Cowley Vicarage and three adjoining acres of land were sold by auction on December 10, 1959, for £40,000.

The auction was conducted by Messers. E. J. Brooks and Son. The Vicarage and the land were bought by Edward Gray and company, auctioneers, surveyors and land agents of Marlow, who said they had bought on behalf of 'a national company'.

A representative of the agents declined to name the national company or to say for what purpose it was intended to use the land.

Cowley Vicarage, with a garden fronting Littlemore Road and road access from Westbury Crescent, had seven bedrooms. In offering the property for sale , it was suggested it could be made into three self-contained flats.

The three acres were zoned for residential development. The sale maintained the high price of the property and land in Oxford.

In October 1959, two freehold building plots at Iffley of about one-third of an acre, each fetched £1,500, while two acres at Headington had recently fetched £10,000 an acre.