"Number of Shops in the Butchery" 1842 Lincoln Directory

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Everyone,
Just now, while looking through an on-line 1842 Lincoln Directory I came across the section on butchers, at the top of which there was a note to say that the numbers below given in parentheses referred to the "number of shops in the butchery". 
Now, I'm sure there is a straightforward explanation, but I'm afraid I don't know what it is in my ignorance!
Now, if it had said: "number of chops (pork or otherwise) I might have had more of an idea...
Very best wishes,
keith

[annieoburns]

Perhaps something to do with different types of meat and that butchers specialised between beef, pork, mutton etc?  I knew of a forebear who had butchers shop and only when we found an old account book we saw that the front was engraved with a sheep rather than more obvious assumption of a cow.  I think some other rootschatter has referred to this subject.  There was also the matter of being licensed to have a yard for killing animals.
Anne

[Geoff-E]

Hi Keith ... where's the directory?

The 1841 directory at www.historicaldirectories.org has

[Keith Sherwood]

Thanks very much for trying to solve this mystery for me, Anne and Geoff...
The directory is actually on Ancestry, and is for 1842, and most of the numbers in brackets are quite large - as much as 60  in some cases - in fact there's one that has 160 as its number!
I was actually searching for the name of an executor in John DOCKERY's 1798 will, a Sylvanus CARTLEDGE, and there was someone with that name in the 1842 directory of Lincoln, living at 2, St Mark's Place.  Then I decided to move back page by page till I got to the butchers.  There I discovered the puzzling numbers in brackets...
keith
Actually I see the term is :"Numbers of the Shops in the Butchery" - could that be interpreted more easily?

[Geoff-E]

Ah OK.  I see that the "numbers of shops in the Butchery" are secondary to their actual addresses.  I suspect that these were something like "stall numbers" in a meat market.

I know that Clasketgate was once known as Butchery Street and, looking at the 1848 Lincoln map, I see the Butchery was sited here - in fact, look at the name of the lane http://tinyurl.com/n4psyb

[Keith Sherwood]

Geoff,
I've had another look at the 1842 Directory, and underneath the section that gives Lincoln's butchers and their addresses in the town (some with the now-less-than-mysterious numerals), there is another section which lists: "Country Butchers Who Attend on Market Days", and these ALL have numerals in brackets.  This does suggest - as you have done - that there may have been some kind of numbering of pitches in the market place or in Clasketgate, just as bookmakers have today at racecourses.
Perhaps some of the numbers were no longer used, as up to one hundred and sixty would seem to be a great number of butchers all calling their wares at the same time on market day...
Does the modern market-day in Lincoln still boast any butcher's stalls, can I ask?
Regards, keith

[Geoff-E]

I managed to scan a bit of the 1842 map - there certainly seem to have been dozens of stalls



At some point, all of the various markets were moved to the Sincil Street area.  In my youth, market days were Friday and Saturday.  As well as there being several butcher's shops in Sincil Street itself, there were quite a few in the indoor market.

[Keith Sherwood]

Geoff,
Now THAT map really brings the whole thing sharply into focus!  What a choice of meat the households of Lincoln must have had on market day 167 years ago...
And I wonder whether the longest established butchers had the lowest numbers allocated to them, and the newcomers the highest; or perhaps the numbers 1-160 merely referred to location.
Fascinating stuff...
keith