The milk crate ….. the Lambeth saw mill ……and a bottle of sterilized milk from Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Now you will have to be of a certain age to remember and perhaps drunk sterilized milk.

Sterilized milk, date unknown

It was and remained the favoured choice of Dad, and despite trying it a few times I could never say I liked it.  And so, it ranked with Camp Coffee which always intrigued me, but was always a disappointment.

But Dad was born in 1908 and grew up in Gateshead at a time when the quality and safety of milk was still an issue, and sterilized milk delivered a certainty that what you drank was safe.

There were plenty of small dairies and creameries in the heart of all our big towns and cities supplied by cows which lived beside the business.

In 1911 there were 462 dairymen listed in the city of Manchester.  Some were very small concerns while others like Burgess of Gartside Street between New Quay Street and Bridge Street spread over four properties with another branch in Hampson Street Salford

Pure milk from Harold Morris, in Eltham, circa 1920s 

The development of railways made it possible to bring milk in from the surrounding countryside and so while the dairies remained the city cows vanished from the scene.

But there were many at the beginning of the 20th century who felt unease at the milk we drank.

In 1907 one correspondent to the Manchester Guardian had asked that simple question “Can the present system of milk supply be improved?”* 

It was an issue of public safety for what was wanted “is milk which is clean and free from pathogenic germs and which is rich in fat.”

But given the often poor level of scrutiny on the farm and during transportation there was no guarantee of its purity for “milk is a mysterious fluid which tells no tales of its manipulation.”  

Moreover it was also at the mercy of “crowds of filthy shops in which milk is exposed side by side with firewood and candles.”

At every stage there was the danger of contamination.

“The difficulty on the farm is to secure cleanliness in the milker, the atmosphere, the cooling plant and the churn.  The difficulty in the town dairy is largely in the dust laden atmosphere, which alone shows the need of bottling.  The difficulties in the home are dirty jugs and other vessels in which the milk is exposed until it is required.”

And so not for the first time there had been a call for the involvement of the municipal authorities in the production, supply and provision of milk.

Sterilized milk in Chorlton, 1959

This was after all a period when in the interests of public health local government was getting more and more involved in everything from transport and education to housing, sanitation along with clean drinking water, gas and electric supplies.

All of which is a rambling introduction to a wooden milk crate, sterilized milk and a delivery lorry from the Cheshire Milk Company trundling through Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the April of 1959.

The picture is a familiar one and was reposted from the City archive recently, and its reappearance prompted my old “posty” friend David Harrop to send over photographs of two wooden milk crates.

I do remember them along with those used to transport pop and beer bottles, and looking carefully at the Chorlton picture it does look like the crates were of wood.

Yonder Hill Saw Mills, date unknown

What drew me further into the story was that the crates were made at the Yoland Hill Saw Mills in Lambeth, which is not so far away from where I was born and spent my early years.

A search for the business has revealed only pictures, but I am convinced that in the fulness of time I will find out more.

Yonder Hill Saw Mills, 1966

As it is this is the closest I have come which is courtesy of the London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth Archives and was kindly shared by their archivist, Zoe Darani.**

It was still there when I was living in Peckham, but has now gone.  

The notes accompanying the image record that “The Yonder Hills Sawmills at 64 Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, Vauxhall. 

The site became a Sainsbury's supermarket, before an extensive residential redevelopment c.2015-17. From the former British Railways Board, dated 31st March 1966”.

The present Sainsbury’s replaced a more modest store which had been built sometime before 2008, and was swept away in 2014 for the huge new development which occupies the site.

All of which may seem a long way from a bottle of sterilized milk but not so.  I was surprised to see that you can still get the stuff but have never made the effort to see if it tastes the same.

Today it comes in a standard looking bottle or carton, and not like the long thin bottles I remember with the metal tops.

I wonder if it still looks that vey dark cream colour.

An ordinary milk bottle, circa 1930s

David has promised to share his “steri” bottles with me which I think will be another story, but for now that is it, other than to say I have written about the story of milk several times, of which  "Memories of when the milk arrived by horse, of dye cast toys and much more" is but one,* and found an old ordinary milk bottle from the 1930s.

Location, Lambeth, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Cheshire

Pictures; Harold Morris delivering milk in Eltham, circa, 1920s, from the collection of Jean Gammons, wooden milk crates, date unknown from the collection of David Harrop, The Yonder Hills Sawmills at 64 Wandsworth Road, South Lambeth, 1966, reference 13971, identifier 2001/1/F5026, by kind permission of London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth Archives, https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/yonder-hills-sawmills-wandsworth-rd-south-lambeth/ and milk delivery lorry in Chorlton, 1959, A.H. Downes, m17478, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and milk bottle from the collection of Ann Love , circa 1930s

*James Long, Municipal Milk, Manchester Guardian, November 20th, 1907

** Memories of when the milk arrived by horse, of dye cast toys and much more, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2013/05/memories-of-when-milk-arrived-by-horse.html