Breame Oak Drive housing
Breame Oak Drive housing, developed c. 2015, photographed 2024.
In 2014 in anticipation of this development and with the agreement of Hotlon Parish, the tranche of land between London Road and the A40 dual carriageway was transferred from Holton Parish to Wheatley Parish. More details of the 2014 change and the cumulative changes to the boundary of Wheatley Parish are shown respectively at records 2414 and 2417. One of the 2014 plans is attached to this record for ease of reference. Fairfax Gate, accessed from London Road and housing developed in 1995, and the M40 Offices accessed fom Old London Road developed in a similar period and thus became within Wheatley Parish.
Breame Oak Drive has a Wheatley address and post code OX33 1FF, while Fairfax Gate either a Wheatley address (Rightmove) or a Holton address (Zoopla and Postcode Finder) and postcode OX33 1QE. The M40 Offices have a Wheatley address and postcode OX33 1XW as do the houses in Biscoe Court (postcode OX33 1YX) and Tyndale Court (post code OX33 1YY) and the houses in the Old London Road spur on the corner before the Waterperry turn.
To facilitate the development, permission was required to create an opening (the developers initially wanted to remove all of the wall in the south boundary wall of Holton Park estate for the London Road length of the development but this was refused). This estate was a former deer park and site of a medieval manor and moat, the manor being replaced in 1801 by a stone Gothic style building with characteristic castellated parapets. The moat still remains but no part of the original medieval building stands and the park wall is still a significant feature of the village. Included now within Holton Park are Wheatley Park School, the Park Sports Centre and the Oxfordshire County Library headquarters. For more information on this estate see record 1385. This record refers to the old Breame oak tree in the grounds of the estate, after which the development is named.
The green shaded area, west of the Breame Oak Drive development and between London Road, the A40 and the road to Holton from the roundabout, is a wooded area owned by the County Council. There is a (?disputed) right of way from the Wheatley side of the bridge over the A40 which was used a pleasant route by students ‘cutting the corner’ and emerging further east along London Road. When Breame Oak Drive was developed, an access was left through this, but this has since been blocked up. The disputed right of way now emerges close to the pedestrian traffic lights via a gap which had developed over the years in the Holton Park wall. This access/exit has now been formalised as the photo shows.