Blackbird Leys

When you mention the word Oxford most people think of dreaming spires and ancient colleges built out of beautiful honey coloured stone.   That was the Oxford I went to study at twenty years ago, when I was training to become a vicar.   However I already knew there was another Oxford because my accounting career had begun fifteen years before that checking the books at British Leyland in Cowley; the former Morris Motors on the eastern edge of the city.  This was the industrial heart of Oxford, and close by was the council housing estate of Blackbird Leys built in the 1960’s to house the workers for the rapidly growing car plant.  Blackbird Leys sounds an idyllic rural spot, the tune to the hymn ‘Come Risen Lord and be our Guest’ is named after these water meadows on the edge of the great University City.   But it wasn’t water meadows by the 1960’s; in fact, it was one of the largest council housing estates in Europe.  By the time of my return to Oxford in the 1980’s the decline in the car industry, the one major employer, meant it had become a huge sink estate with high levels of employment – famous for joy riding young car thieves and immortalised as such in one of Colin Dexter’s ‘Inspector Morse’ books of the time.

The Singing Estate

The estate, so at odds with the rest of the surrounding area, has continued to be a source of crime and concern.  It was my knowledge of the area that led me to watch the first episode of the TV series ‘The Singing Estate’ in which with the help of an Arts Council grant (and with the accompaniment of TV cameras) auditions were held to find 40 odd residents, with no previous experience, to form a choir to perform a classical repertoire at the Albert Hall in London after just ten weeks of training.  It was quite inspiring to see how these people at the bottom of the pile were given confidence, self respect, and took responsibility for one another and began to behave as a cohesive social group rather than as a bunch of individuals each out for their own benefit. 

What did strike was that this is precisely the message that the Christian church, and particularly the Church of England brings to communities like Blackbird Leys, not least through its choirs and music groups allowing young and not so young to come together and develop their musical talents.  We have hung on in these areas after other organisations have long departed, perhaps we ought to apply for a grant for such work, or seek more publicity.  The church lives out the Christian Gospel when it serves the least of our brethren and brings them hope, long may it continue to do so despite our financial problems.

Alan Harper - June06