Police tried to catch butchers out in the days of rationing

REGULAR Looking Back correspondent Old Mo has dipped into this memories once again for some fascinating recollections.

This time he recalls the war days of rationing.

During the war, regulations were put into force, and lots of official jobs were created - one such job being enforcement officer, over grocers, butchers, petrol suppliers- in fact, anything to do with rationing.

Such positions were given to retired professional people and officials from councils etc.

They were ‘jobs for the boys’, and retired police often got plum jobs, one of which was going around butchers’ shops, and seeking out infringements of restrictions, black market dealings etc .

These people would be referred to as ‘snoops’ by the local people.

On Mondays, butchers would spend the day cleaning, and preparing for opening on Tuesdays. There would be a very limited amount of ‘off ration’ items, such as sausages, black puddings, pies, offal (kidney, liver) etc., otherwise you could use your Ration Card to buy meat.

Everything was limited to what was available, as butchers had restricted amounts to what they could supply. This was also determined by the number of customers whom the butcher had registered on his books.

Tuesday mornings, before 9 o’clock, one would see a particular retired policeman, going in and out of a butchers’ shop.

Every week, same day, same time, as regular as clockwork, comes the policeman, apparently, just talking away, laughing and joking with the staff. We would then see him walking out of the shop, holding a little parcel! We made a few guesses as to what was in it!

Then there was a case, brought against the butcher who was prosecuted for breaking of the rules.

The butcher told his side of the story: Every week the policeman would call and collect offal (paid for it), yet he was not a customer.

The ploys of these undercover officials, trying to catch shopkeepers out, resulted in many complaints from the shopkeepers about this behaviour. Shopkeepers were effectively being encouraged to break the law.