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Okebourne Park, Swindon

This is the northern section of Okebourne Park, a small area of individually designed residential properties that date back to the early 1970s. The history is this. In the late 1960s the then Swindon Borough Council needed land upon which to expand in order to meet the increasing demand for housing and commerce. Accordingly it took over the area known as Dorcan to the east of the Borough that was then mostly farmland in the administrative area of the now defunct Highworth Rural District Council (all RDCs ceased to exist in April 1974 following local government re-organization). The area was very roughly 600 hectares (1482 acres) in size. Whilst most of the area devoted to housing was developed either by the Council or private sector building firms this part was sold in plots to individuals who could then build houses to their own design (subject to planning permission).