• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

The Pig Bin

Ernie, sough and suff are one and the same, you know what the English language is like, sough is the correct spelling and suff is how it sounds, also please just call me Sylvia.
 
Sylvia. l never really saw the connection until you explained it. Pity l cannot hire you for my Family History research when l am researching the surname Goldsbury, as l progress back it becomes Gouldsbury and further back it becomes Gowlsberry or something like that. l guess its like most words , its as they sound which helps to create an accent and people could not write so there was confusion.
Thank you Sylvia thats something else l have learned today.
 
The Pig Bin was the name of a boy at school who was the longtime dinner monitor. He collected all the plates and ate any spare food left on them. This was during 1942/3 so he was probably hungry. I got the nickname 'Spam' because when we were evacuated from London to Wales I ws the only one who would eat the spam sandwiches, and I was certainly hungry. In fact, when my Dad came home on leave once, he said that my Mum thought I ought to have 'all my weeks rations to myself as I was always hungry' and there were also four sisters to feed. You can guess the rest, we went shopping with the ration book on the Saturday, and all my rations were put on the smallest plate we had, for the week. I didnt complain about my food again, I realised my Mum and Dad were making sacrifices for us kids.
 
View attachment 64694
Unfortunately I do not have a picture of this subject taken in Birmingham but this scene in Cheltenham will have been replicated everywhere.
I don't know when pig food bins were done away with but I do know that well into the sixties the pig men were collecting all the food scraps from Asian restaurants and take-aways. That leads me to believe that other food shops will have had pig bins on their premises as well. I do remember the bins being located on some street corners.
 
An old bloke up our yard used to take bit's out of them,can't imagine what,not many people wasted food.
Does anyone remember when the bacon tasted "fishy"?,they were feeding the pigs some sort of fish meal.
 
Hello Jean,I did read recently that an amazing amount of food is thrown away on a regular basis by silly people who stock up on all the 'BUY ONE GET ONE FREE' items. When they get home they find that not all of them are freezeable and they do not have time to eat them before they are out of date. Do you know the world is struggling to produce enough food for all the people because of the population explosion??. Third world countries are attempting to rear enough cattle and fowl to feed their nations but they can not afford the the correct treatment for the livestock and as a consequence they suffering from, and are spreading all the diseases that are all but extinct elsewhere.
That is disgusting when so much food is being thrown away regularly.
 
Hello Ray, I suppose mealtimes in your house was similar to those in mine. If one of us said "I don't like it", we were allowed to sit at the table until we did like it. Ha Ha.
We had nothing but oh what happy days.
 
Even the outside veg leaves are saved for our friends rabbit and guinea pigs in the winter and in the summer our two tortoises eat them.. Jean.
 
Probably something similar Stitch,although I don't think I have ever found food that I didn't like,I even beat the old man up our yard to the pig bin on occasion....liar liar your bums on fire...
 
Don't know if any of you watched the peoples supermarket on Channel 4 on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago, but they fed a large group of people from waste thrown out by various large stores - Iceland had a whole crate of wine out, the people who scavenge the bins regularly said it was because one of the bottles had broken and stained the labels of the others. They got salmon, prawns, goats cheese and loads of other stuff, it's really sickening to see what was thrown out, when the country is struggling, just shows what a profit they make!!!
Sue
 
Thinking of the smells from the Pig Bins, my pal Dave lived in Aston and could predict the weather by the smell coming either from HP, Harvo or Ansells depending on wind direction !
 
The reason the pig bins have disappeared is because it is illegal to feed meat to pigs in the UK. This is because the cause of the foot and mouth outbreak was due to meat being fed to animals. We keep pigs and the pork is delicious, best crackling you've ever tasted and just enough fat (couldn't eat those cardboard chops with no fat on that you see in some supermarkets). My Dad used to have the heads when we had pigs slaughtered and make brawn, but that's going a bit too far for me. I've never eaten a trotter either, remember them being very gluey when my Dad ate them. Anne
 
I knew that pigs could only be fed on certain foodstuffs but I had no idea it was to do with Foot and Mouth. We can't have that return. I have often thought the return of pig bins might be a good idea, but knowing the youth of today and also some people with nasty minds, you might get doggie-doos put in there. That puts me right off the thought of pork!
 
View attachment 70190Hi Shortie, Years ago my husband used to collect scraps from pubs and restaurants but not allowed now. We give ours pig nuts, veg peelings and apples off our trees. It's good to know what they've been fed. I remember my Mom saying that the pork joint she'd bought had been fed fish and tasted of it. This is a photo of our latest litter, just one day old. Anne
 
Hi Anne, they are lovely little things. My granddad used to keep pigs, he died in 1957, so a long time ago. I seem to remember there was always two, I don't remember any more. He used to collect all sorts of stuff from neighbours and boil it all up in a galvanised bucket on the cooker - I can still smell the stuff, it was awful. Seeing you started off in South Yardley (I lived there from 1956-60), the pigs were kept in the garden of 430 Brays Road, Sheldon. The garden backed on to a large field, so it was an ideal situation for the pigs.

I have also found that some pork tastes fishy, and bacon too, very disappointing.

Thanks for the photo, delightful.

Shortie
 
Anne Watton said:
View attachment 70190Hi Shortie, Years ago my husband used to collect scraps from pubs and restaurants but not allowed now. We give ours pig nuts, veg peelings and apples off our trees. It's good to know what they've been fed. I remember my Mom saying that the pork joint she'd bought had been fed fish and tasted of it. This is a photo of our latest litter, just one day old. Anne
Click to expand...

Ann what lovely photo. My friend keeps pigs but hers are just pets along with other animals. She used to have two Tamworth Pigs they were lovely a real golden colour with hair! She now has a few micro pigs they are like dogs. I used to visit a small Farm in Glascote he was a pig breeder and kept a breed going that everyone thought had died out. I think they were Essex but not sure. He was a lovely man and a bit shy so declined when they asked him to become President of the breeders association. You are right about the taste though my uncle who was a butcher well into his 80's always said meat tastes of what you feed the animal.

I have just checked the internet and found this John retired a few years ago his farm is now a housing estate.
General characteristics The Essex pig is a very rare breed of domestic pig. It is black in colour with a white band or "saddle" from the shoulders onto the forelegs.

Its ancestors were the Anglo-Saxon and Norman pigs that once foraged the great forests of East Anglia. In the past, the Essex pig was highly regarded throughout England because of its sweet and delicious meat.

As the farming industry expanded, however, after the Second World War, Essex pig numbers declined as this pig didn't produce as much meat as other breeds.

In 1967, the Essex pig was finally bred with the Wessex Saddleback pig. This cross produced the British Saddleback Pig that was favoured as a commercial pig, as it is faster growing and yields more meat. At this point, the Essex pig was officially classed as extinct in the wild.

There was, however, one farmer called John Crowshaw who refused to cross his Essex pigs. He, therefore, kept his pure bloodlines. It is from this stock that the Essex Pig Company, aided by the Essex Pig Society, are now building up the Essex pig numbers. Colchester Zoo is working with the Essex Pig Company to promote this rare local species.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Shortie, I know Sheldon from when I lived near The White Hart at Tile cross. Is Brays Road near St Giles church?
Wendy, That's a very interesting story. We have kept saddleback pigs, in fact one ran at me when we were moving them, I tried to stop it and I ended up on its back, facing the wrong way round. I soon fell off. We currently have two Gloucester Old Spot sows who we cross with a large white to give the best pork I have ever tasted. (Not that I'm allowed to eat much, unfortunately). Anne
 
Hi Anne, Brays Road is just up the road from the church, going away from Solihull. At the far end turn right and that is Brays Road. My grandfather is buried there and I used to go regularly just to talk to him - I was ten at the time.
 
I lived in Great Barr from 1948, and remember dad kept two pigs in a sty at the top of the garden. It was some ministry of food scheme. does anyone have any info. He only got rid of them in about 1958.
 
I lived in Great Barr in the 1940's and remember Pig Bins but do not remember anyone keeping pigs in the garden. The only pigs I saw were at Aldridge Rd School and one of them bit an unpopular teacher. Most families did keep chickens at the tops of their gardens - fresh laid eggs and one chicken for Christmas dinner.
 
I had a "Food Waste" bin delivered the other day. It's like a tiny wheelie bin with a handle to lock the lid. There's a bin to keep in the kitchen too. This means four bins to put out on collection day!! When I was young the men use to come down the entry with a zinc bath with handles, and empty the dustbin into it. We did burn rubbish on the fire though. (The ashes were useful to put on the icy path).
rosie.
 
Off track slightly but we now have pigs living in the 'garden' behind us. The previous owners of the house behind used to grow vegetables but the new ones now have 3 full sized pigs.
 
Pam Smith said:
Yes i remember the pig bins but at school (Grestone Avenue) we used to play hide and seek round them the smell was awful but if you could stand the smell longe enough when hiding behind one you won. :D Of course nothing was wasted and the scrapes went to the pigs, so why the change?Was this the start of messing with the food cycle? They call it progress.
Click to expand...
My Dad was head teacher there from about 1968 to 1988. Mr Poole
 
sistersue61 said:
Don't know if any of you watched the peoples supermarket on Channel 4 on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago, but they fed a large group of people from waste thrown out by various large stores - Iceland had a whole crate of wine out, the people who scavenge the bins regularly said it was because one of the bottles had broken and stained the labels of the others. They got salmon, prawns, goats cheese and loads of other stuff, it's really sickening to see what was thrown out, when the country is struggling, just shows what a profit they make!!!
Sue
Click to expand...

I know I'm quoting from a post over a decade ago, but............on the subject of food, someone recently directed me to an 'app' called "Too Good To Go".

Essentially, download the 'app', set your location and radius, and then up will/should pop details of retailers who are offering Magic/Mystery bags for silly prices, but which must be collected within a specified day/timeframe. You use the 'app' on the phone to Reserve (and pay) the item and then when you collect, you update the 'app' to Collect and in the presence of the seller, confirm Pay. This then releases the funds to the seller.

I recently got 10 kilos (not a mis-type) of Wonky Bacon for £9.99

Perfectly edible. Just that it wouldn't look appealing in retail packaging.

An acquaintance recently purchased an offer from a local pub, expecting to get enough for a meal for two. What they actually got was enough to feed five of them for two evening meals.
 
Seem to remember our bin always had coal ashes stuck to the bottom. Sometimes - well in winter - the ashes were used on the footpath to the front door. Brought a right old mess into the house. The ashes would glue together and form a mixture of grey, red and white with black speckles. Funny the things you remember.

We never referred to our bin as a pig bin or miskin, just called it a dustbin. Maybe it was because my mum was from up north. Viv.
 
think ive got a photo somewhere of a pig bin in nursery road...i believe they were dotted around the streets so that people could throw in any unwanted food which was then taken to feed the pigs..will look later to see if i can find it

lyn
 
Astoness said:
think ive got a photo somewhere of a pig bin in nursery road...i believe they were dotted around the streets so that people could throw in any unwanted food which was then taken to feed the pigs..will look later to see if i can find it

lyn
Click to expand...
We had a pigbin in Rectory Rd Sutton Coldfield in the 1950s It was kept in the back garden with the dust bin and the "pigman" used to come with his truck and empty it. I do remember the smell!
 
But of course now councils are reintroducing food waste bins (or containers), though I think contents are composted rather than fed to the pigs
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top