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Keith_exS10

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A photo found on eBay  taken from the top of Barber Road looking down Commonside. Tramlines are there so taken after 1900 and posted in 1906. Not too clear after 110 years but it can just be made out as being a flock of about a dozen sheep. A strong magnifying glass seems to show the lad with the white collar collar to the right may have another animal of some sort. 

I have to ask two questions. Why would anyone be driving sheep here, from where to where. We lived down the hill behind the photographer admittedly somewhat later but I can't recall any grazing in the area. Surely not in Western Park?

And also how does the photographer just happen to be there set up and ready, not a quick process at that time. Latterly it was a favourite spot for photography so was he really  there for the new trams?.

I have no great hopes of an answer but knowing forum members ...........

 

 

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Today's street scape from roughly the same place. In the late '50s I always stood with my friends on the pavement to the right of this picture, collecting 'penny for the guy'.

In 1900, before motor lorries, the only way to transport a flock of sheep long distances was to herd them. Three or four miles from, say, Stannington to the Cattle Market next to Victoria Station would have been considered a short journey.

Commonside.JPG

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Scattered across these suburbs there were cowsheds and slaughterhouses owned by butchers who were also cowkeepers and milk dealers. Originally some of these may have had an acre or two of grazing attached to them but by 1906 most of the these were probably under new housing. But there was plenty of pasture in the Rivelin valley. I know for instance that Francis Lemons, butcher and milk dealer at 272 South Road (now Gerties cafe) had both a cowshed and a slaughterhouse behind it, but Lemons was the tenant of fields at the bottom of Walkley Lane.

I just found that 213 Springvale Road which is now the Rajput restaurant was a butcher's shop at this time and it also had cow sheds and a slaughterhouse behind it. There are some interesting facts in the report of a dispute between the tenant and subtenant in 1907. The subtenant had the slaughterhouse but his own butcher's premises in Barber Road. The actual tenant was described as cowkeeper of Commonside. The dispute arose when the tenant changed the locks because he wanted the sub-tenant to leave. Behind the locked doors were "two live beasts [cattle], 18 live sheep, and one live pig, besides 8 sides of beef". The subtenant was paying a quarterly rent but a more usual arrangement was apparently payments of 1s 6d per cow killed and 3d per sheep.

To sum up, although the sheep in the photograph could be on there way to town and the shambles, they may be close to their final destination, a slaughterhouse in a nearby suburban street.

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This is the entry from the 1901 Directory of Sheffield, sorry but It was easier to scan the entry into two pieces. If ever a name fitted an occupation look at No 65. Dunkley Street where the postcard was addressed to, has gone but you can still see some of the walls of yards that have been left, Dunkley Close just retains the name on what looks like a newish housing estate.

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Project1.png

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Tozzin's reference to Mr. Bullock the butcher reminds me that there was, for many years, a shop in Regent Street, Cambridge, called Bull's Dairies. Milking time must have been fraught with danger.

 

What would a "chaser" (Mr. Blackhurst at no. 35) do? Was it something to do with metalwork or decoration?

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22 minutes ago, Athy said:

Tozzin's reference to Mr. Bullock the butcher reminds me that there was, for many years, a shop in Regent Street, Cambridge, called Bull's Dairies. Milking time must have been fraught with danger.

 

What would a "chaser" (Mr. Blackhurst at no. 35) do? Was it something to do with metalwork or decoration?

 

A Chaser decorates silverware or other metal ware using punches and hammers from the front of the work to form a design . Chasing is often used in conjunction with repoussé which is to work on the reverse of the metal to form a raised design on the front.

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6 hours ago, THYLACINE said:

Think the postcard is addressed to somewhere in Liverpool Tozzin??

Thats correct, the clue is Liverpool in the address.

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A chaser today makes a cast or dropped stamped Sterling Silver item much crisper, as the dies that are used are very old and do wear over time, so the chaser puts a much sharper finish on swags, grapes, etc.

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My thanks for all the responses. I suspected the answers wouldn't be long coming. Oddly enough they reminded me of something similar I had forgotten  about In Lincoln. . The wife had told me that there was a slaughterhouse at the bottom of her grandparents garden in a housing area which was still in constant use in the 1930's.  The racket disturbed her somewhat. I should have remembered that.   In my day meat came neatly wrapped from the butchers on Barber Road, not on the hoof.

My thanks to tozzin for a useful error. We lived in Barber Crescent up to WW2 and the aunts first had No 14 Barber Road as a lockup haberdashers and then  lived at No. 42.  Very interesting to see the changes in use over time. I had been wondering where to start looking.

Thank you all

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