Steabbens - Butcher of St Albans and Hatfield

Alfred Wren, with the butcher's van owned by Steabbens of St Albans and Hatfield

Hillary has kindly provided the above picture of Alfred Wren, who was born i 1899 and moved to London in 1923 - almost certainly taken after the war - where he had joined the army despite being under age. I have added it to the existing Steabben page

G & W. Steabben's adverts from 1878

If you have any similar early photos which could be added to an existing page on my web site I would love to hear from you.

A woman turns to butchery during the First World War

This picture appeared in the press (source unknown) in 1916.

I am sure that there were dozens of other women in Hertfordshire just like her, wielding a meat cleaver to keep the family business running.

It would be wonderful if anyone could identify her - but I suspect this will just be another example of a portrait without a name.

A reminder - are all your precious family pictures clearly labelled so that future generations know who they are. There are millions of photographs from this period which show people who have been dehumanized by having become nameless. 

More about Buntingford

Jackson, Butchers, Buntingford

Buntingford

Last October I added a page to the main site about the Jackson family of butchers from Buntingford based on some old invoices, as an example of how interesting ephemera can be when it has survived (which rarely happens). Alison recently wrote to tell me that the invoices (and much more beside) had all been kept by a Jeffery Smith, of Buntingford and I have added details to the Jackson page.

Old News

Alison also drew my attention to the Facebook site on which she is posting news items from the Buntingford and North East Herts Gazette from 1923 to 1940. She says: Not only does it give a fascinating insight into how the town was run with accounts of how the various prominent local citizens (who often served on half a dozen or more committees) gave selflessly of their time to serve on various committees like the Poor Union, the Rural District Council, the various church councils, the burial ground committee, assorted fundraising committees particularly for the Royston Hospital, the Nursing Fund and so on, but it also gives details of funerals and who attended (most useful for genealogical research) sports results, types of entertainment, advertisements for local businesses, Petty Sessions. It takes me some time to do the uploading because I read every word! But it paints an intimate picture of life in the town at that time.

A Buntingford Butcher sells cheap meat ...

On 22nd December, 1907 Arthur Jackson, a family butcher of Church Street, Buntingford, supplied Mr. Smith with the following items.

1 lb 11 oz      Pork      1s 1d

 1lb 8 oz    Sausages    1s

6 lb 11 oz   leg mutton   5s 7d

Total    7s 8d

The mutton works out (in modern measurements and currency) at about 10p a kilo

In fact Arthur was just one of three brothers who were butchers in Buntingford - the sons of Henry Jackson, who was the landlord of the Sword in Hand, Westmill. For more information see JACKSON, Butchers, Buntingford