Group standing outside slaughterhouse
Maker
Unknown
Production date
Circa 1912
Description
A group of workers pose for the camera. Two are seated in a pony and trap, the rest are standing, one with a dog. Only one appears dressed for work, in rubber boots and overcoat.
See full details
Object detail
'The original dwelling house is behind the figures on the left. My father (Thomas Fotheringham) was born there, but by the time my grandfather died they had moved to the new house in Kerse Lane. The old house became an office and a storeroom. About 1912, two firms collected hides. One was Dixons of Edinburgh and they collected on Tuesday and Friday. The other was Marks Hide and Skin Merchant, also of Edinburgh, and they came on Fridays. The entrails which were used for sausage skins were also collected on Friday by a man from Glasgow. Very few pigs were skinned, they were merely scraped. The few skins which were produced went to David Newton of Polmont. At the beginning of every year sheep's stomachs were scraped for the Burns' celebration haggis.
The first person on the left is Thomas Fotheringham. Beside him is Adam Veitch, whose sole job was killing pigs. Next to him is James Cochrane, one of the four killers of cattle. The horse and cart belonged to Richard Balloch, whose butchers shop was in Manor Street. He dealt mainly with pigs, because that cart, I am assured, could not take a bigger carcass! My uncle remembers him particularly because he came every day, so my uncle walked to Manor Street from Falkirk High School, and waited for a ride home to the slaughterhouse. The man in the cart was Richard Balloch's son, Dickie, who was semi-crippled. Beside him is Annie Scott, who was one of the three girls who cleaned tripe. Standing beside the cart is Mick Campbell, another killer. Beside the dog is Alex Johnson, whose father had a butchers shop in the Kirk Wynd. A Johnson bought calves at market, sent them to the slaughterhouse for killing, and then sent them to market in Glasgow. The man between the two girls is William Elder, a 'skin drawer' who cleared the entrails out of the sausage skins for Glasgow. To the left of him is Jenny Scott, sister of Annie, and also a tripe girl. The other girl is Lizzie Henderson. The Scott girls lived at the top of Kerse Lane in the house behind a "model lodging house"
(Information supplied by Henry Fotheringham, sole surviving son of Thomas Fotheringham).' c 1992
Public comments
Be the first to comment on this object record.