Report upon the slaughter-houses in the Borough of Bedford / by the Medical Officer of Health.

Bedford (England). Borough Council

Date:: 1911

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Report upon the slaughter-houses in the Borough of Bedford / by the Medical Officer of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

3/26

To the Chairman and l“Members of the Public Health Committee. Gentlemen, I beg to submit the Report on the Slaughter-houses within the Borough, which I have prepared in accordance with your instructions given at vour last meeting on Mav 3rd, 1911. There are 29 Slaughter-houses within the Borough—of these 8 claim to be “Registered,” the remainder are held by yearly licence. The Town Clerk has dealt with the legal aspect of licensing in his report, and I therefore say nothing on this point. The dates of first issue of the various licences are given in the table appended. The particulars as to each Slaughter-house are given separately. In this report I have confined my observations to the structural details, and have given no particulars as to the condition of the various premises at the time of the inspection made for the purposes of the Report. Some of the establishments are provided with refrigerating apparatus for the storing of meat in hot weather, but in no instance is there a separate room for the cooling down of the carcases after killing. The sheep and pigs are sometimes taken to the shop for this purpose, but beef is always kept in the killing room. The table shows how close the majority of the Slaughter-houses are to dwelling-houses. Many of the fasting pens are dark and imperfectly ventilated. In hardly any instance is adequate provision of water made for the fasting animals. Under the present system there is a great waste of a valuable material, the blood, which is merely allowed to flow into the sewers, instead of being kept for utilisation. j I am, Gentlemen, Your obedient Servant, F. B. Willmer Phillips, Medical Officer of Health. May 23, 1911.