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Livestock To Market

Love the photo John. Reminds me of the day when the pigs escaped on the Lichfield road on their way to the slaughter house. I was in my pushchair at the time. Jean.
 
Great photo John my uncle Jack Caldecott worked at the slaughter house in Brum in the 50's. He was a butcher and went into the Air Force when the war was over he worked in his fathers shop in Handsworth. After his fathers death he went to work at the meat market.
 
In the Black country there is a saying (SIT THE PIG ON THE WALL TO WATCH THE BAND GO BY)

Mossy
 
Hello there

I would assume these pigs are being driven to the market. My aunt remembers an equally common sight. Beasts were often sold but not slaughtered in the central markets. They were then driven out again to be slaughtered in local butchers. Pigs and Cattle arrived this way coming down Clifton Road Balsall Heath into the 1920's. Ditto into Ladywood. The Butchers on the corner of Valentine Road Kings Heath got most of its meat 'on the hoof' from more local farms but occasionally had some walked from town.

This must have be relatively common.

My Mother remembered terrace housing and courts 'hiding' aspects of the food industry, cows kept for selling milk and pigs and chickens for meat.
 
We went to Barr Beacon farm and it is a pleasure to see the pigs wandering about in a large field. I do feal a tad guilty when I go to the farm shop and buy our pork and bacon. Why do they have to taste so nice?. At least they have been able to roam and not be confined to a sty. Jean.
 
That is a fantastic photo of the pigs being driven down Deritend - from the tram rails but no wires, it must date between 1885 and 1907. Thank you John.
I'm just doing somje work on John Hanson's map of 1778 which shows the beast market at that time in Dale End, north side, and the swine market in New Street, south side, just west of Worcester Street. That was over a hundred years before John's photo of course, but it shows a bit about the fascinating way Brum grew.
Peter
 
It looks as though the centre of Birmingham was in those long ago days had several beast markets with many kinds of beasts being driven down the main streets to their various specialty markets. There must have been animals like sheep, cows, pigs being driven by handlers all over the place. Hard to imagine in this day and age and the photo with the pigs on helps us to imagine what it was like.
 
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