Harrison Barber—Horse Slaughterers

[Gary Barnett]

The Lechmere connection?

Charles Lechmere's son, Thomas, seems to have followed in his father's footsteps, starting work around 1891 as a carman's vanguard and becoming a carman himself by 1898, the year in which he married. Up to that point there was no mention of meat being the load he carried. As far as I can see, there is no record of meat in connection with his father's occupation.

Once Thomas had married and left his parental home, he started describing himself as a meat carter/salesman. The notes 'cats' and 'catsmeat' made by census officials tell us precisely what Thomas was carrying. The earliest reference I can find to this is on the birth certificate of his daughter Dorothy who was born in 1900. There Thomas describes himself as a 'meat salesman'. His address at the time appears to be 4, WINTHROP STREET.

I'd say it's a reasonable assumption that Thomas Lechmere was carting cats' meat from Harrison Barber's premises in WINTHROP STREET. And it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that that was where his old gran sourced her cat's meat.

Charles Lechmere

1870: Carman
1871: Carman
1881: Carman
1882: Carman
1884: Carman
1886: Carman
1888: Carman
1891: Carman
1901: Railway Agent Carrier (Carman)
1911: General shop & sweetstuff


Thomas Lechmere

1891: Vanguard (carman)
1898: Carman

Marries and leaves parental home

1900: Meat Salesman - WINTHROP STREET
1901: Meat Carter (cats)
1902: Meat Salesman
1911: Meat Carter (catsmeat)

I’ve been trying to find Thomas Allen Lechmere on the 1921 census so I could update this thread. No luck so far.

I tried a couple of searches, one in BG and the other in SGE, with Cats Meat in the occupation box. I still couldn’t find him.

There was apparently only one cat’s meat dealer in SGE in 1921, a woman whose name was transcribed by FindMyPast as Lily Leaman although I suspect her name should have been Seaman. Lily had a cats meat stall in Watney Street Market, Shadwell in 1921. Out of curiosity I went forward a page to see where in SGE she was living - and it was 3, Breezer’s Hill, the house where my old nan was born. That address is effectively the reason I’m a (sort of) Ripperologist.

I wonder whether the Leaman/Seaman family have any photos of Cats Meat Lily.

[Gary Barnett]

One slight mystery concerning the Shippeys is why they moved briefly from Whitechapel to Cow Cross for a few years circa 1840. The reason for moving to Cow Cross isn’t a mystery, Shippey was a knacker/butcher and he moved to the next alley along from Jack Atcheler in what was then the epicentre of London’s butchery/slaughter trade. But he was Whitechapel born and bred, so I’m curious about why he left there for those few years. I think a couple of his kids died while he was in St Sepulchre. It would be interesting to see what caused their deaths. If it was some contagious disease or other, perhaps that triggered his return to Whitechapel.

The other mystery of this kind that intrigues me is why Jesse Croot moved from Islington to Wolverhampton. While in Islington he had been a gardener and his brother, being a manure dealer, potentially had connections in Belle Isle. Jesse had been a gardener in Islington, but in Wolverhampton he became a horse dealer. There’s probably no connection between Croot and the Whitechapel/Belle Isle knackers, but I think I’ll delve into his background a bit more deeply. There’s some info on here about his background - Dusty Miller dug out some interesting stuff I seem to remember.

This 1840 trade directory illustrates the prominence of Whitechapel and Smithfield (Cow Cross/Clerkenwell) in the London knacker trade at the time. Belle Isle barely gets a look in. The Watts and Parmenter premises in Maiden Lane (Belle Isle) is presumably the one Jack Atcheler took over after Parmenter’s widow popped her clogs.

Whitechapel 5
‘Smithfield’ 4
Blackfriars 2
Belle Isle 1

Atcheler’s premises was at 8, Sharp’s Alley.

[Gary Barnett]

And here’s where it gets interesting:

The owners of the business were Charles Wand and William Frederick Smith. They had both worked for Harrison, Barber in Stratford and Charles Wand was Alfred Barber’s stepson. By 1921 he was running HB’s Wandsworth yard. As a child he had lived in Winthrop Street.

[Gary Barnett]

In fact, Wandon is a typo - it should have been Wand and.

[Gary Barnett]

This appeared in the Bedworth [Warwickshire] Echo in 1992:

The name ‘Wandon’ is unusual.

[Gary Barnett]

I remember seeing your post about that artifact. It is very interesting that at that time two women took sides in the development of the trade of horse slaughter.

Apparently one of Caroline’s sisters was also a horse slaughterer, as was one of Alfred George Currell’s aunts.

[Jose Oranto]

I managed to find the article. It was reprinted in the Rugby Advertiser in May, 1931.

It turns out that both Charlotte Payne and her mother, Mary Ann, were practicing horse slaughterers.

Apparently Earl Spencer (Princess Diana’s great grandfather) insisted on having his horses killed by Charlotte Payne. And according to Charlotte they (she and her mother?) were involved in the designing of Greener’s Humane Cattle/Horse Killer, which is the ‘gun’ referred to in the extract.

I remember seeing your post about that artifact. It is very interesting that at that time two women took sides in the development of the trade of horse slaughter.

[Gary Barnett]

sistersofthepoleaxe


By 1930, Charlotte Kerrell, trading under her maiden name of Payne, had knacker’s yards in:

Long Buckby, Northamptonshire

Northampton, Northamptonshire

Daventry, Northamptonshire

Deddington, Oxfordshire

Banbury, Oxfordshire

Rugby, Warwickshire

Coventry, Warwickshire

Her base seems to have been Benbow Farm, Long Buckby, which was just a few miles from Althorp, the seat of the Spencer family. Charlotte lived until 1973, so it’s possible that she encountered Lady Di.

[Gary Barnett]

William Tomkins(my husband's grandfather, Llansamlet knacker's yard ) had a brother and a sister. His brother, John Tomkins was a knacker in Northampton. John's son William Tomkins was also a knacker in Northampton. The sister married Beresford who worked in the Llansamlet knacker's yard. Beresford went on to set up a knacker's yard in Bridgend and Cardiff.
John's son, William Tomkins operated from a yard in Northampton itself but it's quite possible that John during his working life had premises elsewhere in the Northamptonshire area.

In 1926, John Tomkins had a dispute with a female knacker named Charlotte Kerrell. Kerrell was her married name, her maiden name was Payne (see previous post).

In 1935, one of Charlotte Kerrell’s employees, a lad using the name John Currell (actually Alfred George), was convicted of buying a stolen horse from some gypsies.

Both of these incidents occurred in Northamptonshire, but Alfred George Currell had been born in Belle Isle, Islington. He was a member of Currell horse-slaughtering dynasty of Hertfordshire and Belle Isle.

[Gary Barnett]

sistersofthepoleaxe

Anyone have a copy of the April, 1931 Farmer and Stockbreeder knocking about?

I managed to find the article. It was reprinted in the Rugby Advertiser in May, 1931.

It turns out that both Charlotte Payne and her mother, Mary Ann, were practicing horse slaughterers.

Apparently Earl Spencer (Princess Diana’s great grandfather) insisted on having his horses killed by Charlotte Payne. And according to Charlotte they (she and her mother?) were involved in the designing of Greener’s Humane Cattle/Horse Killer, which is the ‘gun’ referred to in the extract.

[Gary Barnett]

Possibly a map charting the progress of the construction of the GNR might solve the mystery.

I’m still on the hunt for Alfred Street. Although I’m pretty sure I know approximately where it was, I’d like to find a map which identifies it by name.

The first map below is from 1861, and I suspect Alfred Street was in the area circled in blue.

The subsequent maps are from later in the 60s and I think the shading on them indicates that the area in question was affected by railway development.

I’m planning a trip to the Islington Local History Centre next week to see if they any maps or plans that will provide the answer.

[Gary Barnett]

He should have run into the mares of Diomedes 😄

Ooh, I say!

[Jose Oranto]

Perfect! :-)

A little known but rather sinister character was a young Essex knacker, Edward Bentley, the so-called ‘horse Burker’ (as in Burke and Hare). He used to suffocate or strangle horses at night and then call back at the farms the next day to see if they had any dead stock they wanted to dispose of. He was discovered in the act of suffocating a horse by stuffing its nose with straw. He was convicted for that offence and transported, but it was believed he may have killed many more horses in the neighbourhood.

This is the list of seemingly perfectly healthy horses that suddenly died and were purchased by him in an 8-month period:

He should have run into the mares of Diomedes 😄

[Gary Barnett]

The knacker 'Mrs. Lovett' baking the horse flesh into pies.

Perfect! :-)

A little known but rather sinister character was a young Essex knacker, Edward Bentley, the so-called ‘horse Burker’ (as in Burke and Hare). He used to suffocate or strangle horses at night and then call back at the farms the next day to see if they had any dead stock they wanted to dispose of. He was discovered in the act of suffocating a horse by stuffing its nose with straw. He was convicted for that offence and transported, but it was believed he may have killed many more horses in the neighbourhood.

This is the list of seemingly perfectly healthy horses that suddenly died and were purchased by him in an 8-month period:

[Jose Oranto]

The most interesting thing about the Currells is that one of their daughters, aged 17 from memory, was recorded as a horse slaughterer.

I’ve seen a few women so-described, but usually they are the owners of the businesses, often the widows of horse slaughtering businesses.

I think the 17-year-old was Henry Currell’s niece and her father was also a horse slaughterer, so she can’t have been a non-active owner.

The knacker 'Mrs. Lovett' baking the horse flesh into pies.