The Preston Guardian reported the sale of the old Frenchwood Tannery, the last tannery to operate in Preston. It had operated on the Avenham site for most of the nineteenth century, opening long before middle-class Preston spread in that direction
The first sign of the tannery in around 1820, on the Shakeshaft map of Preston
A brief reference in an 1818 Preston trade directory and a mere speck on an 1822 map of the town are the first indications of the establishment of what was to become a substantial enterprise that seems to have escaped the notice of the town’s 19th-century chroniclers.
It would most certainly not have escaped the notice of its neighbours, quite simply because it would have stunk to high heaven. It occupied a substantial site on the boundary between what became the fashionable Winckley Square district and the meaner streets of Frenchwood. It also made the fortunes of two Preston families: the Tomlinsons and the Dixons.
The tanning industry was one of the foulest of the many vile trades practised in Victorian England. It involved the conversion of hides and bones from the slaughterhouse into leather, glue and tallow and required the use of vast quantities of animal faeces, urine and other noxious substances. These were used in the tanning pits in which the hides were steeped. The smell would have been appalling.
It is therefore more than a little surprising that many of Preston’s most affluent 19th-century residents should have chosen to live in close proximity to the town’s biggest tannery. Yet the inhabitants of some of the most desirable addresses in middle-class Avenham would have been close neighbours of the tannery. These neighbours would have included Joseph Livesey at his home in Bank Parade. Even the gentry of Winckley Square and cotton magnate Samuel Horrocks in his Lark Hill mansion would not have been spared the stench when the wind was in the wrong direction.
It was not the tannery’s fault. It was well established at a considerable distance from the nearest properties before suburban Preston began its spread south across the Avenham fields.
There is no sign of any building on the site on Shakeshaft’s 1809 map of Preston, so the tannery was presumably built at some time shortly after then. The first physical sign of the tannery appears on the revised 1822 Shakeshaft map of the town where a small industrial building and yard sits above the Swill Brook. At this time the tannery owners were listed as the firm of Thomas Tomlinson and Son, operating as fellmongers and tanners.
The Tomlinson involvement with the tannery and with the town’s leather trade can be traced in trade directories. A Thomas Tomlinson first appears in a directory of 1811 operating a shoe warehouse in the Market Place (the address is later given as 5 Cheapside but it is probably the same premises).
The tannery and its surroundings in the 1840s
The tannery had extended considerably by 1849, when elegant Preston had spread southwards with the appearance of Bank Parade, Bushell Place and Avenham Hill, a substantial villa set in extensive landscaped grounds. Housing had also spread alongside Pleasant Street to reach the tannery and it was Pleasant Street that supplied the only access to the tannery at this time. The narrow street must have witnessed a constant progression of carts to and from the tannery, many with foul-smelling cargoes
In 1850, following the death of William Tomlinson, his estate, including the tannery was auctioned: ‘Lot 1, the tan-yard, currying works, &e., comprising 12,271 square yards of land, was sold to Mr. Richd. Dixon, for £2,350’.
Oak House today, the former home of the Dixon family
Dixon settled his family in the Winckley Square area, first in Starkie Street and then at 15 Bushell Place. Eventually, the Dixons built a new family home, Oak House in Frenchwood Street, next to their tannery. When Richard’s sons married, they moved to houses in the neighbourhood.
It is interesting that Richard Dixon chose to live at Oak House, directly adjoining the tannery, where it would have been subject to all the smells, flies and vermin that it produced. Access to the tannery by this time seems to have switched from Pleasant Street to Frenchwood Street, so the procession of wagons filled with the foul materials need for the trade would now be passing the house to reach the tannery.
The trend by this time was for owners of mills and factories to put some considerable distance between residence and workplace, so why did Richard not choose a more salubrious location?
The tannery site in the early twentieth century, after the sale
The answer to the final question may lie in the character of Richard Dixon, as described in his obituary in the Preston Herald on 19 September 1874, which said he was one of the oldest local tradesmen, though ‘never known as a prominent public man, the charitable institutions of the town have found in him a ready supporter. His career presents an example of industry and perseverance.’ He began his business in the leather trade in 1819 in Nile Street, and moved to the east corner of Church yard in 1822 for over 40 years. There is a painting by Edwin Beattie showing his shop at 128 Church Street on Preston Digital Archive. He was a Director of the Preston Banking Company for many years where ‘he rendered good and useful service’, and ‘a man of unassuming deportment, but noted for his integrity and perseverance, as well as for his philanthropy’.
Before he moved to 15 Bushell Place, he lived for several years at West Cliff Terrace. Politically he seems to have leaned to the Liberals.
Richard Dixon’s name appears in the local papers as churchwarden, committee member of the Church Missionary Society, supporter of Preston Dispensary, subscriber to the Free Library and Museum, Preston Relief Fund, proposed infirmary, Bengal Famine Relief 1874, and to the peal of bells for St Mark’s just before his death.
He was also one of the founding trustees of Ashton Freehold Land Society – of which more eventually.
The answer to the final question may lie in the character of Richard Dixon, as described in his obituary in the Preston Herald on 19 September 1874, which said he was one of the oldest local tradesmen, though ‘never known as a prominent public man, the charitable institutions of the town have found in him a ready supporter. His career presents an example of industry and perseverance.’ He began his business in the leather trade in 1819 in Nile Street, and moved to the east corner of Church yard in 1822 for over 40 years. There is a painting by Edwin Beattie showing his shop at 128 Church Street on Preston Digital Archive. He was a Director of the Preston Banking Company for many years where ‘he rendered good and useful service’, and ‘a man of unassuming deportment, but noted for his integrity and perseverance, as well as for his philanthropy’.
Before he moved to 15 Bushell Place, he lived for several years at West Cliff Terrace. Politically he seems to have leaned to the Liberals.
Richard Dixon’s name appears in the local papers as churchwarden, committee member of the Church Missionary Society, supporter of Preston Dispensary, subscriber to the Free Library and Museum, Preston Relief Fund, proposed infirmary, Bengal Famine Relief 1874, and to the peal of bells for St Mark’s just before his death.
He was also one of the founding trustees of Ashton Freehold Land Society – of which more eventually.