There were no refrigerators available in 1866, so it is not surprising that buying meat was often a risky business. But the authorities tried to reduce the dangers, and there were cases of traders being accused of selling food which was the Victorian equivalent of "past it's sell-by date" !
This example shows that Charles Hamer was charged with selling bad meat at Builth in October 1866...

This is part of a document from the Session Rolls for 1866 -
"[Charles Hamer]...is convicted before the undersigned four of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the said County for that the said Charles Hamer on the 4th day of October last, at the parish of Builth in the said County, did expose for sale a quantity of meat which was unfit for the food of man, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided".

The last part, from "contrary to..." is written in a legal language which really means simply "against the law of the land", but legal documents have always been hard to understand. They still are !
Find out what happened to the bad meat man of Builth...
Did he get the chop ? Did he have much to beef about ? Was his whole future at steak ? Did they grill him ?...
See the next page...

More about the bad meat man...