Arthur Mew on milk for the gentry of Shanklin

I left school when I was 15 and I worked for my father and in those days we were hand-milking cows and it was, when I was 18 we had our first milking machines and then I was put in charge of milking the cows so the start of my life, I was used to milking cows.

I could do, we’re saying, the afternoon milking I could milk eight cows and there were three of us milking the cows, so my father had 24 cows so, you know, that was our afternoon.

We, in those days we had to take our milk to Shanklin for the gentry of Shanklin to have their afternoon tea and they wanted the fresh milk so my father had to be down at Shanklin by 3 o’clock every day with the afternoon milk so that it could be taken round these gentry houses. We had 12 gallon churns.

Later on they were 10 gallons but it was Joliffe at Shanklin what was the milkman and he provided us with 12 gallon cans and so in my time we had a Bedford van and, DL 99 64 and that was when we went twice a day; we went in the afternoon and in the morning with our milk.