Tin Town
A long row of nine small cottages once stood on the west side of Banbury Road, south of the railway line, roughly where the Rowan Road junction is today. For a rent of 2s 6d per week they provided pretty basic accommodation, each cottage having just two rooms, both with earthen floors.
![Banbury Road cottages in the 1900s.](https://www.bicesterhistorynerd.uk/content/images/2023/02/083-old.jpg)
They are shown here with their original thatched roofs, but when the Great Western Railway opened their line in 1910, the risk of sparks or cinders falling from a passing steam engine and setting fire to the thatch was deemed so great that all the cottages were re-roofed with tin sheeting. From then on, the row of cottages became known as ‘Tin Town’.
They were demolished in the 1950s.
![The location looks a lot different today.](https://www.bicesterhistorynerd.uk/content/images/2023/02/083-new-1.jpg)