• Oxford – a city of parsons and sausages

    I was delighted to discover the above recipe for Oxford Sausages from 1883. It is taken from the Victorian Recipe Book ‘Consult Me on How to Cook’, and more recently illustrated by Mollie Picken. The butcher looks a jolly fellow in his bowler hat, and blue stripey apron, garlands of sausages strung around his neck. The ingredients are pretty much the same as specified by the famous Mrs Beaton in her tome of ‘Household Management’ published in 1861 and announced as her ‘ideal sausage’. For this was the heyday of the Oxford Sausage. A time when an Oxford Alderman when asked in a Parliamentary committee whether there was anything manufactured in his city, had answered, “yes, parsons and sausages.”

    May 31, 2026
    Inside markets & outside fairs, Street Life, Trade and Industry

  • A chimney crawl around old Oxford

    And it sparked the inspiration to set off around the city with my camera on a chimney pot pilgrimage. A chimney crawl if you like. Choosing one of those cold but clear May days we have had recently, to gaze upwards to check how fine a fare of fancy flues remain today. Chimneys have after all some competition when it comes to our city skyline. What with its spires and towers, grotesques and gargoyles, crenelations and crocketed pinnacles all vying for attention. But I’d like to think they hold their own. 

    May 23, 2026
    Builders and buildings

  • At the Relic Chapel in The Oxford Oratory

    But my eye was quickly drawn to something far from ordinary. For inside two ceiling-high, grey cabinets, internally lit and lined in red gauze, were shelves filled with an amazing array of ornately decorated receptacles; reliquaries as I later learned they are called. That is special showcases (caskets crafted from silver and gold, and made to look like churches, hollow crosses, statues and the like) designed to display the physical remains or objects used by those who have been canonised by the Catholic Church.

    May 16, 2026
    Feasts & festivities, Smells & bells

  • Beating of the Bounds

    I had been invited to join the congregation of the Church of St Michael at the North Gate (SMNG) in an age-old custom called ‘beating the bounds’ or sometimes ‘perambulations’ or ‘going a ganging’. In the days before maps and title deeds, when the parish was the basic unit of taxation and local government, it was important that people knew which parish they lived in and where the boundaries began and ended.

    May 9, 2026
    Feasts & festivities

  • Chiang Yee’s Oxford

    Opposite Meadow Walk on St Aldates, there is a shop where tourists like to buy souvenirs after their visit to Christ Church. It’s appropriately called ‘Alice’s Shop’ as this pretty…

    May 2, 2026
    Books and book folk