From Tallow Factory to Tallow-Factory Owner's House, Oxford, August 14th 2024

There used to be a tallow factory at Mount Place in Jericho. I carry on with my #continuousoxford series, and walk from Observatory Street to Mount Place, there to talk about tallow, candles, and the stink. I then walk from Mount Place to the West Oxford Democrats Club on the corner of East Street and North Street in Osney. This was built by the factory's owner, Charles James Harrison. Perhaps he used to walk by the very same route that I did - or would have done, were it not for Thames Water and Keir Construction.
#continuousoxford

[@elizabethcollins6309]

Good morning.. just found this video.. thank you ❤

[@WalkingOxford]

Good morning! Glad you liked it.

[@vindenwylde5450]

Many thanks for this video ... I used to visit friends at No4 West St. Osney in the 1970's, from my home nr B'ham .. Osney is the only part of Oxford that I've visited .. I moved to Aberystwyth in 1987... My Dad was born at Oxford in 1923, & his Dad played Piano for the Silent movies in Jericho .. His Mother kept a Corner Shop nearby . They moved to B'ham in the 1930's .. I've a foto of Dad in the 1920's, standing in front of a sign outside a Builders yard somewhere ?? .. It was only after his death in 2013, that I found out the foto was taken on the corner of Canal St.& Cranham St. Jericho .. I also found that the Canal St. Flats with the Hanging Baskets, were built in 1970 on the site of the Builders Yard . .. I was a Plumber with B'ham Council for many years .. I used Tallow when "Wiping" Lead underground water pipe joints 🙃 Cheers

[@WalkingOxford]

That's all really interesting, and I'm glad you liked the video. I picked up a book yesterday that someone had left outside to give away, "A Bitter Remedy" by Alis Hawkins. It is set in Oxford 1881, and has quite a lot of history. About Jericho, a character in the book tells how she walked there: "I made my way towards St. Barnabas through still, foggy air, tainted with a sulphurous miasma from the iron works and the rancid fat stench of the nearby tallow factory."
A friend of mine remembers the builders yard where the council flats now are, and says there were two others in Jericho.
You say your Dad's Dad played for the silent movies. Was that just until the cinema got movies with sound? I know someone who remembers piano music in the Scala until the 1950s or 1960s. That must have been long after movies with sound came in, so I wondered what they were playing.