a small settlement grew up in what is now the southeast corner of the Estate—the houses are still there. Brick and tile works were established (in the middle of the 19th century three were located off what we now know as Kiln Lane) and that remained in operation until the early part of the 20th century. The rest of what is now Risinghurst was farmland. Magdalen Farm was located roughly where the top end of Stanway and Collingwood Roads now are. The northern part of Risinghurst was one large field; the southern part was a number of smaller fields. On the site where Nielsen's HQ now sits was a house called Shotover Lodge in the middle of the 19th century but Forest Lodge by the turn of the 20th century. Up until the late 18th century, the Oxford to London road ran over Shotover Hill. Then a turnpike was opened on a new route further north with upwards of 80 coaches plus the Mail coach making the trip to London daily. This is today's A40 road that forms the northern boundary of Risinghurst. An 18th century turnpike milestone (Oxford 3, London 51) can still be seen on the central reservation near the Thornhill Park and Ride. (Thornhill itself is both the name of the farm to the east of Risinghurst and the hill that rises towards Shotover.) Bounding the western edge of Risinghurst is Green Road. Maps from the 19th century show that it was a road at that time and it is probably older; its original name was Toot Hill Butts as the road ran through an ancient field of that name. In the mid to late 1930s the bulk of the Estate was built primarily by Benfield and Loxley (an Oxford building firm started in the late 19th century and still in existence) and sold between £350 to £500 in 1936. Most of the houses in Risinghurst are still these pebble-dashed semi-detached 1930s three-bedroom houses, although the newer houses behind Nielsen's UK headquarters date from the 1970s, some smaller ex-council houses date from the late 1980s, and 18 houses built in 1997 are on the site of a coppice. The Estate was built primarily to house the increasing number of workers then employed at Morris Motors (by 1937 Morris Motors was the largest motor manufacturer in Europe); until relatively recently, most of the home-owners were still likely to