Episode 3

An infamous wall separated residents of one European city for 25 years. No, not that one. The city was Oxford.

In the 1930s, two housing estates were built side by side in North Oxford. One was an estate of white rendered semis built by a private developer. The other, a red brick council estate. But when the private developer – a man called Clive Saxton – discovered that “slum housing” residents were being moved into the red brick council houses, he became concerned that middle class tenants would be put off moving into his new houses. So do you know what Clive did? He built two eight-foot-high walls, topped with revolving spikes, right across both main access roads to the council estate – to keep everyone on the council estate out. For 25 years, the residents of Cutteslowe estate had to walk the best part of a mile to get around the walls.

Finally they were demolished in March 1959... On the fifth birthday of a Cutteslowe resident called Steven Griffiths. “The teacher said today is a big day everyone, and I thought ‘I know, it’s my birthday’”. Steve’s life was shaped by what happened to his family in the months running up to the demolition of the walls - when tragedy struck he had both sets of grandparents on the estate, and says his home was split between all three houses. Steve wants to know what happened to the houses and the estate which gave him his start. "The walls came down, let's keep them down, that's the message..."

Today, what happened to Steve's paternal Grandparents house? Who lives there today?

Produced and presented by Polly Weston
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Theme music is "Cutteslowe Walls" by Thea Gilmore
Archive recorded in 2004 by Mark Whitaker of Square Dog Media for Radio 4's The Battle of Cutteslowe
Image used courtesy of ‘Oxfordshire County Council – Oxfordshire History Centre’