FIREFIGHTERS were faced with a destructive blaze as it tore its way through Cowley Road Hospital in April, 1964.

Five fire engines and 22 firefighters attended the scene, where the flames destroyed four rooms and a corridor of the rehabilitation unit.

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The building was still in the process of being built with plans for a new 40-patient ward was due to be completed in the following months.

Originally the hospital was the Oxford City Workhouse, founded in 1865 and closed in the 1980s.