Slaughterhouse

This building was specifically designed for efficiency – up to 70 or 80 head of cattle could be processed at one time.

Some sources suggest that up to 100 bullocks were driven down through Stonehouse to the Yard every day for slaughter. At times, livestock also arrived by boat, docking at Firestone Bay before being led into the Yard down ‘Slaughter Alley’. Once here, animals waited in holding pens before being processed into fresh and salt beef, the latter a mainstay of naval rations for voyages across the globe.

By the mid-19th century, the slaughterhouse was central to the Yard’s mission, its rooms busy with the salting and packing of beef, storage of tongues and offal, and even, at times, vegetables. The best cuts were reserved for sailors, while tongues were sent to naval officers, and offal often belonged to private contractors as part of the payment arrangement.

In 1906, pig slaughtering was introduced, and a dedicated meat inspector joined the team in 1912, reflecting growing standards in food inspection. All this activity ceased in 1916, when advances in technology brought the era of on-site slaughtering to an end and the operation shifted to refrigerated and frozen meat delivered from elsewhere.

Today, the Slaughterhouse stands as a reminder of the immense and sometimes brutal effort involved in keeping the Navy fed — its robust stone walls a testament to the thousands of animals, workers, and stories that passed through its doors.