milking parlor. Roman pottery shards and some firing slag was also found at the end of what is now Keene close. (Mr Gerald Keene was the last farmer to operate the farm at this site.) Industry Next to and downstream from the lock is a waterfront housing development, Sandford Mill. Built in the 1980s, this occupies the site of the former mill which closed on Christmas Eve 1982. Originally a corn mill belonging to the Abbey of Abingdon and recorded in 1100 as owned by the local monks for bread making, it came into the hands of the Knights Templars at the beginning of the 14th century. It was converted to a paper mill in 1826 in order to supply the increasing demands of the University of Oxford. The listed cottages upstream from the lock (now River View) that can be seen across the road from the old wharf were also built in 1826. Occupied by mill workers, they originally boasted flat roofs made of tarred paper, (a first in Britain). The millrace continues to flow under the footbridge that crosses from the King's Arms pub to the lock. At the beginning of the 20th century the wharf adjacent to and upstream from the King's Arms was used extensively both by the paper mill and also by the brickworks, which developed well until 1914 when the engines were taken for service in the First World War. In 1920 the 126 foot tall brickworks chimney was demolished. The land is now a trailer park site. The name is preserved in Brick Kiln Lane (formerly Crab or Crab Gate Lane) running east out of the village towards the Oxford Science Park and Oxford United FC's Kassam Stadium which was completed in 2001. Henley Road The road through the centre of the village (now the Henley Road but formerly called both the Nuneham Road and the London Road) also crosses the Northfield Brook. A toll house known as Sandford Gate stood here until it was knocked down in 1920 and the present house was built. One of the earliest petrol stations, which served William Morris (Lord Nuffield) as he journeyed between Oxford and Nuffield was on the Henley Road opposite the present garage. The garage served as a Spitfire wing repair shop in the Second World War. The Second Wartime Boat Race, 1943 In 1943, the second wartime Boat Race between the Universities