ABOUT JERICHO - HISTORY

Jericho history

Jericho was Oxford's first planned suburb. Here is a selection of articles about its history.

A brief history of Jericho
The origins of the name Jericho remain clouded in the mists of time.
<p>The Jericho Tavern from which this district may have derived its name</p>
Jan 07 2013
Working Class Housing in Jericho
A research project by Andrew Whitehead
Nov 29 2018
Jericho Talk
Life in Jericho from the 1950s, by Wendy Matthews
Apr 15 2019
Ali the postman
Memories of the Jericho round
Ali, speaking at My Jericho
Jan 04 2019
Oxford Boy - A Post-war Townie Childhood
Will Wyatt, former BBC Managing Director, remembers shopping in Walton Street
Will Wyatt in 1953 with neat haircut, probably from Mr Taylor
Oct 03 2018
A suburb of Victorian Oxford
How three main landowners developed Jericho
<p>College property as in Richmond Road was set behind palisades and flower gardens for superior artisan houses.</p>
Jan 17 2013
Open fields to narrow streets
New research into the origins of Jericho
<p>Jericho meadows around 1850. Behind, left to right, are the Radcliffe Observatory, the Jericho Tavern and the smokestack of Oxford University Press.</p>
Jan 07 2013
Jericho’s links with OUP
A suburb grows around the Press
<p>Jericho seen from OUP around 1890, with Wellington Street in the foreground.</p>
May 27 2014
Happy days at the Scala
97-year-old Martin Selwood, projectionist at The Phoenix (then The Scala) from 1930-1931, recalls the arrival of the ‘talkies’.
<p>Happy Days is an 80 minute musical film. The story centers around a singer on a showboat who goes to make her fortune in New York City,</p>
Nov 23 2013
Looking back at Jericho’s gardens
History of the back yard
<p>Typical back garden for a terraced house</p>
Mar 02 2013
A magnet for Jericho’s children, layabouts and rats
Grantham House site
Nov 07 2007
Jericho embraces the canal
Mark Davies delves into our canalside history.
<p>The old ferry that ran from the bottom of what is now Combe Road.</p>
Mar 03 2001
Memories of wigs and cassocks
More recollections from Jo Elvidge, now in Somerset
<p>Music class at St. Barnabas</p>
Mar 03 1999
A Jericho childhood
Jo Elvidge, now living in Frome, Somerset, recently revisited Jericho, and has written these recollections.
May 03 1998
Facing the past
Changing Faces of Jericho
Oct 29 1997
Traces of ancient Walton
An excavation behind a house in Walton Street offered a glimpse of a late-Saxon settlement and a medieval farmhouse.
Dec 06 1996
Living memories ... St. Giles Fair
Reminiscences recorded as part of an adult education class in Jericho.
Oct 05 1996
Living memories ... shops and shopping
Reminiscences recorded as part of an adult education class in Jericho
May 10 1996
Memories from a resident of Jericho
Interview with 'Annie'
Oct 04 1983
50 Years of Jericho
1871-1921
Apr 04 1984
The history of St. Paul’s Church
To become an arts centre
Sep 04 1984
Press opens in Walton Street
Stimulating local development
Dec 05 1984
Thomas Combe
A man who did much for Jericho
Dec 10 1985
THE EAGLE IRONWORKS OXFORD
The story of the early days of W. Lucy & Co Ltd.
Oct 11 1986
The history of Jericho
Jericho expands
May 01 1981
The story of Jericho
From a 1688 visit to Jericho Gardens
Dec 09 1980
A slice of Jericho history
From a community scrapbook
<p>Before the bridge, the only way across the canal from Jericho was by ferry</p>
Oct 28 2020
History of St Paul’s Church
Soon to be an arts centre
Dec 08 1979
Why Jericho?
Information from a new booklet
May 08 1980

Did you know?

Margaret Thatcher used to live here?

In her Oxford days, she lived at 12 Richmond Road. It is alleged she shared the house with two red-hot communists who lived on a diet of sausages. This may account for her later views on socialists and known dislike of sausages.

Why Jericho still has such a mix of houses?

Jericho's intriguing mix of housing today owes a lot, to the Residents' Association in the 1960s and 1970s which together with the then Vicar and some local councillors resisted plans to bulldoze the whole area and turn it over to offices and light industrial use.

Diary

Sir Philip Pullman in conversation with James Naughtie
Tue 18 Nov - 6.30 pm
Mathematical Institute in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Monthly litter pick
Keeping Jericho tidy
Saturday 1 November - 10:00 AM
Jericho Community Centre