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The Pig Bin

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
The last post about food going off reminded me once again of the war years; when we had a 'pig bin'. Not one scrap of food was wasted, the peelings, the bits of greens that couldn't be eaten, even the egg shells went in. The smell was awful, and I had to hold my nose if I was sent to put something into it. After the war when food was really short people kept chickens, and everybody boiled their potato peelings to feed them. If the chickens were very lucky some sort of grain was added. It looked a bit like a bran mash, and smelt of beer.
 
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.
 
l remember the pig bin standing on the pavement. l was sure there was a notice that said do not put certain types of food in, but cannot remember what they were. l can still smell them today when they are mentioned, the smell comes back again terrible.
Sometimes we got the smell of Holbrook's Sauce, other times of biscuits baking if we happened to be in the right place but l dont know where the bakery was, maybe it was a factory canteen.
 
When I was younger mom and dad used to keep pigs, and all our scraps of food, including the neighbours scraps all went in the bin to feed the pigs, I tell you something in them days pork tasted real nice, not like today, and the other thing was you always used to get yummy crackling as well. Sweet memories, if only pork tasted like that now.
 
loisand. l bet much worse things are fed to pigs today and factory farming as well that do'es not help ( although l must say l am no pig farmer) pig maybe as l guess some might say.
l think the pig bins used to be collected by locals as l remember some pig sties around the corner from our street in Windsor Street , bet people would never beleive we could see pigs right in the middle of Brum.
 
Perhaps it's better that we don't think what is fed to pigs today, otherwise we would never eat pork!!!!
 
Aaah the good old pig bins. :) Weren't they wonderful - the aroma was magnificent. but you tell when summer had really come by the amount of flies buzzing round them... such happy memories. If he wasn't watched close enough our Co-op milkman's horse would be up on the pavement helping himself out of them.

"Dicko" Dickinson, over the road from us, kept pigs. His son Morris (Maurice?) had to go out and collect all the stuff from the pig bins in the morning before school, where he was often ostracised because of the odour he brought with him - poor little bugger. :-\

As if sensing the end, every time the truck came to collect the pigs for slaughter they'd escape and run all over Wellington Street. This would usually provide sport for the participants or pure entertainment for the spectators as hoards would join in chasing sows all over the place, in order to save Dicko's bacon. :2funny:
 
Here's a delight for those interested in Birmingham pig bins https://tinyurl.com/p9yno

Tindal Street Press specialise in publishing books by Birmingham, or ex pat Birmingham, writers. In fact, I think I'm the only one they've rejected! :'(
Anyway, enjoy.
 
Oisin. l try to get a look around Waterstone's at their local history books so l shall keep a lookout for that one.
ALF. lt may sound daft but some years ago l tried to analyse the brummie accent on this word . l could only come up with the answer that years ago it may have been refered to as a mixed bin then the Brummies translated it to miskin.
 
GER22VAN,

You can buy the book online if you want. Go back and click the link and then click the arrowed below.
 
When we were kids we stuck three 1p bangers in a pig big. The contents were scattered over a very wide area, including the windows and walls of houses opposite and the lid ended up on the roof of one of the houses.
We got away with it because eveyone thought it was a local gang who came around to raid our bonfire piles. >:D
 
posty.
You put three bangers in a big pig? that sounds very cruel you should be ashamed
 
This Little Piggy went to market
This Little Piggy stayed at Home
This Little Piggy had ROAST BEEF
This Little Piggy had none

Who ever heard of Piggys sitting down to Sunday Lunch :2funny:
 
Oisis. Thank you, l will try to see it before l buy but if l have trouble in finding it you have told me where l can get a copy.
 
Think so Postie, but I don't wish to be a boar about it  ;) Would it have bin called the squealy bin?
 
Ernie, the word miskin was used by William Shakespeare, my dad never said the dustbin always the miskin, and the sough for the drain, another word used by Shakespeare. I have heard it said that our Brummie accent is the nearest to Elizabethan English that there is.
 
sylviasayers.  Thank you for putting me right about miskin ( l was just trying to establish in my own mind how it may have come about.)
l am sure that William Shakespeare knew a lot more than l do about England of old.
Only one thing puzzles me, could there have two words to describe a drain or was the word you use " sough" mean the underground pipework and the word l know of being "Suff" mean the opening of the drain.
Perhaps someone can explain both words . Thanks once again sylviasayers.
 
l used to love seeing those butcher's shops covered in panels of Picture tiles, but why did the pig always have a smile on his face.
 
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