South Oxhey from farmland to a London town

South Oxhey stands on land that was farms and woods for centuries. It belonged to Oxhey Place, a country estate whose owners built three great houses and, in 1612, a chapel that still stands.^18,19 When it was offered at auction in 1872 the estate had 1,094 acres of farms, lodges and woods.²⁰

In 1943 the London County Council drew a red line round the heart of it, and the purchase of a little over 921 acres was confirmed in 1944.^4,21,22 Between 1946 and the mid-1950s the council built a new town there for about 17,000 Londoners.^23,24,25 Part of the land had been a golf course since 1912, and in the summer of 1912 its professional, Ted Ray, won the Open. The estate took the east end of the course, and since 1952 the rest has been South Oxhey Playing Fields.^{1,12,26,27,28}

This guide tells the story in four parts, in order: the land before the estate, the building of it, life on it, and its renewal. One map puts it all together, with old Ordnance Survey maps from the 1890s, the 1943 purchase map, the buildings old and new, and the lost golf course. Positions taken from old maps and plans are good to about 30 to 50 metres, so treat them as a guide rather than a survey.