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Recycling, reclaiming and salvaging of yesteryear

J

jake

Guest
anyone remember the pig bins, where you put your leftover food anything edible, then each day the wagon would come round each street, and collect the waste to feed the pigs with, i think there were quite a few round kings heath, as we had a few pig farms.

                                                                  jake
 
When the Mission hall in Tower Road was used as a BRITISH RETARUNT :chef: there used to be around half a dozen Pig Bins outside & living next door "O THE SMELL" in the summer months. :eek:
ASTON
 
I remember the 'pig-man' coming around door to door once a week with a cart and what looked like a large round sieve in which he put all the waste my great-gran used to save for him (peelings etc). This would have been in the mid to late 60s (before I started school) in Cotteridge... I wonder how long the pig-man continued to do his rounds for?

I'm glad I found this thread because when I've spoken with friends who are my age (mid 40s) they think I'm making it up!
 
Remember the Waste paper bins? Wooden boxes painted white, about 2ft wide by 3ft deep by 2ft-6in high, with a hinged lid on the top. One was put on the 2ft in front of our house in late '43 I think, and remained there until late 1945. Us kids would occasionally hide in there -- it used to pong a bit, but I found a few interesting bits of paper which were none of my business. Otherwise it wasn't used much except on VE night, when two or three of the more willing mums were tipped in by the cheekier dads and run round the grove on a wheelbarrow.
Peter
 
:)Does anyone remember the pig bins? I remember we had one across the road and my mom and neighbours would put waste food, veg peelings etc. into it, (an early day food re-cycling.) I also remember how they used to stink in the summer! Good old days eh.:rolleyes::)
 
Veegee do I remember pig bins?. I used to go round with my uncle fred with the pony and trap to collect from the cafe's in Handsworth and Perry Barr. We brought it back to Aldridge road and threw it into the pit that made the pig swill. Did it stink. The place is now a hotel next to what used to be the local fire station. Our local pick up was Mr Minties cafe Franchise street. Oh our pony's name was Prince and he lived to be a right old age ending his days by the Queslett pub. I have a photo somewhere of him in the field with the pigs. Great poster Mike.TTFN. Jean.
 
If you had a garden, you could always have a compost heap, in which case you didn't need a bin in the street. As I remember, there were two sort of wooden bins they put out in the street towards the end of WW2 and shortly after. I think the green painted ones came first for the pig food - as I remember they had a sloping white painted rectangle with the stencilled black letters PIG FOOD painted on it. Next came the white painted WASTE PAPER bins, which lasted some time after the others. I remember on our VE-Day street party, some of the macho men raced round with a willing lady neighbour in a white box in a white bin on a wheelbarrow. (My mum wouldn't have dreamed of doing that sort of thing). I would guess the white bins disappeared during 1946, but I can't say for certain. But I was only 12 to 13 at the time.
Peter
 
We used to play hide and seek around Handsworth during the war,they proved to be one of the best hiding places,(we must have stunk to high heaven)or perhaps we hid in the waste paper bins (then we would be black as the ace of spades) how the printing ink used to come off those papers and mark everthing they touched.
Happy days,could not let your children do that today.
Alan
 
I am to young to remember pig bins but was told a story by an old chap. During the war him and his Dad used to collect waste food from the nearby US Army camp. A segregated coloured regiment was stationed there and the Sergeant in charge of the catering became a good friend. In each of the drums of pigswill would be hidden a large catering size tin of friut , tinned meat of all types in fact anything the US Army fed to its troops. They were mystified at first by hotdogs as they did not fry very well. On a Sunday some soldiers would come to visit the farm bringing more food.The old chap said they lived well until the soldiers left. Then it was back to poaching if you wanted any meat in your dinner.
 
Yes I remember Pig Bins, they seemed a normal part of the street scenery when I was a child. Maybe something similar might return for waste food recycling. I also remember we kept chickens at the top of the garden as did most neighbours around us. I collected the eggs while they were warm newly laid.
 
There used to be one next to every gas lampost up our street.One old bloke who lived up our yard used to rummage in them for his dinner:rolleyes:.
 
The pig bins iI remember stood out side the BRITISH RESTURANT (at the mission hall) in Tower Road Aston At least 3 or 4 would stand for a week or more , The lid made very good sheild when the Kights of the round table played up by the HP vinagar vats & the bombdies.
 
I used to go to the B.R.in Tower Rd.and collect our dinners we used to take our own basin.
Can't imagine how them bins ever got filled...there was never a scrap of food wasted in our house,or any others that I know of,could never get enough to eat...no change there then.:cry:
 
My mom and dad had a hotel in Handsworth, and we had a big pig bin outside the kitchen door for all the food waste. My mom used to say that you could always tell what the pigs had been fed by the taste of the meat. If it had a fishy taste, it was because there a lot of fish had gone into the pigswill. We also kept chickens at the top of our garden Old Mohawk., and like you, used to collect them warm and newly laid.
 
G G Jean said:
Richard I was collecting these pig bins in 1963 and we also did the old dog track. Jean.
Click to expand...

Come to think about it at school dinners we had to scrape our leftovers into a swill bin. I bet those pigs were fed up of sprouts,cabbage and stuffed hearts.
I have to agree with Ray though about no waste food at home. A growing lad would eat most things but you were not allowed pudding if dinner was not finished. Any food left meant you stayed at the table until Dad said it was ok to go. My Mom was not the best of cooks, you learnt to chuck the forkful of food at the back of your mouth so it bypassed the tastebuds. I still shudder at the thought of stuffed marrow. Pity those poor pigs.
 
:piggy:Ray I can still see the steam coming up from the pig swill and the smell made you feel sick. Uncle fred stirred it with a big paddle. We had the bins behind us in the cart and you could smell us coming a mile away. Jean.
 
The pig bins were everywhere, they are unlawful these days because of various Min.of Agg and fisheries safety rules against animal disease. While they were in use they certainly served a purpose.
 
I can remember pig bins in Flaxley Road, Stechford, when I was a boy (1943/4)
The breadman would deliver along the road on a horse and cart and, if he left it to deliver bread to a house and left the brake off, the horse would walk further along to the next pig bin, knock the lid off and start rummaging inside for whatever he could find.

I think the driver deliberately lef the brake off so that he didn't have to feed so much food to the horse when thay got back from the round.
 
Yes I also remember 'pig bins' . The one in our yard stood beside the 'miskins' . Do you think bacon tasted better then than it does today? I certainly do. We have no waste food in our house either.
 
Stitcher said:
The pig bins were everywhere, they are unlawful these days because of various Min.of Agg and fisheries safety rules against animal disease. While they were in use they certainly served a purpose.
Click to expand...

Today the idea seems to be to feed animal to animal hence the outbreak of BSE. I see there's a fear it is raising it's head again.
 
Talking about horse and cart deliveries. During the 40s,50s and 60s my aunt and uncle had a watch repair shop in Station Road Stechford opposite The Bull, their home was at the back of the property. I used to visit regularly to play with my cousins and at the back of their home were the stables where the delivery horses were kept, we were allowed to go into these stables and help feed the horses. There was also a field where the carts were stored, we played for hours climbing and hiding around them. I believe B&Q now stands at the site now.
 
I recall dodging out of nostril-range whenever the pig-bin pony and trap came into sight during the summer months.....what a honk if it came upon you unexpectedly!
 
I remember the pig bins. there was one in Cob Lane Bournville. It was a base when we played rounders.
 
When I was a boy in the very early 1950's there were "pig-bins" located at the junction of The Broadway and Witton Road. More than once I saw people taking stuff from them. My mother would say that these people were employed by the Council to check what was being put into the bins...those were desperate time if you were poor. Never forget that.

Big Gee
 
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