Thursday 26 April 2012

The Creamery on Wilbraham Road


It’s not the best picture I have to admit but it tells a story. Before the widespread use of refrigerators most people bought their diary produce fairly frequently. If you were lucky enough to live near a farm which had its own creamery then you bought your milk, butter and cheese from them. And there are still people who remember being sent to Riley’s at Ivy Green Farm on Beech Road to buy milk.

The old farmhouse on the green which had been in the hands of the Higginbotham family from the 1840s still has its creamery which faces north as it should do to ensure it is the coldest part of the cottage.

But away from the green and as the area north of the old village was developed in the last decades of the 19th century there were creameries on Barlow Moor Road and here on Wilbraham Road. Walter who used to live on Acres Road once told me that he had begun work as a boy of 14 at a creamery on Railway Terrace at the junction of Buckingham and Manchester Roads.

Now there is a lot more work to do to date the Creamery in the picture. It was established sometime after 1911 but as yet I can’t give a definite date. Out of curiosity I asked the present users of the shop if there was anything left of the old creamery but sadly there was nothing. Still I always travel in hope and I guess someone will be able to help with a story of the place. In the meantime it will have to be down to trawling the street and trade directories.

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson

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