Who owns the edges of Oxford?

You might have guessed it already, but Oxford University is the largest collective owner of land around the fringes of Oxford! Together the Colleges and University of Oxford own more than a third of what we know about the ownership on the fringes and have been growing their holdings across the last decade. They might own more than this in land held in charitable entities which we can't easily access ownership data yet.

 

Christ Church has been acquiring land on the north of the city, taking over the eastern parts of the Bayswater Brook development from the Aubrey Fletcher family in December 2018. Magdalen College finished acquiring land around their Oxford Science park in 2016, as the driving force in the proposed Oxford Science Village development with Oxford City Council. St John's College are developing a major urban extension at Oxford North, where Merton and Exeter both own large areas of farmland.

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As well as property development, the University of Oxford plays a vital role in stewarding Wytham Woods to the west (unregistered), an ancient woodland which it has owned since 1942, as well as issuing the tenancies for the surrounding farm land. However much of the land in the fringe is of a lower agricultural grade.

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There are large elements of public ownership too. Oxford City Council are the largest single owner of land in this fringe area, with housing estates, flood plains and fields distributed across the map. This includes the maintenance of Shotover Park as well as the flood plains throughout the city, including Port Meadow, one of the largest pieces of common land in the country, allows access to the outdoors.

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One of the biggest single parcels of ownership is Radley College, a private boys school operating on a 320 hectare site which includes a golf course.

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Interestingly there may be a ownership type stacking up behind the colleges, including the billionaire David Harding's Winston Group owning 37 hectares to the south of the Oxford Science Village development boundary.

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