The Slaughterhouse
There used to be a slaughterhouse in the area between the school/old ironroom – now Jessica’s Hall and Cherry Tree Cottages/Chestnuts since at least the 1840s. It is difficult to pinpoint on the old maps because this area, once referred to as Slaughterhouse Yard, has changed. The road leading to Crandalls and Well Close was not there in the earlier Ordnance Survey maps, nor was the car parking area. However, the slaughterhouse appears on the 1841 tithe map – when it was located near to where the current car parking/Jessica’s Hall is today. The slaughterhouse itself appears in this same location on the 1867/69 OS map, the 1870 Sales Particulars and the 1872 drainage map. In 1896, the Ironroom was built for the school and by that time the original school shown on the 1867/69 OS Map had been added to with the School Master’s house. Therefore, the slaughterhouse (unnamed on most OS maps) sometimes seems to appear in different locations in Ordnance Survey maps, but that was not the case. Chestnuts built ca 1913, the Crandalls complex in the 1970s and the road leading to Well Close have replaced the field (slaughterhouse field) and new roads/paths have been built and Chilling House land fenced in and parking provided. The 1967/70 OS map clearly names the ‘Slaughterhouse’ and shows its location. An enlarged part of this OS map shows the slaughterhosue along what is Chilling House fence, in line with Chestnuts and Cherry Tree cottages. Having spoken to people who lived in the village at the time, the slaughterhouse was ‘behind’ the Ironroom, in the area where the car park is today and stretched across what is the road today.
Click on the link below to see the location of the Slaughterhouse in 1969.
Slaughterhouse – 1969 map showing location
During the 1970s, the future of the slaughterhouse was discussed at Parish Council meetings and it was eventually pulled down to make way for the West Kent housing properties situated between Chestnut and Crandalls today.
The slaughterhouse as a non-conformist meeting house? There is mention that the slaughterhouse was once used as a meeting house for the Associated Methodists. In the non-conformist pamphlet “Village Messenger” for February 1883, it states that ‘gospel work for some time was done in a little old chapel formerly a slaughterhouse’ and Lawrence Biddle’s book “Leigh in Kent” refers to this chapel used by the Methodist Free Association. However, in Edwin Hodder’s biography of Samuel Morley (written ca 1887), he mentions that there was only one other place of worship in Leigh – in a small room, where the Associated Methodists met for religious services, but he does not mention it being ‘in a former slaughterhouse’.
The mention of the location of this ‘chapel’ in the so-called ‘former slaughterhouse’ could have been a misreading of the 1867/69 OS map, where the words Ebenezer Chapel (Wesleyan) are printed above the slaughterhouse but it could easily refer to the chapel that was located in the grounds is what is now “The Cottage” in the High Street, which was called the “Ebenezer Chapel”. This ‘Old Ebenezer Chapel’ building is shown as no.34 on the Drainage Map; and the slaughterhouse is also shown – as ‘the slaughterhouse’ on the Drainage Map as building no. 37. Also, the 1870 Sales Particulars give the chapel (Baptist) as being at the back of the two attached cottages in the High Street (where “The Cottage” built 1875 is today) and the slaughterhouse is shown in a different location, let to Mr Outram, the butcher: no mention of it being a meeting house. Further confusion is the reference to Wesleyan/Methodists in some documents, but to ‘Baptist’ in others. Therefore, my personal view, is that the slaughterhouse was never used as a meeting house but more evidence is needed.
Joyce Field (July 2021)