The Lighthouse in Oxford the railway station at Frideswide Square gradually eroded away much of the canal trade. In 1913 William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), without licence, started his own bus service to compete with the city's cumbersome tram network. In 1951, Lord Nuffield further forced change when he acquired the Oxford Canal Basin and proceeded to fill it. Nuffield College and Worcester Street car park now stand where once lay the Basin. This was the death knell of the canal system as a competitive mode of transport in Oxford as technology replaced human labour. An apt example can be found in the reconstruction
Oxford Stadium which is popular among Oxfordshire residents. The stadium was constructed in 1938 on the site of a 'flapping' (non regulated) track where owners could turn up and run their greyhounds around an oval on the days selected for racing. The rear wheel of a jacked up motor car was used to drive the lure around the track. The location was on Sandy Lane, in Cowley, Oxfordshire and was a short walk from the famous Oxford motor factories built by Morris Motors. The back straight was adjacent to the Great Western Railway Thame Branch line (now the BMW freight line). A