This photo shows the old pulley wheel in the roof of the old slaughterhouse which is situated between numbers 18 & 20 High Street.
Its smooth concrete floor has a pattern of drainage channels leading to an outside gulley. The wheel was geared like a capstan so that the heavy weight of a carcass could be hauled into a hanging position after the slaughter of the animal. Last used in the mid 1900s after WW2 during which many residents kept pigs which they fattened and had killed and they kept half and the other half went to the Ministry for sale in butchers’ shops as part of the public’s meat ration. The butcher’s house and shop were at 19 High Street together with an allotment and pigsty beyond the slaughter house.
Photographer Mr David Kench