This building has stood derelict for many years, it’s full of snack wrappers, poor graffiti and smells strongly of urine. It’s a quick explore which may, for some, be compensated by its thought-provoking nature. There’s enough left of the mechanisms inside the building to get a good picture of the slaughter process.
In 1960, the Leek Cattle Market had outgrown its town centre location and was relocated to an edge-of-town site, which comprised a small, purpose built abattoir. The weekly cattle market continues today but the abattoir stands derelict on waste ground, just outside the market’s perimeter fence.
The slaughterhouse layout reveals a basic 3 step process. Animals are penned in the first room. From here, there is a short alley to the killing room. There is no door between the pens and the killing room.
Once inside the killing room, the animal is secured by the neck in a metal framed construction and killed.
Once the animal is slumped, the side of the pen folds down to provide a platform (the platform is in the down-position in the photos). From here, the animal is then winched into the air (you can see the winch mechanism on the wall) and attached to metal racking on the ceiling.
Finally the animal is moved to the large store room which has a more extensive metal racking system suspended from the ceiling.
There is also a couple of ancillary rooms, which presumably were used as a small office or storeroom for equipment.
In 1960, the Leek Cattle Market had outgrown its town centre location and was relocated to an edge-of-town site, which comprised a small, purpose built abattoir. The weekly cattle market continues today but the abattoir stands derelict on waste ground, just outside the market’s perimeter fence.
The slaughterhouse layout reveals a basic 3 step process. Animals are penned in the first room. From here, there is a short alley to the killing room. There is no door between the pens and the killing room.
Once inside the killing room, the animal is secured by the neck in a metal framed construction and killed.
Once the animal is slumped, the side of the pen folds down to provide a platform (the platform is in the down-position in the photos). From here, the animal is then winched into the air (you can see the winch mechanism on the wall) and attached to metal racking on the ceiling.
Finally the animal is moved to the large store room which has a more extensive metal racking system suspended from the ceiling.
There is also a couple of ancillary rooms, which presumably were used as a small office or storeroom for equipment.
