Down Memory Lane - Part 4: Flashback to the Isle of Axholme in days gone by
Colin Ella is a local writer whose work has been published widely in many journals, magazines and newspapers.
The Doncaster Free Press has a new ‘retro’ section which Colin will be regularly contributing to. Colin used to write for the Free Press’s former sister paper, the Epworth Bells, before it closed.
In the forthcoming pieces we will roam widely in the Isle of Axholme to discover how things were decades ago.
Arthur Ashley’s butcher’s van in the 1930s. He was the only butcher in Garthorpe’s population of 451 in 1933. His shop was in Island Road but in his van he took meat out to neighbouring village.
Delivery to the door was very common up to and after the Second World War.
Early in the 20 th century the Pidd family were well known butchers in Crowle. Folk very much appreciated their butcheries and the way they delivered meat to many parts of the Isle of Axholme.
At the time of these photos there were four butchers in Crowle under the name of Pidd. The front of their High Street shop with its carcasses of sheep hanging down and large joints of beef in the open air would horrify health and safety experts today.
Mr George Chapman Pidd stands in the doorway and the other chap is Mr Harold Duncan Pidd.
The slaughter house behind their shop at the north end of High Street is shown in the other pictures where Mr George Chapman Pidd stands by his delivery cart with Harold Duncan Pidd seen left.
The cart took meat out over a wide area and the horse had the name ‘Nobby’.
The other scene is typical of the slaughter house in this very early 20th Century shot and Enos Pidd on the left is completing a killing whilst his brother, Jack and Kelsey go about the business of the various operations needed following a killing.
Kelsey worked in the slaughter house until he retired and Enos set up his own business in Thorne Market Place.