Sausage-making machine may be the missing link!

A SAUSAGE-MAKING machine could provide a link between the town’s old market, a 19th century Southport butcher, and his descendants living here today.
Janice and Brendan O’Farrell were fascinated to find a report in a 1960 copy of the Southport Visiter about the discovery of the old piece of meat-mixing machinery.
It was among other relics discovered by workers excavating the site of Southport’s old market on Eastbank Street – which had been burned to the ground in 1915.

The sausage-mixing machine unearthed from the Market Hall site by workers in February 1960

And as the only butcher with a shop in that market hall was among Janice’s forebears, she is now seeking to trace the sausage-making machine as part of her family history research, while also appealing to people who may have any memories of her family.
Christopher Wadsworth was a master butcher, born in 1828 in Withnell near Chorley.
In 1852 he married Sarah Carey in Leyland – Sarah being the daughter of Patrick, who Janice has identified as her great, great, great grandfather.

Southport's old Market Hall on Eastbank Street, where butcher Christopher Wadsworth used to ply his trade

Speaking of her research, Janice, 57, told LookBack: “I found that a few years after the marriage the new couple were running a butcher’s shop in 40 London Street. They soon had several other outlets in Southport, including in Hill Street and at 54 Botanic Road (in Churchtown). As their butchery concerns grew so did their family – Sarah went on to have 10 children.�

Janice O’Farrell

She died in childbirth at the age of 43 but her husband Christopher lived on until 1898, and Janice has learned from trade directories of the time that he had a stall in Eastbank Street Market Hall, where now stands the Jobcentre Plus.
And as Christopher was the only listed butcher in the trade directories for many years, Janice believes the sausage- machine unearthed in 1960 probably belonged to her ancestor. Christopher’s death – he is buried in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in Hoghton Street – was not the end of the Wadsworth butchery business.

The shell of the Market Hall after it was consumed by fire on October 18, 1915

The 1901 census shows his offspring Michael, Christopher junior and Mary were trading in Southport.
“We’re sure people would remember the butcher’s shop on Hill Street, started by Christopher Wadsworth,� said Brendan.
Yet with several of Sarah and Christopher’s grandchildren emigrating to New Jersey in the United States in 1910, Janice believes fears there may be few of their descendants living in Southport today.

l If you feel you could help their research – perhaps you know where the sausage-mixer is now? – call Janice and Brendan on 01704-562547, email brendanofarrell@btinternet.com, or leave your leads below.