Wine gauging

Catalogue Reference:(MOL) DK2700NG

This picture in one of the London docks in the mid 1950s shows the wine-gauging ground. Gauging means measuring and here the barrels are being lined up before officers from Customs and Excise arrive to check the contents of each for the payment of Excise Duty (tax).The docks provided work for many migrants to London, among them a large number of people coming from Ireland, but dock labour was hard physical labour as this picture shows. The days of wine gauging on the dockside were numbered - nowadays wine is bottled at source and not imported in barrels.