Comments on: On the rounds with the Spitalfields milkman

By: Stuey the time traveller

Stuey the time traveller — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 07:07:20 +0000

This item really resonated with me, in the very early 60’s when I was but a primary schoolboy I used to get up at stupid O’clock A.M. to go and stand at the corner on Amersham High St. where all the Express Dairy milk floats would come pouring out of the depot, hailing the milkmen as they passed, asking them if they needed any help? I always got work, sometimes with the same milkman for weeks on end. I loved it and got to know the rounds really well and what was needed to be delivered, picking up the empties with practiced ease, even with my very young, small hands and fingers. Some of the milkmen would allow me to drive the electric floats so that they could very quickly get milk to doorstep without having to climb in and out - I got to know the different types of float - some were much quicker than others so they could get to their round quicker if it was farther out of town - many were! I got to know the area of Amersham even better than my rambles through countryside during long hot summer days (they were always long and hot in the late 50’s early 60’s of course!) How l loved doing what I did for a silver sixpence, which would disappear almost immediately in the sweet shop virtually opposite my house… happy days with 24 black jacks in my sticky pocket - until my parents decided to move to SE Kent - now THAT really was a burst bubble at age 11. Time travel back to the 60’s, what a dream!

By: Margaret Grover

Margaret Grover — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 09:01:52 +0000

I wonder if Kevin is still delivering milk in 2015? What a wonderful life and occupation fro him to know so many different people and remember their requests.

When I was a girl in country Western Australia the milkman used to run on to the front verandah of my auntie’s house and ladle the milk into a milk tin

My Dad used to have a newspaper round in Perth Western Australia in the 1940’s when I was born.
He used to get up early in the morning at 4.00am, roll and twist the papers and deliver them by hand from the back of a horse drawn cart. The house/newsagency was still there until last year when it was bulldozed and two houses build on the site.

London is wonderful. I try to visit at least once year just to soak up the geography of stories
like that of Kevin.

Hope I am there again soon to see my wonderful East ender friend who I worked with in lovely London n 1972. She takes me on amazing adventures all over London.

By: Joanna/JamaGenie

Joanna/JamaGenie — Sat, 22 May 2010 22:51:11 +0000

How lovely to learn milk is still delivered! In the mid-1880s, my English great-grandfather brought his young family from Cumbria to America, settled in Kansas, and started a quite successful dairy. Every morning he set out in a horse-drawn wagon to deliver milk, eggs and butter to homes all over town. As soon as my grandfather was old enough, he joined his father and eventually took over operation of the dairy. Milk wasn’t delivered in individual bottles back then, but dispensed from a large metal can into a customer’s own containers which a family member or kitchen maid would bring out to the wagon. Glass bottles didn’t become the norm until much later, around the time the horse and wagon were put out to pasture in favor of a motorized van.

By: kevinthemilkman

kevinthemilkman — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:30:02 +0000

Hi Francis. I am in contact with AB Munroes Dairy in Rhode Island. I have no knowledge of The US but they are close to you I think. Let me know if thats of any use to you.

By: Frances

Frances — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:25:28 +0000

What a marvelous post! I do admire your hero, and wish there was such a service available here in New York.

Reading about Kevin’s rounds and seeing those glass pint bottles sent me down memory lane, to childhood days in Virginia that featured milkmen and eggmen. I think I remember correctly that the milk still came with the cream on the top back then.

Best wishes.