and there was also the No 1 Metal and Produce Recovery Depot run by the Civilian Repair Organisation to handle crashed or damaged aircraft and even the wreckage of enemy aircraft was processed here. Paul Nash was inspired to paint '' Totes Meer'' based on sketches he made of the recovery depot. Despite successive company

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

s and name changes, "Morris's" is still often used as the name of the car factory to this day. In 1952,

became part of the

British Motor Corporation The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merger Company Named. ''The Times'', Friday, 29 Februar ...

(BMC), in 1968 BMC became

, in the 1980s the group was known as Austin Rover, in the 1990s it was

and since 2001 the factory has been owned by BMW. But the name "Morris's" is ingrained in local culture and speech habits, particularly amongst older inhabitants. By the early 1970s, over 20,000 people worked in Cowley at the vast Morris Motors and Pressed Steel Fisher plants. Unipart is also a major employer in Cowley, with premises next to the car factory. In later years Morris Motors and Pressed Steel became one company. Subsequently the Morris's site was closed down, demolished, and redeveloped as the Oxford Business Park.

Cowley today

The car

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

is known today as

Plant Oxford Plant Oxford located in Cowley, southeast Oxford, England, is a BMW car assembly facility where Mini cars are built. The plant forms the Mini production triangle along with Plant Hams Hall where engines are manufactured and Plant Swindon w ...

and is now owned by BMW and has been extensively redeveloped. It remains the largest industrial employer in

employing more than 4,300 people. The plant was set up in 1926 by a consortium including

and the

Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products ...

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

and was adjacent to the

factory. Morris and the Budd Company both pulled out of the consortium and the plant became an independent supplier of bodies and tooling to Morris and other car manufacturers across the world. The company also produced the Prestcold refrigerators. When BMW sold the

they decide to retain the Pressed Steel Fisher site and transfer the Mini from

Longbridge Longbridge is an area of Northfield in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire. Public Transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus services run by Kev's C ...

to Cowley, enabling the Longbridge site to continue to produce all the Rover products. BMW retained ownership of the Cowley plant, formerly Pressed Steel, to build the all-new

that was launched in the spring of 2001. It has been the best selling car to be built at the plant since the

Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning "master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubiq ...

and Montego in the 1980s. The Morris Motors factory expanded with factory complexes on both sides of the

Road. Although Morris started his original work on the outskirts of the city the Cowley site quickly became the production site for high volume production. It was the original base of Morris cars when the marque was founded in 1912, and production continued at the factory until 1982, with models including the

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in th ...

Morris Oxford Morris Oxford is a series of motor car models produced by Morris of the United Kingdom, from the 1913 ''bullnose'' Oxford to the ''Farina'' Oxfords V and VI. Named by W R Morris after ''the city of dreaming spires'', the university town in which ...

Riley Motor RileyInformation extracted from ''Notice issued in compliance with the Regulations of the Committee of The Stock Exchange, London'' (with regard to the issue of 150,000 Preference Shares of £1 each on 17 January 1934). :The Company was incorpo ...

and

Wolseley Motors Wolseley Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the Vickers Armaments in conjunction with Herbert Austin. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the E ...

cars. The Morris marque was not abandoned until 1984 when production of the Longbridge-built

Morris Ital The Morris Ital is a medium-sized car that was built by British Leyland (BL) from 1980 to 1984. A successor to the Morris Marina, it was available in a variety of bodystyles. Design and launch The Ital was given the design code ADO73 F/L (bec ...

and development of the

Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Morris product line, which ...

finished. The factory then became the production facility for the

, Montego and the Princess Range. Production continued with the facility totally given over to production of the

Rover 600 The Rover 600 Series was a compact executive car range that was produced by the British manufacturer Rover from 1993 to 1999. The exterior of the Rover 600 was designed by Rover, a reskin of the European Honda Accord, also built in the United ...

and

Rover 800 The Rover 800 series is an executive car ( E-segment in Europe) range manufactured by the Austin Rover Group subsidiary of British Leyland, and its successor the Rover Group from 1986 to 1999. It was also marketed as the Sterling in the United S ...

. These models were replaced by the

Rover 75 The Rover 75 is an executive car manufactured initially by the Rover Group and later by MG Rover, under the Rover marque and available over a single generation with front-wheel drive in either saloon/sedan or station wagon/estate configurati ...

in late 1998, but BMW broke up the

in 2000 and Rover 75 production moved to

. The original Morris Motor sites were flattened and a technology park has since been created on the site. The former

Nuffield Press Nuffield Press was a publisher and printer formed by William Morris (later Lord Nuffield) as part of his Nuffield Organization in 1925. It was formed to primarily produce promotional literature for the motor vehicle manufacturing divisions of the ...

site including the former Oxford Military College buildings was redeveloped in the late 1990s into housing. The business park has attracted a large David Lloyd Leisure centre and offices of numerous companies including the European headquarters of

Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depr ...

Motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

s and the headquarters of international aid charity Oxfam GB. Cowley is an ethnically diverse community, with significant

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...

and

South Asian South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; T ...

communities.

Sports and leisure

Cowley has a strong sporting tradition. In 1938 Oxford Stadium was built to host the sport of

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. T ...

. In 1939

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

moved to Oxford Stadium. After a few years Oxford's speedway team were named Oxford Cheetahs, a name they still bear today. Temple Cowley Pools in Temple Road was a public swimming and gymnasium complex run by

City Council which closed in December 2014 for redevelopment as housing. Its main pool was 25 metres long. It was built on the site of part of a former

estate

Opposite the site of the former pool is the band hall of the City of Oxford Silver Band and next door to it stands Cowley Library,. Oxfordshire Record Office occupies the former

St Luke Luke the Evangelist (Latin: '' Lucas''; grc, Λουκᾶς, '' Loukâs''; he, לוקאס, ''Lūqās''; arc, /ܠܘܩܐ לוקא, ''Lūqā’; Ge'ez: ሉቃስ'') is one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of t ...

's church nearby.

Athletic & Social Club in nearby Crescent Road has a large sports ground and club house. Until 2009 on Watlington Road, opposite the

factory, stood Johnson's Café, which fed thousands of

workers in the past. It was founded decades ago by Reginald Johnson and until its final day its interior was decorated with bold

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

s of early speedway stars. Reginald’s sons Aubrey and Len took over after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Len’s son Joe Johnson was an international

motocross Motocross is a form of off-road motorcycle racing held on enclosed off-road circuits. The sport evolved from motorcycle trials competitions held in the United Kingdom. History Motocross first evolved in Britain from motorcycle trials competit ...

star in the 1960s until he settled down to run the cafe alongside Aubrey and his son, Andrew, after Len’s death. After Aubrey’s death in the 1980s the cafe was run by Andrew and Joey to the end. This cafe suffered an armed robbery on 16 January 2008 and closed in 2009. The building is now occupied by Oxford Spin & Fitness centre.

Education

Schools serving Cowley include Greyfriars Catholic School and Oxford Spires Academy.

In popular culture

Cowley is a principal setting in the novel '' The Alteration'' by

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social and ...

, set in an alternative reality where the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

never occurred. Cowley was the site of the Holy Victory in the War of English Succession (where 'Henry the Abominable' attempted to seize the throne from his nephew Stephen II, resulting in a papal crusade). As a result, it was renamed Coverley and made the ecclesiastical capital of England, surpassing the secular capital of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in terms of importance. On his 1992 tour of England (heard on the posthumously released ''

Shock and Awe Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. Though ...

'' album), the comedian and satirist

Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—wa ...

stated that he had found the "Alabama of Britain" whilst attending a radio interview in Cowley.Bill Hicks "Salvation" on YouTube
/ref> Cowley is referenced in the lyrics of the song "Zorbing" by the British

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

band

Stornoway Stornoway (; gd, Steòrnabhagh; sco, Stornowa) is the main town of the Western Isles and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it by far the largest town in the Outer Hebrides, as well a ...

: "Been Zorbing through the streets of Cowley". Young detective Endeavour Morse is based at Cowley Road police station in the ''Inspector Morse'' prequel ''Endeavour''.

Notable people

The writer,

Gladys Mitchell Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell (21 April 1901 – 27 July 1983) was an English writer best known for her creation of Mrs Bradley, the heroine of 66 detective novels. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Stephen Hockaby and Malcolm Torrie. Fêt ...

, born April 21, 1901.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Cowley ParishCowley Library
{{Authority control Areas of Oxford