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Rose Hill is a residential area, with some housing that has been council-owned, on the southern outskirts of
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. According to the 2021 Census, the population of Rose Hill and the adjoining village of
Iffley Iffley is a village in a designated Conservation area (United Kingdom), conservation area in Oxfordshire, England. It lies within the boundaries of the city of Oxford, between Cowley, Oxfordshire, Cowley and the estates of Rose Hill, Oxford, Rose ...
was 7,100, with 4,000 living within Rose Hill.


Location

The residential estate of Rose Hill is largely to the west of the road of the same name. The road is part of a historic route from Oxford to London via Henley, running parallel to the river Isis (the name of the Thames in Oxford). The centre of Rose Hill estate is the Oval, a large expanse of grass in the centre of a turning circle. On the Oval is Rose Hill Primary School (formerly Rose Hill First). Adjacent to the Primary School is the Rose Hill Community Centre, formally opened in 2016 costing £5 million. A focal point of the road of Rose Hill is a small landscaped triangle adjacent to a row of shops built in the 1940s that have a part-timbered Tudor style facade.


Origin

The
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...
Rose Hill, the name of the road that is a stretch of the A4158, is derived from the name of an old farmer's cottage on the A4158. Prior to the building of the present buildings between the A4158 and Lamborne Road, the land was used primarily for agriculture. The area between the road of Rose Hill and Annesley Road includes the site of a Roman pottery. Some specimens of the pots are in the Ashmolean Museum. The oldest homes on the residential estate were built between 1936 and 1939 to house people from the dilapidated slum dwelling around
Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...
and St. Ebbes. Much of this housing was designed by George C Robb (1903–80), Chief Housing Assistant to the City Engineer's Department of
Oxford City Council Oxford City Council is the local authority for the city of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Oxford has had a council since medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous occasions. Since 1974, Oxford has been a non-metropolitan district, wi ...
between 1938 and 1941. Many of the streets are named after local councillors and national politicians. The most notable of these is Asquith Road, named after the UK Prime Minister and
Earl of Oxford Earl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, first created for Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere by the Empress Matilda in 1141. De Vere family, His family was to hold the title for more than five and a half cen ...
H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928) was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last ...
. After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Orlit and Self-Built homes were built in the 1950s and 60s to meet the then pressing need for accommodation, particularly for factory workers at Morris Motors Limited factory in nearby Cowley. The author of The Changing Faces of Rose Hill noted that "a second Rose Hill grew up to the south". Iffley and Church Cowley, at either end of old Rose Hill, are both ancient 'Domesday Book' villages, therefore dating from before 1087, and no doubt the fields on which Old Rose Hill now stands, were criss-crossed with paths that for a thousand years have taken people from Old Iffley to Old Cowley. The original, Old Rose Hill, comprised farm houses and farm cottages along the main road of Rose Hill and along the lane that led from Iffley to Cowley (part of which is called Tree Lane). There is a stone towards the foot of Rose Hill marked 'Ifily Hy Way 1635'. Ifily Hy Way was then the name of the road that the council, in 1930, renamed Rose Hill. Old Rose Hill now also includes housing built from the 1920s and 1930s around the road of Rose Hill. There is an old turnpike on Rose Hill road, as a part of an old route between Oxford and London, engraved '56 miles to London'. Cardinal Newman, beatified in 2010, had connections with old Rose Hill as well as Littlemore. His mother lived on Rose Hill. Newman wrote to a friend in 1831 about his delightful room at Rose Hill from which he "could see Iffley church" and thought that the view "is too good for me". Frank Pakenham (later Lord Pakenham), who was once the prospective MP for the constituency of Oxford, also lived on old Rose Hill. His daughter Lady Antonia Fraser, novelist and biographer, who grew up in their house on the road of Rose Hill, wrote that the views over Oxford would have pleased Matthew Arnold with their distant spires, towers, college roofs'.


References

''The Changing Faces of Rose Hill'', Ann Spokes Symonds, Robert Boyd Publications ''The Pebbled Shore. The Memoirs of Elizabeth Longford''. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. {{Oxford Areas of Oxford