Wednesday 3 August 2011

Slaughter House Post and Sheep House


Where today an idyllic and somewhat surreal garden store and nursery stands, there were before 1857, several structures that served as cook rooms and stables for the main residency building, which, during the siege functioned as cattle pens and quite literally as slaughterhouses from where the garrison received the commissariat rations of meat. The fodder for the livestock was kept in the walled racquet court which stood nearby. Of the court nothing remains. 


Ruins 

The Sheep House, next to the Slaughter House Post, was a row of low houses used as pens to keep the sheep in before their slaughter for food. In the same area, a group of Indian Christians and their families also found shelter. Both areas were actively defended by Captain Boileau of the 7th Light Cavalry and by civilians of the Uncovenanted Services. At the end of the lane between the sheep yard and the slaughter house a battery was started to flank and protect that front, but the work was only partly completed and the battery was never used.
Ruins at the garden center

Slaughterhouse Post marker


No comments: