Mollie Rosine MEYER (1914-2005) is listed in the 1939 Register as Pork Butcher Manager ... of her father's shop at 13 Cambridge St, Wellingborough. I'm told she was the cashier in her little kiosk in the shop, and that, in the 1950s, each day (ex Sat) just before closing time she could be seen placing a large dripping jar containing the day's takings into the carrier of the shop's delivery bike and racing off to the (Midland) Bank.
Mollie was the gt granddaughter of Frederick Meyer (1830-1916) of Kunzelsau, who moved down from Wakefield to set up his pork butcher's shop at 13 Silver St in Wellingborough in the early 1850s. By 1881 Frederick had passed the business on to son William (1856-1933), whilst elder son Frederick (1853-1932), after training in Bradford, had set up his own shop at 57 Gold St in Northampton. William grew the business, opening a second shop at 13 Cambridge St in Wellingborough by 1906. In turn William retired and passed the business on to his son William Albert (1883-1972), who, by 1920, had closed the original shop and moved to larger premises across the road at 20 Silver St, premises that I'm told actually backed on to the pig pens of the cattle market. From 1940 it would appear that only the shop at 13 Cambridge St was in use, and at the moment I can't get closer than it closed before the mid-60s.
The names associated with these businesses ... Roll, Hohenrein, Frank, Munz, Beyer, Retzbach, Rothermel, Kolb, Wachelor, Bokmaer, Boklmeyer, Rens, Blank, Weyman, Hamel, Schwelka and Holich; and just to add the three Ludwig sisters from Goggenbach, all buried under the same marble slab in Wellingborough's old cemetery between 1935 and 1947 - two had worked for the Hohenrein family in Hull, one for Fred Meyer junior in Northampton and one was housekeeper to Fred Meyer senior in Wellingborough.
I regularly walk past the premises that were once pork butchers' shops in Wellingborough, and have collected info about the folks who worked there, though I have no connections to the families mentioned or pork butchers. I don't have the time to write this up fully, and nor do I wish to add further duplicate entries to the German Pork Butchers database, but I'm happy to assist with info if others wish to tidy up the entries.
Bryan
