My first blog and promise

I have spent the best part of my life in Oxford. As a child our family lived in an old stone cottage in Headington Quarry to the east of the city, (once part of the Wychwood royal forest and then later where the local stone was mined to build the famous facades that adorn so many of the University colleges). The house had no bathroom so every week I’d ride the bus into town with my mother and two brothers to use the facilities of the public baths in Paradise Square (named after the gardens or ‘Paradise’ of the medieval Greyfriars who lived and worked here before The Reformation). There you could rent a cubicle with a large freestanding bath. Soap and towels were included in the admission. We children got washed first and when we were out, dried and dressed, it was my mother’s turn. The water was controlled by a tap on the other side of the partition, and an attendant who walked up and down shouting to each occupant in turn, “more hot or cold love?” I remember it as a happy place, full of the sounds of splashing and sudden bursts of singing.

Soon after my parents moved house in the early 1960’s, this temple of cleanliness was buried beneath a concrete shopping centre. And now, many years later I find myself living a short walk from where it once stood. I’m in a city centre townhouse, thankfully with its own bathroom. The street it stands in was part of the city’s first major housing development in the early 1800s, mostly for tradespeople, coachmen, milkmen and the likes. The first leaseholder of our house was a sausage maker, a popular occupation at the time as ‘The Oxford Sausage’ with its unique blend of spicy ingredients, was until recently a famous culinary export.

It was this revelation that set me on a new adventure. Like Alice when she stepped into Wonderland, I have started to explore the squares, snickets and side streets of my neighbourhood and I have been amazed. This is a place stuffed with history, layered in meaning, and rich with the exploits of people who have made the city what it is today. I never come back empty handed.

Every week I will post my latest discovery. I do hope you will come along on the journey.

Yours truly,

The Oxford Sausage