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Oxgangs | |
---|---|
![]() Oxgangs Crescent and Comiston area | |
Location within Edinburgh | |
Population | Unknown |
Council area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Edinburgh |
Postcode district | EH13 |
Dialling code | 0131 (441, 445) |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Oxgangs is a suburb in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Surrounding districts include Caiystane, Dreghorn, Redford, Fairmilehead, Colinton and Swanston and Colinton Mains. The post code area for Oxgangs is EH13.
The name derives from "oxgang", an old unit of land measurement. Skene in Celtic Scotland says:
The building of the area started in around 1953/54; before that (with the exception of Colinton Mains) there had only been a number of prefab houses and several farms but it had been mostly farmland and was basically considered to be part of the countryside. The area consists of large public housing schemes aimed at low to middle income groups, ranging from private bungalows to Edinburgh City Council-owned high rise tower blocks (although these have now been demolished).
A significant majority of former council-owned properties in Oxgangs have been bought by tenants under the right to buy scheme leaving approximately 659 properties in council ownership thus making it extremely difficult to be allocated a council home in the area. [2]
Peter Hoffmann has written memoirs of growing up in Oxgangs between 1958 and 1972 which capture the era and its social and cultural history. He has also written Two Worlds: The Story Of An Edinburgh Doctor, a biography of Dr Motley, a Black American, and the first general practitioner to set up his practice in the area in the mid 1940s until his retirement in 1978.
There were two small shopping areas at each end of Oxgangs known locally as the "top" and "bottom" shops. The top shops (Oxgangs Broadway) are larger and feature award winning convenience store called "Premier - Broadway Convenience Store" known as "Dennis'" after the owner of the shop. As of March 2023, the shop has been in the Broadway for 40 years, having been passed down through Dennis' family. He runs it with his wife Linda, who runs the hugely successful Premier Deli, and their daughter Sophie. Other shops in the Broadway include Glo Tanning and Beauty Salon, two barbers and a hairdressers, a bookies, two take aways (a chip shop and a Chinese). There is also a post office and a pharmacy. The bottom shops (Oxgangs Crescent) bottom right of photograph, were demolished along with the high flats, being replaced by housing and a small "Day-Today Express store" in Firrhill Neuk. Located in and around Oxgangs and adjacent areas are a police station, a medical practice, a public library, a nursery, three primary schools and a high school, and a pub.
There are three churches in the area: Church of Scotland, Scottish Episcopal Church and St Mark's Roman Catholic Church, opened by Archbishop Gordon Gray in 1962. [3] Recently a Kingdom Hall was built in the Oxgangs Green area.
Surrounding Oxgangs are three large supermarkets: a Tesco next to Firrhill High School, a Morrisons near the Swanston area and a Scotmid in Colinton Mains. In 2017, Aldi opened a store on the site where the social work building and St John's church previously stood.
AC Oxgangs, a community football team, was founded in 2001. They currently operate 14 teams selected from a total player pool of around 200 youngsters which range in age from 7 to 18 years old. They play their 7-a-side and 11-a-side home games at Colinton Mains Park just beside Oxgangs Road North where a brand new clubhouse has just [ when? ] been erected. Younger members occasionally play 4-a-side games at the Saughton Sports Complex off Balgreen Road, but also play 7-a-side games at Colinton Mains Park.
In 2003, after years of campaigning by residents the council took the decision to demolish and redevelop Oxgangs high rise flats. In April 2005 longstanding tower block Capelaw Court was demolished to make way for new housing. Capelaw was one of three high rise flats built in Oxgangs Crescent in 1961 and 1962. The other two buildings (Caerketton Court and Allermuir Court) were demolished in November 2006. The demolition of Capelaw Court was filmed and featured on the National Geographic Channel, which interviewed residents of Oxgangs and community leader Heather Levy.
Two neighbouring primary schools situated on Oxgangs Green (Comiston and Hunters Tryst) were recently merged and renamed Pentland Primary. At first the Comiston pupils moved into the building formerly known as Hunters Tryst alongside current Tryst pupils while Comiston was renovated and a year later all staff and children moved permanently into the refurbished Comiston building, now known as Pentland Primary.
Public transport is frequent with Lothian Buses operating chartered services. Bus routes 4, 5, 16, 27, airport service 400, and night service N16 all serve the area.
Midlothian is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.
Swanston is a village and residential area on the southern edge of Edinburgh, Scotland, noted for its picturesque thatched cottages set around an informal village green. Because of its relatively isolated position at the foot of the Pentland Hills, it has remained largely unaffected by commercial or suburban development.
Edinburgh Pentlands was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, first used in the general election of 1950, and abolished prior to the general election of 2005. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The Pentland Hills are a range of hills southwest of Edinburgh, Scotland. The range is around twenty miles in length, and runs southwest from Edinburgh towards Biggar and the upper Clydesdale.
The davoch, davach or daugh is an ancient Scottish land measurement. All of these terms are cognate with modern Scottish Gaelic dabhach. The word dabh or damh means an "ox", but dabhach can also refer to a "tub", so may indicate productivity. It was called the arachor in the Lennox.
An oxgang or bovate is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England as early as the 16th century sometimes referred to as an oxgait. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, and so could be as low as 15.
A pennyland is an old Scottish land measurement. It was found in the West Highlands, and also Galloway, and believed to be of Norse origin. It is frequently found in minor placenames.
Bonaly is an area on the south-western outskirts of Edinburgh and the northern slopes of the Pentland Hills, lying within the Parish of Colinton. It is a mix of mainly post-war housing, woodland, pasture-land and heather moorland. Bonaly Burn has its sources in the hills above Bonaly and flows towards Oxgangs, where it becomes the Braid Burn. The Edinburgh City Bypass passes through Bonaly.
Colinton is a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland situated 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) south-west of the city centre. Up until the late 18th century it appears on maps as Collington. It is bordered by Dreghorn to the south and Craiglockhart to the north-east. To the north-west it extends to Lanark Road and to the south-west to the City Bypass. Bonaly is a subsection of the area on its southern side.
Juniper Green is a village on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated about 5.5 miles (8.9 km) south-west of the city centre. It bridges the city bypass, and extends along the foothills of the Pentlands. It is bordered by Colinton to the east, Baberton immediately to the north, and Currie to the south-west. It centres on Lanark Road, the main route leading out south-west of Edinburgh into the Central Borders. The village stands on an elevated ridge above the Water of Leith to its south.
Sighthill is a suburb in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The area is bordered by Broomhouse and Parkhead to the east, South Gyle to the north, the industrial suburb of Bankhead and the Calders neighbourhood to the west, and Wester Hailes to the south. It is sometimes included in the Wester Hailes area, while the Calders, Bankhead and Parkhead are sometimes considered parts of Sighthill. Administratively it has formed a core part of the City of Edinburgh Council's Sighthill/Gorgie ward since 2007.
Firrhill High School is a secondary school located in the south-west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The school was established in 1960, and was officially opened by the city’s lord provost. The school has around 1123 pupils and a teaching staff roll of around 121. The school serves areas such as: Oxgangs, Colinton Mains, Colinton Village, Bonaly, Fairmilehead, Buckstone, Craiglockhart and Longstone.
Pilton is a residential area of northern Edinburgh, Scotland. It is to the north of Ferry Road, immediately east of Muirhouse, and to the west and south of Granton.
Comiston is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is south of Morningside and west of the Braid Hills, linking the suburbs of Oxgangs and Fairmilehead.
Fairmilehead is a district of southern Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies approximately 3 miles (5 km) due south of the city centre and borders Midlothian. The area comprises the neighbourhoods of Buckstone, Caiyside, Caiystane, Swanston, Frogston and Winton.
Firrhill is a suburb of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is south of Merchants of Edinburgh Golf Club and lies next to Oxgangs.
Hunter's Tryst is the name of a long-established inn in Edinburgh, Scotland; it has lent its name to the surrounding area, near Fairmilehead.
The Oxgangs tower blocks were a group of 3 tower blocks which were built on Firrhill Drive/Oxgangs Crescent in 1961 and 1962. They each contained a mixture of flats and maisonettes with 2 bedrooms each, totalling up to 80 homes per block. The blocks were called "Allermuir Court" "Caerketton Court" and "Capelaw Court", and were named after three of the nearby Pentland Hills.
Colinton/Fairmilehead is one of the seventeen wards used to elect members of the City of Edinburgh Council. Established in 2007 along with the other wards, it elects three Councillors.