When meadows and a by the recently discussed race-course at Grimsbury were sold to the Great Western Railway circa 1850, the owner also sold the other part of his land, north of the Middleton road to the Banbury Freehold Land Society, which was financially backed by Cobb's Bank, to build middle-class type houses on, but development was slow at the time and some plots were never built upon. The land in question and the location of today's Spice Ball Park are marked as "Liable to flooding" on the 1882, 1900, 1910 and 1922 Ordnance Survey maps.