Oxford bus 5 from Blackbird Leys

Originally Blackford Leys (=pastures), named after the dark ford to Blackford Leys Farm, Blackbird Leys is a large estate built in the 1950s and 60s mainly to re-house people moved from dilapidated inner-city housing that was to be demolished; it was also conveniently close to the Morris Motors plant in Cowley. The area has had a dreadful reputation for crime, drugs, and, in the 1990s, for joy-riding. The police seem to have been largely ineffectual and it is much down to local efforts and pressure groups that the situation has been enormously improved. The buses do not end or start their trips to the estate where the timetable says. So, rather than start with a long meander round back streets, I begin as the bus approaches the heart of the estate. We turn onto one of the principal roads out of the estate, making for Templars Square, and then onto the Cowley Road. At The Plain we join the A420 which we follow through the city and all the way to the station.