Old Butter Market, Douglas
Date(s): 1895
Place made: Market Place (Douglas)
Scope & Content: Edmund Southworth, Director of Manx National Heritage says, "At first sight this photograph of the old Buttermarket in Douglas is unspectacular. Taken in 1895, it shows a group of women selling butter from baskets. The women are well-dressed. Look carefully and you can see that they each have a simple folding wooden stand to set the basket on.
What fascinates me about this photograph is what it says about the production and distribution of this important food commodity for a comparatively short period of time. At this time butter is handmade by women at home either on farms or small-holdings, but there was a growing demand for it.
We have a number of butter baskets within the museum collections. They are made from woven willow with a thin wood handle. You can take a look at our Related Collections (above) to see an example of one used by a Mrs Bridson, who worked at Cordeman Farm near St. Marks.
The demand for butter in the towns was substantial – particularly in the summer when holiday makers flocked to the Island. Most women must have walked several miles carrying these baskets – which held quite a weight of butter. From 1873 the railways expanded on the island – making the journey easier but still a hard slog.
Butter is important for several reasons. It is a foodstuff in its own right and an ingredient in cooking. More significantly it gives the family cash to supplement the income from a farm or small patch of land. Unusually it is the woman of the family who gets the cash in her hand.
By the end of the Victorian period there is a more industrial approach to the process. You can Explore Newspapers on iMuseum – such as The Isle of Man Examiner, Jan 1903 – which shows that by this time, adverts were starting to appear for imported foodstuffs."
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Language: eng
Extent: overall: 16 cm x 19 cm
Item name: photograph
Collection: Photographic Archive
Level: ITEM
ID number: PG/4919
Subject tags : Isle of Man