Barton ready to party

Clowns, magicians and stilt walkers are all being booked to provide entertainment; pictures, photographs and stories written by children about their family history will go on display and there will be dozens of stalls, games, music and performances throughout the day.

Community development officer Maureen Robertson, who is organising the event, said: "We want to celebrate the community - its history and diversity - to make it a really big event and a great day.

"Barton is a thriving place and it seems like the spirit has really grown again in the last few years. So much has changed since we started the development project to identify what the area needed and began to regenerate the estate.

"Barton is not the forgotten estate it once was."

The celebration will coincide with the completion of the redevelopment of Underhill Circus, featuring the creation of an amphitheatre outside the shopping parade.

Residents recently voted for a series of multi-coloured illuminated glass panels - featuring pictures drawn by people living on the estate - to be installed on either side of the walkway.

Artist Peter Dunn said everything should be completed in time for the big day.

"There is a fair bit to do, but providing the weather isn't absolutely awful for a prolonged period we should get it all finished in time for the big celebration," he said.

"I like the design people have chosen. I think it will make a fantastic feature and a great backdrop to the amphitheatre."

Youngsters at Bayard's Hill are carrying out a special project this term where they will delve into the area's past.

Co-ordinator Carrie Butler said: "The idea is for children and the school to learn more about the history of Barton and how the area has developed and changed. What we thought would be lovely is to gather stories from people because there are families that have been here for several generations.

"I think it would be really nice to get families involved in the school - people love to tell stories. There is an ethnic mix of people in Barton and we want to hear from different communities in the area.

"We could link it in with economic and social themes like who the employers are here and why everyone worked at the Rover plant. Where was the school? Where was the doctor's surgery?"

Ms Butler also hopes to look at what life was like for a schoolchild in the 1930s.

Alex Morris, 10, from Barton, said: "There are lots of things I'd like to find out about. Like why the community centre was built and how long it has been there? What I find quite interesting about Barton is that some people think it was built on a battlefield, some on a farm and some on a graveyard."

History and ghosts

Oxfordshire may be celebrating its 1,000th anniversary, but archaeologists have found signs that the Roman were living in Barton 1,000 years before that.

The estate was originally a small hamlet built on a south facing hill, with the first formally recorded mention of the name Barton in 1246. It slowly grew into a small village with old stone houses leading down to Wycke Farm.

The name Barton comes from the old English words Bere (meaning barley) and ton or tun (meaning enclosure).

The estate in its current form was established in the 1930s when a housing shortage prompted Oxford City Council to buy the land from Magdalen College.

The first houses were built along Fettiplace Road.

Housing stock on the estate grew dramatically in the post-war baby boom period between the mid 1940s and the mid 1950s and more council houses shot up in the 1970s after a 'mini tornado' destroyed many of the estate's prefabricated houses.

Three schools were built originally - Barton Village Infants School in Fettiplace Road, Bernwood Junior School at the top of Burchester Avenue and Northway and Bayswater Secondary Modern School. Today only Bayswater, now Bayswater Primary School, remains.

New buildings went up in the 1970s and the last council property was built in the late 1980s.

Barton has had a reputation for being a poor area, but there have been a lot of changes in recent years.

The original community centre, built in 1949, was pulled down and replaced with the Barton Neighbourhood Centre.

In 2003 a research project was started on the estate. Initially six residents carried out surveys to find out what people living in Barton actually wanted.

A community association was formed and two residents were employed to implement a Community Action Plan.

Last year a brand new 25-metre swimming pool was opened on the estate and an application for funding has been made to build a community cafe at the Neighbourhood Centre.

According to historian Gwyn Cooke, the Barton area boasts several ghosts - including a large 'ghostly' dog with saucer eyes seen in Barton Lane, leading from Old Headington.

An old cleaning lady in a crossover pinny is said to haunt the community centre, but ignores everybody.

A house in Bernwood Road was believed to be haunted by Fred' - an elderly man in a baggy green cardigan.

Mrs Cooke said: "He was apparently seen in the in the bathroom mirror by Penny Hudson, who just used to say 'hello' to him."

There is also a tale of a ghost in Stowford Road which frightened the owner Ruth's toddler son and left a large handprint on his bottom through his nappy.

Exorcists were called and claimed somone playing with a ouija board had released an ancient spirit from Shotover Forest which thrived on human emotions.

Mrs Cooke added: "It was offered rehabilitation back to its own strata but became obstructive and abusive.

"It had to be captured, taken back to a forest and returned to the spirit world."

Community stalwarts

UNTIL she retired last year, Sue Holden had run the newsagent and nearby grocery store Arkwrights at Underhill Circus for 34 years.

She said: "It's a much younger community now to what it was, say 10 years ago. I do wonder whether people stay in the same place like they used to do 30 to 40 years ago.

"Barton has got soul and that is something you will find difficult to replicate anywhere else. It's got unity - it always has had, traditionally, because of its location. I wonder whether that will continue - now we are encompassed in the city will we lose that element of community? We have become more part of the city than we ever were before."

Janet Rose, 54, was born in Barton and has lived on the estate all her life.

Now secretary at Barton United she has lived next to the same neighbours for 35 years. said: "I've got friends here that I've known all my life. The estate has a bad reputation, but to be honest apart from a few joyriders we don't have many problems.

"I remember the terrible winter of 1964, when the ice was as tall as the garages on Fettiplace Road, but my dad still went on his bike to work.

"The shops have changed. There used to be a hardware shop, a post office, a grocery store, a wool shop, a butchers, a co-op and a sweet shop."

Events

Things planned for the big day include:

Aunty Sally competition

Indian music

African drumming workshop

A performing arts show by young peole living on the estate

Performance by the Catweazle Club where a variety of performers are given the opportunity to perform their own material.

Clowns, magicians, stilt walkers and other entertainers

Five-a-side football competition

Giant bubble blowing display

Barton in Bloom residents garden competition

Stalls including the Army cadets, the police and Oxfordshire Fire Service

A giant sunflower competition

Henna tattoos

Displays of pictures, photographs and stories written by children depicting their own family's history on the estate. Including family trees and time lines

Time capsules containing items which represent Barton in 2007 planted by children on the estate to mark the occasion.