THE news that a developer has expressed an interest in building on the remaining area of Cowley Barracks in Hollow Way (Oxford Mail, October 24) has been on the cards for some time. It is a large brownfield site in an area where every other possible square foot of available land has been built over.

If this goes ahead, the student accommodation in James Wolfe Road will be the only remaining visual reminder of the original barracks and my memories of my maternal ancestor.

My grandfather Patrick Carmody was warden at Cowley Barracks, transferring from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Aylesbury barracks in 1920 and dying unexpectedly in service in 1929. While stationed at Cowley, the family – grandmother, mum, four aunts and uncles – lived in the warden’s flat overlooking Hollow Way.

My grandfather not only had responsibility for the main barracks, but Slade Camp and Hospital on land along The Slade stretching to what is now Brasenose Woods Meadow beyond the present Eastern Bypass. After he died, the family moved out of the barracks and into nearby Coverley Road, Lye Valley.

With the surname Carmody, the family was part of the local Catholic community. My mum met my dad at a dance in St Dominic’s Church Hall, Hollow Way, and they married at St Mary’s Church on the corner of Crescent Road and Temple Road. How this area has changed over the past 38 years since I moved to the area.

St Dominic’s Hall now houses the Word Fountain Christian Ministries, while St Mary’s Church, previously part of the Salesian College, has been converted into attractive apartments complete with stained glass religious themed windows and attached entrance porch.

Cowley Barracks was replaced by the Territorial Army barracks in Horspath Driftway, and now has student accommodation fronting the road and housing behind. The Regimental Museum, whose archives hold many memories of my uncles, has also gone from Cowley, moving to The Soldiers of Oxford Museum in Woodstock.

I note that someone has already suggested the new estate should commemorate the past with suitable street names.

We already have Territorial Way behind the former Slade Barracks so let’s hope the council will follow this example.

I also hope conservationists will be interested in protecting the last stretch of historic wall that runs from James Wolfe Road along Hollow Way to the new houses in Hundred Acre Close.

KATH MULLIGAN
Leiden Road
Headington