Slade Camp was a thriving community in the foothills of Shotover, lying between Brasenose and Magdalen woods, from 1939 to 1970. It was built in 1939 by the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry to house and train recruits, in response to the threat of war. There were concrete roads, service buildings and wooden huts for the soldiers.

After the war, the huts were converted into much-needed homes for families, and Slade Camp became known as Slade Park. Many former residents remember their childhoods, enjoying the freedom of the woods and Shotover.

In 1959, the new section of the eastern bypass – part of the ring road – went right through Slade Park, cutting off the houses on the Brasenose Wood side from the growing facilities on the city side. Gradually, the families who loved here were offered accommodation elsewhere, and the last ones moved out around 1970. The houses were then dismantled and the land returned to nature.

In 2024 volunteers from Shotover Preservation Society started to clear the foundations of several buildings and began to contact former residents. In partnership with Oxford Preservation Trust, and supported by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Slade Camp project is bringing together the building plans, photographs and residents’ stories to help us to imagine what life was like here between 1939 and 1970.