Blackbird Leys emerged out of the area surrounding the village of Garsington, writes CHRIS KOENIG

Lady Ottoline Morrell, the eccentric inhabitant of Garsington Manor during the First World War who provided sanctuary for talented conscientious objectors, including D.H. Lawrence, and Bertrand Russell, would be astonished were she to see what has happened to the sewage works down the road.

The land at Sawpit Farm, now part of Blackbird Leys, had belonged to the family of her husband Philip, Liberal MP for South Oxfordshire from 1857 until 1895. Then it had been sold off to the City of Oxford, although the western part had already been bought and turned into a sewage works as early as 1877.

In her day, Oxford was regarded as a university city and market town, rather than an industrial centre. With a population of 57,399 in 1901 (up from just 12,690 a century before), the arguments which still rage today about Oxford expanding into the surrounding countryside had not really begun.

By the end of the Second World War, the city's population had topped the 100,000 mark (in reality it was much more since unplanned development had occurred immediately outside the city limits) and by 2001 it had hit 134,248.

Just over 50 years ago, planners realised that a major council estate was needed near the burgeoning Cowley car factory. The availability of jobs was attracting ever more people to the area. A plan for 2,800 houses was given outline planning permission for land used by the sewage works and at Sawpit Farm.

In 1958, ten families moved into the first houses built on the estate: numbers 23-33 Sandy Lane. In 1961, the two 150ft high blocks of flats - Evenlode and Windrush Towers - went up. They were described at their opening by Alderman Lionel Harrison as "the best of modern living".

As they were being built - on the site of former sewage workers' homes - The Oxford Times commented: "When the nation-wide planning schemes were made as far back as 1945, the present rapid increase in population was not anticipated."

Originally, Blackbird Leys was intended to provide homes for about 10,000 people but such was the unrelenting demand that it ended up with a far higher density. Some 13,400 people live there now, making it bigger than some Oxfordshire market towns. In the 1980s, the estate was further extended with the building of Greater Leys.

The old sewage works formed most of what is now the estate but it was named Blackbird Leys after a nearby farm, sometimes called Blacford Leys, because it sounded more attractive.

The sewage works were famous for attracting wild birds and many of the roads on the estate are named after the different species.

Carole Newbigging, author of The Changing Face of Blackbird Leys (Robert Boyd £9.50) quotes George Bampton, of Littlemore, reminiscing on the sewage works: "Other parts of the sewage farm were dug by hand into gridiron shapes known locally as the beds and on these, that is the raised or banked portion, was grown such crops as marigolds, cabbages and Brussels sprouts."

Lady Ottoline would have known those beds of flowers and vegetables. Britain's population in her day was 42 million. Little would she have guessed that it would reach 60 million during the next 100 years and change the landscape forever.

The villages of Cowley, Iffley and Headington became incorporated into Oxford in 1929, the year after she moved out of Garsington.