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
Cowley, Oxfordshire as the "Cowley Fathers". In 1868 the Eddison and Nodding Company factory was founded in Cowley. John Allen bought it in 1897 and renamed it the Oxford Steam Plough Company. He later renamed it again as John Allen and Sons, and diversified into manufacturing other agricultural and horticultural machinery including the successful Allen Scythe powered by a small Villiers petrol engine. The works closed in the early 1980s, and the John Allen Centre retail park has since been built on the site. The Oxford Military College bought the former Cowley Middle Class School in 1876. The College hall, a former