Family bibles, restored.
Notebooks, hand-stitched.
A small bindery on a quiet street in Jericho, restoring heirloom books and stitching bespoke notebooks the old way — by hand, with linen thread and a steady eye. Sixteen years at the bench.
A small bench
in Jericho.
Foxed Pages opened above a print shop on Walton Street in 2010 — one sewing frame, a brass-handled press, a long shelf of buckram and goatskin, and the good fortune to learn the trade under one of Oxford's last great binders. Sixteen years on, we're still on the same bench.
We restore family bibles, prayer books, journals and heritage texts — books passed down three or four generations that need careful, reversible work to last another three or four. We also stitch a small number of bespoke notebooks and guest books each month, by commission only.
Open Tuesday to Friday by appointment. Bring the book in, tell us about it, and we'll talk through what's possible. Quotes free, answers honest.
Six recent rescues.
A small sample from the last twelve months at the bench. Each entry lists the book, the work carried out, and the materials used. All repairs are reversible and sympathetic to the original binding.
Five things we do by hand.
Book Restoration & Rebinding
Detached boards, broken sewing, perished spines and worn corners. Reversible repairs in goatskin, calf or buckram. From £180.
Family Bibles & Heritage Texts
Religious books, prayer books and Greek/Latin volumes. Page repair, spine reconstruction and gilt re-tooling — sympathetic to the original.
Bespoke Notebooks
Hand-stitched in linen thread, full-leather or quarter-bound. Choice of paper, endpapers and edges. Editions of one. £75–£250.
Wedding Guest Books
Bound to commission, often with hand-tooled initials and a date on the front board. Lined or unlined cotton pages. From £180.
Workshop Courses
Small-group classes in the bindery — single signature, long-stitch and quarter-leather. Six benches, eight Saturdays a year.
Four steps,
and a steady hand.
Assess
Bring the book in. We spend an hour with it on the bench — checking the sewing, the boards, the paper. A written quote follows within a week.
Dismantle
Where structural work is needed, the book is carefully taken apart. Original endpapers, labels and fragments are kept and re-used wherever possible.
Repair
Page repair with Japanese tissue and wheat-starch paste. Sewing rebuilt on a frame. Boards re-attached, spine rebuilt in matching material. Reversible always.
Finish
Gilt re-tooled by hand where present. Headbands sewn in silk if original. Returned in a fitted cloth slipcase with a written record of the work carried out.
Typical lead time · 6 to 12 weeks · longer for full rebinds
Hand-stitched,
edition of one.
A small number of commissioned notebooks and guest books each month. Pick a paper, a thread and a binding style — we'll stitch a one-off that'll outlive most things on your desk. Prices £75 to £250 depending on size and materials.
Six benches.
Eight Saturdays.
Small-group classes in the bindery — one-day sessions, all materials provided, leave with a finished book. £140 a seat, including bench tea and biscuits.
Single-Signature Pamphlet
Beginner-friendly · 10am – 3pm · 6 places · leave with a hand-stitched notebook
Long-Stitch Binding
Intermediate · 10am – 4pm · 6 places · vegetable-tanned leather cover
Coptic Binding
Intermediate · 10am – 5pm · 6 places · exposed-spine notebook
Quarter-Leather Binding
Advanced · two-day session · 4 places · finished hardback journal
“My grandmother's bible came back to us with the spine rebuilt and the gilt re-tooled — but it still felt like the same book. That's the trick, isn't it. We cried opening the slipcase.”
Start a conversation.
The bindery is open Tuesday to Friday by appointment. Bring the book, or send a few photographs first — we'll come back with an honest quote and a sensible timescale. Quotes are always free.
Call the Bindery →47 Walton Street, Jericho
Oxford OX2 6AD
Saturday workshops only
Oxford-trained · Established 2010