History & more about the Park

Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park is a public park in the north of Oxford, England, established with the purchase by Oxford City Council in 1935 of farmland belonging to the old Cutteslowe Manor farm, which house still stands at its centre. Further land was acquired in 1937.

Sunnymead park is the section of the land that was separated off by the building of Oxford"s northern bypass road in the 1930s, and has its own identity and attractions.

The original Cutteslowe manor house dates from at least the mid-17th century, being shown here on a 1670s map by Michael Burghers.

More recent purchases of farmland gave the park a very large recreation ground to its east side, used for football and rugby throughout the autumn and winter months. The park is surrounded to the north and east by working farmland.

The park is a very traditional form of English public space, with a children's paddling pool, crazy golf, small aviary, duck pond and tennis courts, to complement the well-kept flowerbeds and many Horse Chestnut trees. Recent work has developed a community woodland, with large-scale planting of young Ash and Walnut trees.

The park also serves as a horticultural centre for the City Council"s Parks Department.