Shambles is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. There are streets named "The Shambles" in some U.K. towns (e.g., Worcester, York, Coventry and Armagh,) which got their names from having been the sites on which butchers killed and dressed animals for consumption. Workers and cattle in a slaughterhouse. ... Meat is animal tissue used as food. ... Street markets such as this one in Rue Mouffetard, Paris are still common in France. ... The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a country in western Europe, and a member of the European Union. ... Main street in Bastrop, Texas, a small town In American English, a town is usually a municipal corporation that is smaller than a city but larger than a village. ... The city of Worcester (pronounced Wuh-ster) is the county town of Worcestershire in England; the river Severn runs through the middle, with the citys large Worcester Cathedral overlooking the river. ... York is a city in northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss. ... The Precinct in Coventry city centre. ... Armagh is a city in Northern Ireland, the capital of County Armagh. ... The Butcher and his Servant, drawn and engraved by J. Amman (Sixteenth Century). ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish, anenomes) Placozoa (trichoplax) Subregnum Bilateria (bilateral symmetry) Acoelomorpha (basal) Orthonectida (parasitic to flatworms, echinoderms, etc. ...

During that period there were no sanitary facilites or hygiene laws as exist today, and guts, offal and blood were thrown into a runnel down the middle of the street or open space where the butchering was carried out. Moving through the resulting mess must have been unpleasant — but then, all forms of household waste were commonly thrown in the street anyway, so perhaps it was less disgusting to the people of that age than it would be during the present era. Hygiene is the maintenance of healthy practices. ... The gastrointestinal tract or digestive tract, also referred to as the GI tract or the alimentary canal or the gut, is the system of organs within multicellular animals which takes in food, digests it to extract energy and nutrients, and expels the remaining waste. ... Offal is the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. ... Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are present in the blood and help carry oxygen to the rest of the cells in the body Blood is a circulating tissue composed of fluid plasma and cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets). ... The word gutter refers to a long, thin trough, usually one that runs straight. ...

By extension, any scene of total disorganisation and mess is now referred to as "a shambles". The word is probably derived from the Saxon language. See: Lower Saxon language (a variety of Low German) Anglo-Saxon language (the ancestor language of English) Old Saxon language (the ancestor language of Anglo-Saxon language) Upper Saxon language (a variety of High German) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise...

See also

• The Shambles (York)
• The Shambles Education Website for Schools