As recent as 1999, on the bridge at Newport the tannery was still remembered and one night, in particular, when a floor collapsed at Riverside under a ton or more of stored hides. An old worker slept below and the neighbourhood thought he must have been crushed. Fortunately, he had spent the night at the pub and had fallen asleep on the island by the bridge.

“Industry that Grew from Mighty Oaks.”“When Stone Age man first threw the skin of an animal into a murky bog he began a process of curing and preserving hides that has survived to the present day.
“Although needs and styles have changed over the intervening 10,000 years, the basic technique discovered by Neolithic Man has altered little , the tannin present in the vegetable matter permeating the animal fibres to create leather.
“...there are perhaps two or three traditional vegetable tanners left in Britain - one at the Manor Tannery, Grampound, Cornwall.......Established in 1711, it is still run by the same family.
“ ‘Where you had a cattle market you had the industries that grew up around it and tanning was one of them.’ The main ingredient used from the start was oak bark taken from coppiced woodland.
“The pallets of stinking cow hides arrive at the bottom end of the site where they are stored close to the old liming sheds with their granite tanks. A disused water wheel once powered the entire operation.
“The skins are cleaned and suspended on chains in progressively purer vats of lime water for about two weeks.
“After going through the fleshing machine, the heavy hides are transferred to the tanning shed, a series of deep pits filled with brown liquor made from a solution of water and wood bark.
“There they stay for five or six weeks and when they are hauled from the pits they have been transformed from hides into leather.
“They are put into a large drum to which is added cod oil and then hung to dry before being graded for quality.
“A number of finishing processes follow before they are shipped out to saddlers and shoemakers.
“................’There is a continuity which is very valuable........a small Cornish industry continuing a tradition that goes right back to medieval days.’”