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Pork Butchers


RichardB

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I copied the Pork Butchers' list to my computer and now have a list I can refer to whenever I want. At first I wanted to sift out the German Pork Butchers but decided not to in case some had angicized their names.

On going through it, I noticed Hermann Fisher on the 1871 Census, pork butcher, at 8 Bridgegate, Rotherham. Hermann was my great grandfather and I have searched for him on the 1871 census in vain. He died in 1875 and my great grandmother took her two boys to Kocherstetten in Germany and whilst there they were confirmed.

The address on his death certificate is High Street, Mexborough.

Hermann obviously anglicized his name, too, as he was born Hermann Pfisterer.

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I copied the Pork Butchers' list to my computer and now have a list I can refer to whenever I want. At first I wanted to sift out the German Pork Butchers but decided not to in case some had angicized their names.

On going through it, I noticed Hermann Fisher on the 1871 Census, pork butcher, at 8 Bridgegate, Rotherham. Hermann was my great grandfather and I have searched for him on the 1871 census in vain. He died in 1875 and my great grandmother took her two boys to Kocherstetten in Germany and whilst there they were confirmed.

The address on his death certificate is High Street, Mexborough.

Hermann obviously anglicized his name, too, as he was born Hermann Pfisterer.

Pfisterer should be dead easy to find - but its not, nor is Hermann Fisher ...

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Pfisterer should be dead easy to find - but its not, nor is Hermann Fisher ...

Tell me about it!!

I found Hermann Pfisterer on the 1861 Census in Bradford, living with Christian Lindenberger and his wife, Louisa. His relation to the Head was brother-in-law, so bingo! He was transcribed as Plisterer. John Heinzmann was there in 1881, married to Friederike Pfisterer and her brother, Louis Pfisterer, married to Christina Bauer. The Heinzmanns left for Northwich, followed by my grandfather and Louis Pfisterer went to Widnes as did Christina's brother, John Bauer. Hermann was probably Friederike and Louis Pfisterer's uncle.

They all came from the Hohelohe region in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. These immigrants married into Hohenlohe families, were fairly to extremely successful in their chosen profession as pork butchers and over the years sent for reinforcement from brothers, sisters, cousins and friends to help them either as child nurses, domestic servants, apprentice butchers, etc.

I have help in the form of a friend in Germany in return for which I help to "dig up" some of the Hohenlohe ancestors in England so the Directories' list is very helpful to me indeed.

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Guest fireblademalc

We should remember that exhaustive as these lists appear, they only reflect the businesses who subscribed to these indexes and I suspect there was a significant number who didn't subscribe.

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Hi there,

I'm trying to find a little more about my great, great, great grandfather, Louis Metzger. I appreciate this thread is quite old now, but if you have any information on him it would be greatly received.

I have very few details, but this is what i've dug up:

When Louis Metzger, born on 30 November 1838 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, their father, Ludwig, was 43, and their mother, Barbara, was 41. He had six children with Karolin Stunder, one child with Sophia Hanselman, and one other child. He died on 27 April 1924 at the age of 85.

Thanks!

Laura 

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Ref. Alfred Axe, pork butcher of 457 Attercliffe Road from the 1920s to the 1940s. Born 1883, died 1948.

He appears to have been a milk dealer first and then a pork butcher. His connection with the trade might have begun around 1901 when he was a boarder with the Leech family - Herbert Leech was a pork butcher. In addition, Alfred appears to been a boxing promotor with a club in Attercliffe. Here's a bit more information about him.

Alfred was the son of William Perkins Axe and Eliza Wilbourn. He was born in Derbyshire but the family had moved to Sheffield before many years had elapsed. He was a scholar at the time of the 1891 census, and living at 166 Attercliffe Common.

In 1900 Alfred was unfortunate to have found his father hanged at his stable. The inquest and its aftermath cannot have been pleasant for him and by the time of the 1901 census he is living as a boarder at 583 Attercliffe Road with the Leech family, the head of which was a Pork Butcher. In 1902 he married Florence Gregory, the daughter of a Steel Melter. They were recorded as living together at 215 Newhall Road at the time of the marriage. By this stage Alfred was a Milk Dealer. His sister, Fanny Elizabeth, was a witness. A daughter, Doris, was born the following year and her baptism record from that year shows Alfred living at 43 Newhall Road and working as a milk dealer.

The year 1903 saw Alfred and another man charged with selling diluted milk. Both men were fined 20s with costs. In 1907 Alfred was again found guilty of selling poor quality milk with added water of 11.5 parts. Seemingly, much Sheffield milk was considered to be of a poor standard and Alfred was one of the dealers summoned to appear at the Sheffield Police Court for offences under the Food and Drugs Act. He was fined £2. Next year he is recorded (Kelly’s) with a dairy, operating from 43 Newhall Road and also in that year a case of diluting milk was dismissed on (arguably) technical grounds. In early 1909 he was fined once again for selling diluted milk, being fined £1 with costs.

It is presumably this Alfred that was associated with the boxing profession. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph (May 1910) describes a fight between two Sheffield boxers at his boxing club in Attercliffe. He also acted as a referee[1]. A report in the Sheffield Telegraph from 2nd May 1911 described some of the action from the Grand Roller Rink in Mexborough the previous night as it entered “a new boxing lease of life”. Alfred (as Mr A Axe) was described as promotor and part-proprietor with the quality of fighters and fighting noted in front of a splendid attendance. This report, and one from the following week which was less favourably reported seem to demonstrate a spread of local, national and international boxing talent with some decent sounding purses.

At the time of the 1911 census Alfred and Florence had one daughter, Doris, and a servant living at 43 Newhall Road. Alfred was still a Milk Dealer on his own account and this was the case one year later at the baptism of their daughter Florrie. That same year saw a third conviction for the dilution of milk. Alfred appeared at Sheffield Police Court on 4th June having sold milk to an inspector, it was tested and found to contain 14.5 parts of water. This time he was fined £5. Still, that was not the end of the issue. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 5th January 1914 reported upon yet another charge; this time, the fine was £15. In passing, it noted that the current conviction was his fifth. Alfred’s defence on this occasion was that the milk had been sold straight from churns as they had arrived from Darley Dale.

The Sheffield Evening Telegraph (10th May 1916) lists Alfred’s wife Florence as being fined for her part in a scam adding water to milk. The newspaper highlights a total of thirty-two summonses brought by the Health Department of the Sheffield City Corporation. All the defendants denied the allegations. She was fined £10 for selling mile with an added 14.2 parts of water; this was one of the heavier fines and perhaps reflected that this was not a first offence for the Axes. The supply chain seems to have been quite wide and involved farmers and dealers. As a milk dealer the responsibility for ensuring milk’s provenance and quality may well have rested with her. In December that year Alfred was one of many men applying for exemption from military recruitment. In his case this was on the grounds that serious hardship would ensue if he was called up. He appears to have been granted exemption until 31st March 1917.

Perhaps the scandal of the milk scam brought about a change in occupation. In 1919 he was listed as a pork butcher at 457 Attercliffe Road and then repeatedly until the 1940s. The marriage certificate for his daughter Doris (1921) states him to have been a Master Pork Butcher. September of the year following saw Alfred fined 20s for riding a motorcycle without a proper silencer and making undue noise.

Alfred must have kept a long interest in boxing. An article on boxing in the Sheffield Independent labels Alfred as an “old-timer” in describing his appearance to watch Nipper Thompson working out prior to his bout at Don Road, Attercliffe, on 6th June 1931.

At the time of the 1939 Register Alfred was listed as married but was the only one in residence at the time of the entry. Alfred died in 1948. He was living at back of 173 Newhall Road, Sheffield at the time of his death. He was cremated at City Road Cemetery. Effects worth £3418 2s 5d were subject to probate to Harry Popplewell (solicitors) and his widow Florence.

[1] Sheffield Telegraph 1920 for a fight at Drill Hall, Sheffield, between Johnny Cuthbert and Horace Milward

 

Does anyone have further details?

 

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You probably know these addresses. Seems No 457 was a Pork butchers for a few years, prior to 1893 the road was known as Tinsley Road and in the 1879 the houses there had not been built.

1901
457 Attercliffe Road 
Vickers  Walter, pork butcher 
========
1911
457 Attercliffe Road 
Butcher Charles Henry. pork butcher
43 Newhall Road
Axe Alfred dairy
THESE ARE THE OTHER AXE NAMES FROM THE 1911 DIRECTORY PERHAPS RELATED

Axe Ernest W muffin baker, 170 Main road, D
Axe Frederick, tobacconist, 118 Charles street
Axe Miss Gwendoline, 8 Walkley street
Axe Henry Chas. commercial traveller 4 Reliance place 
Axe Henry William, cutlery manager, 21 Pickmere road. Crookes
Axe .John Crosland, 106 Penrhyn road
A:xe Walter, postman, 91 Tavistock road
Axe Wilfred Walter, decorator, 96 Machon Bank road. T.X. 116 Sharrow
Axe William, oat cake baker, 14 Spital hill


================
1893
457 Attercliffe Road 
Taylor James pork butcher
================

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Guest leksand
3 hours ago, tozzin said:

You probably know these addresses. Seems No 457 was a Pork butchers for a few years, prior to 1893 the road was known as Tinsley Road and in the 1879 the houses there had not been built.

1901
457 Attercliffe Road 
Vickers  Walter, pork butcher 
========
1911
457 Attercliffe Road 
Butcher Charles Henry. pork butcher
43 Newhall Road
Axe Alfred dairy
THESE ARE THE OTHER AXE NAMES FROM THE 1911 DIRECTORY PERHAPS RELATED

Axe Ernest W muffin baker, 170 Main road, D
Axe Frederick, tobacconist, 118 Charles street
Axe Miss Gwendoline, 8 Walkley street
Axe Henry Chas. commercial traveller 4 Reliance place 
Axe Henry William, cutlery manager, 21 Pickmere road. Crookes
Axe .John Crosland, 106 Penrhyn road
A:xe Walter, postman, 91 Tavistock road
Axe Wilfred Walter, decorator, 96 Machon Bank road. T.X. 116 Sharrow
Axe William, oat cake baker, 14 Spital hill


================
1893
457 Attercliffe Road 
Taylor James pork butcher
================

I think you're mixing up your roads Tozzin.

There was a Tinsley Road in Brightside Bierlow which was the eastern-most section of what is now Attercliffe Road leading up to Washford Bridge (which was a continuation of what was and is now Attercliffe Road running from the Savile Road intersection).

Tinsley Road in Attercliffe cum Darnall was the northeastern-most section of what is now Attercliffe Common, running from (if memory serves) Carbrook Street to Sheffield Road, Tinsley.

What is now Attercliffe Road in Attercliffe cum Darnall was formerly Carlton Road and High Street, Attercliffe. No. 457 Attercliffe Road was, by the looks of it, no. 77 Carlton Road (occupied by Charles Green, greengrocer) in the 1879 directory.

I think only building going on along Carlton Road & High Street, Attercliffe by 1879 was rebuilding - all the spaces along there would have been filled for a little while.

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Ref. the Axes you give in the 1911 directory, Tozzin (thanks,btw).

I think Alfred is the only Axe listed specifically as a pork butcher, certainly in Sheffield. Almost all the Axes in Sheffield (and most in Yorkshire) are of one family - in Sheffield since around the 1770s.

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