Remember these.? All our yesterdays

[Peter.N.]

I remember the milk floats. Our first delivery man, Stan his name was, had a hand cart that he had to pull up the hill, at that time we still had gas street lights and a man came and wound up the time switch every week. Later the milk float was upgraded to an electric one he walked in front of, when he was about to retire he was presented with one he could drive!

We also had electric bread delivery vans, 'Tiptop bakery' but on the other side of Petts Wood, the posh side, they still had horse pulling the bread cart, 'Grooms Bakery' I think it was called.

William Willett came from Petts Wood, the man responsible for daylight saving, the pub in the square is called the 'Daylight Inn'.

If you want any more useless information just let me know.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

I remember the Daylight Inn......I have even made a post about it on this here forum

Have to admit, I have no idea whether this is a nice place to stop off at or not, but today would be the perfect day to have a token visit.

...and should it have a jukebox the most appropriate track to select would be??????

Chris Martin's great-great grandfather is none other than Daylight Saving Time's arch campaigner William Willet who took his inspiration while riding his horse near Petts Wood
Not a lot of people know that!





Daylight Inn - geograph.org.uk - 1098681

REgards Neil
Ian Capper / Daylight Inn, via Wikimedia Commons

REgards Neil

[Peter.N.]

Hi Neil

Interesting factoid there, thanks for that.

Your the first person I have communicated with on the forum that actually knows of the existence of Petts Wood. I was born there and lived the first 23 years of my life there, worked in a local TV shop, Queensway Radio.

Haven't seen the Daylight Inn for many years, moved to near Sevenoaks when we got married and were there for 7 years but have been in this house in West Dorset for 50 years last week.

Peter

[mickthemaverick]

Growing up in Watford we had a choice of three milkman to bring our daily supplies. The Co-op was the first with their brightly coloured three wheel floats but Mum wasn't a fan. That left us to choose between Brazier's with their 4 wheeled green and white carts but they operated from Oxhey Lane a good 4 miles away and so according to Mum not as fresh as that from the Express Dairy based at the top of Bushey Mill Lane with our back garden backing onto their yard. So it was the blue and white three wheeled wonder piloted by Bill ably assisted by his "boy" Ralph. Our next door neighbours on one side had Brazier's and the other side Co-op so you can see that there was much jovial jostling and one upmanship going on most of the time. I remember one Saturday when my mate Bob ( yes the same one!) and I mischievously swapped the empties between the houses (he lived at 25 when I was at 31) and watched with amusement as Ralph puzzled over why his bottles would not sit properly in his crates. The Express used the sloping side bottles while both Co-op and Braziers used the shouldered variety. I remember noticing that Braziers delivered bottles of Orange Juice whereas the Express didn't but despite constant badgering I was unable to persuade Mum to change her ways so Bob's Mum used to order an extra orange for me on Sundays!!

[myglaren]

Growing up we had a 'milkman' who lived four houses away. Ironically, opposite the Co-Op.
Also a dairy 100 yards away that my dad had made and installed the pasteurising equipment for - the dairy owners brother had a dairy farm half a mile away that supplied the raw milk. Until the Co-Op built a huge dairy serving a huge area of the county and swallowed all the small businesses up.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Excellent Mick, thanks for that! Yes I remember the orange juice in the milk bottle being a bit of a treat which wasnt often granted. Yes and the milk from the botles definitely had a layer of cream rising to the top. With all of this homogenised stuff now the manifestation of cream rising to the top is a rare event

The school 1/3rd Pint bottles which I have no doubt mentioned on here before either came as standard bottles which had an embossed ring around them, or in the much sought after "label" bottles which instead of the plain ring had co-op creameries or some other different wording stamped on the clear bottle. In warmer weather nicely chilled it was not!

Regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

I remember the 1/3 pint bottles and the milk monitor. We also had an Express dairy depot in Petts Wood, round the back of Dunstonian Garage it was - another place with a history.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

round the back of Dunstonian Garage it was - another place with a history.
Peter

Did you know this bunch Peter?

Caption Reads "ALAN MICHEAL DOUG DUNSTONIAN GARAGE 1959"

REgards Neil

[Peter.N.]

I knew Doug, he was the manager but don't recognise him. That's only about 1/2 mile from where I lived. Doug was one of my TV repair customers.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

I knew Doug, he was the manager but don't recognise him. That's only about 1/2 mile from where I lived. Doug was one of my TV repair customers.
Peter

Another Petts Wood institution popped up alongside the various garage pics Peter. The film showing...A Tale of Two cities is most likely to be the 1958 version With Dirk Bogarde and Dorothy Tutin One or two pics here

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/31156/photos/34571

http://photos.cinematreasures.org/produ ... 1327718647

regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

Oh yes, I first went there in the 1940s with my parents to see The Wizard of Oz. Some years later to see Two Way Stretch with Peter Sellers. Sadly it was demolished in the '60s I think and replaced with a supermarket with underground parking.

I used to walk past there to get to the station for school, 4d return from Petts Wood to chelsfield, two stations.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

Back to the milk deliveries, my neighbour still has her milk delivered in bottles, I think it's a farmer with his own dairy,

Not an old milk float though, he and I assume his wife, deliver alternately in two almost new pick up trucks, I don't see how he makes it pay, delivering to just two houses in the close must cost more in time and fuel than the price of the milk.

I'll get a photo next time.

[myglaren]

The thing with farms is that the cost of processing the milk and complying with all the health standards is crippling. It is far more economical to have the large dairies - e.g. Co-Op an ASDA collect it and process it.

And as you mention, the delivery costs for a couple of pints exceeds the cost of the milk, never mind the profit on the milk.
He may do it in the expectation that others may sign up for delivery too.

[mickthemaverick]

Could it be that he is delivering "live" milk straight from the cow to friends/relatives ?

[myglaren]

A possibility but he is sailing close to the wind if he is. HSE/EH got very antsy about that a long time ago.

Last time I had raw milk was camping with the scouts when I was 11. Even then it was deemed unwise.

Fortunately I didn't die or he would have been in all sorts of bother.