Saxton Road was built from the Drayton Road end to the River Thames. It was built to rehouse people from the Ock Street area of Abingdon during a 1930s slum-clearance. The work on the new houses was not very far advanced when, in 1934, the remains of a Saxon cemetary was discovered – around about the grey shaded area of the plan above.

The road however is not Saxon Road, but Saxton Road, and is named after Sir Charles Saxton who lived for some time at Caldecott House.

Saxton Road grew into a long straight terrace of Council Housing, with side alleys.

It changed recently when it was designated a home-zone. There had been too many children hit by cars, and so about two thirds of the road was redesigned, and lots of central government money spent to beautify it and slow down the cars. Now it no longer looks like one long road.

The one big complaint after the redesign was the white powdery substance used to coat the pavements. For months afterwards it was getting trodden into the houses.

There are pavement tiles designed by local residents. The mound in the foreground is used by BMXers – prehaps not its intended use. But its 20 MPH, or should be safer…

It is the road in Abingdon where you could set a TV soap opera, and not need to bring in new characters every few weeks to make it interesting.