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Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Tue 03 Jan, 2017 10:08 pm
by Leodian
Though the thread is about cattle and the abattoir there seems to be no mention of sheep being taken there. I recall sheep being carried in lorries and seeing the sheep looking out between slats on the lorries. I always had a feeling that the poor things knew what their fate was going to be. I may be just imaging it by now but I recall seeing some sheep sometimes escaping and briefly running around in the area. I wonder if my recollection is right in that sheep did get taken to the abattoir?

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Tue 03 Jan, 2017 10:54 pm
by dogduke
I don't recall the railways conveying sheep,horses,cattle and the occasional circus were the norm.
The cattle,many from Ireland were landed at
Holyhead and loaded into OXFIT wagons.Fit meaning fitted with the vacuum brake.
They were separated into single stalls,approx 6-8 per wagon.
Sheep would be too small I think.
York Holgate Dock and Foss Islands depot were about the last to handle cattle by rail I think.
The Irish cattle would be for breeding and the Marsh Lane lot for meat would not have travelled all
that far over what was then an extensive rail network serving many country stations.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 11:50 am
by volvojack
round the early 1940s i was taken by bus every day to a school in Pottrnewton Park and on the way we would stop off at Hunslet Lane School which was opposite the Railways Goods yard mentioned and i don't recall ever seeing animals ever. It was principally a goods yard and B.R.S. were still delivering parcels, boxes etc. out of there in the 1960s. their wagons were the "Iron Horse" ( an animal of sorts) and were unique having only one wheel at the front which enabled them to manoeuvre into almost any space.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 2:24 pm
by jim
I spent a considerable amount of time at Hunslet Lane Goods Yard with my employment, from 1957 until the yard closed (late 1970s I think). There was a set of animal pens on a trackside platform up near Heinz's Warehouse and the Bonded warehouse on Kidacre Street adjacent to the SW side of the yard. At that time they were seldom in use, but they were large enough to have seen much use in earlier times, and the railways did not provide facilities of any kind unless the traffic was there when the provision was made. The road exit was onto KIdacre Street, and animals would have left the yard there on foot.

The small three-wheeler artics you mention were Commer Cobs and Scammell Scarabs. The railways must have been the largest users of these vehicles, as they were common at goods yards country wide.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 4:24 pm
by jma
I think the reason for having the abattoir so central was the lack of refrigeration in those days. I read somewhere that the difference between a "high class" butcher and a "family" butcher was that the latter originally had no refrigeration in their shop. Whether that bit is correct or not, it would suggest that all types of fresh meat would be locally slaughtered. (I've no idea when New Zealand lamb became widely available.)

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 6:17 pm
by blackprince
jma wrote:I think the reason for having the abattoir so central was the lack of refrigeration in those days. I read somewhere that the difference between a "high class" butcher and a "family" butcher was that the latter originally had no refrigeration in their shop. Whether that bit is correct or not, it would suggest that all types of fresh meat would be locally slaughtered. (I've no idea when New Zealand lamb became widely available.)
jma - The answer to your final question is quite interesting. Its over 130 years since the Victorians started shipping NZ lamb in refrigerated ships holds (in 1882). see http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-n ... d-10665690
for the full story.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 6:38 pm
by jma
blackprince

That's an interesting link: it's amazing the lengths people once had to go to in order to do something which now seems everyday. I still suspect that even until fairly recently, most meat was slaughtered locally to where it would be consumed. Not directly relevant to Leeds, in 1960 I went youth hostelling in Ulster and Eire and we went on the now defunct Liverpool - Belfast ferry, arriving in Belfast in the early hours. When we disembarked, the first thing we saw was a vast flock of sheep being herded through the city centre. I suppose it's about 50 years since wholesale butchery operations in Leeds moved from Kirkgate to Cross Green. (?)

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Wed 04 Jan, 2017 7:22 pm
by loiner99
I used to get my bus to Halton opp the post office (still there) or walk down to Bus Station for a 22 Templenewsam and did see (sometimes) Cattle escaping. This would be mid, early 60s. As I think back, never sheep.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Mon 09 Jan, 2017 5:55 pm
by tyke bhoy
jma wrote:the now defunct Liverpool - Belfast ferry, arriving in Belfast in the early hours.
It may not be the same operator but Stena do still operate a Liverpool-Belfast ferry with an 8 hour approximate crossing and as they operate two ships twice a day in each direction.

Re: Cattle running wld in Leeds

Posted: Mon 09 Jan, 2017 7:29 pm
by jim
Bookazine currently on sale at W H Smiths entitled "Goods by Rail", published by the N R M has a couple of chapters on animals carried by rail, which might be quite an eye-opener for those interested in the subject. Lots of pictures too.