Harrison Barber—Horse Slaughterers

[Edward Stow]

Is this better?

[Edward Stow]

When I get home. I downloaded the Old Maps Online Ap

[Gary Barnett]

No 33 is the shop on the opposite corner to the pub.
Was that listed as a cat's meat shop?
It was well within the 250 yard (if my memory serves) search radius.

You’re getting warm.

Any chance you could put up a clearer image?

[Edward Stow]

No 33 is the shop on the opposite corner to the pub.
Was that listed as a cat's meat shop?
It was well within the 250 yard (if my memory serves) search radius.

[Gary Barnett]

I’m hampered by my equipment (matron).

Can anyone provide a sharper image of this?


http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlin...age151010.html

[Gary Barnett]

I read a press article recently where a couple of journalists visited Pinchin Street a day or so after the torso discovery. They first went to Leman Street police station and then via Cable Street and Backchurch Lane to Pinchin Street. They bumped into a local on the corner of Cable Street and Backchurch Lane 'where the cat's meat shop was'. If it was on the very corner, it must have been on the E corner as there was a pub on the W.

So it seems there may have been a cats meat shop just behind the arch where the torso was dumped (although I haven't confirmed that through censuses or directories yet - work in progress).

I think I may have found it.

I need to consult the Goad map for the SE corner of Backchurch Lane - the section between Cable Street and Pinchin Street.

[Gary Barnett]

[Gary Barnett]

Nice find!

Looks like someone sawed one end off. Sacrilege!

[Gary Barnett]

Nice find!

[Howard Brown]

From a gentleman named Terry Kavanagh....he located it behind an old sofa.

Terry had this to add, too....

[Gary Barnett]

Dublin

These old houses once stood in Sweeney’s Lane. They were built in a style that earned them the nickname ‘Dutch Billys’. There were apparently quite a few of them in Dublin at one time. Presumably the ‘Billy’ in question was William of Orange, the victor of the Battle of the Boyne.

Someone online has identified the house on the far right as no. 5, Sweeney’s Lane, which could mean the one on the left was no. 1. (Wishful thinking?)

[Gary Barnett]

Dublin

O’Keefe’s premises covered 5 acres between Newmarket Square and Mill Street in Dublin South, not far from the Guinness brewery. The smells from the two businesses used to intermingle.

[Gary Barnett]

In Dublins Foul City...

I think this must have been the firm my grandfather and great grandfather worked for in Dublin:



Its an real mystery to me why they moved from rural Bedfordshire to Dublin in 1911/12. What a time for a family of English knackers to relocate to Ireland.

The first address I can find for them in Dublin (1913 ER) is 1, Sweeneys Lane, Mill Street, well within sniffing distance of OKeefes. The pong was legendary, and many native Dubs claimed it helped them fight off infections.

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks to Howard for this tall tale involving fictional knackers called Melmoth Brothers:

https://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=33941

[Tina Tomkins]

Ah, that’s interesting.

The family of Henry Tomkins the witness originally came from Buckinghamshire, I believe. His father was born in Islington and got into the horse slaughtering game there after marrying Henry’s mother Sarah Carvell. It may be that if you trace the family back there may be a connection between them and the family from Bristol. There was also a knacker named John Tomkins who operated in Rugby in the 1920s/30s.

Do you have any more info about the Beresfords in Northampton? In the 1920s my grandfather worked at a knacker’s yard in Huntingdonshire. My father was born in Keyston, Hunts, which was then in the registration district of Thrapston and Raunds, Northamptonshire.

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.