Milkmen/women

[zabadak]

Re: Milkmen/women

We only ever had silver-top milk, which had delicious cream at the top mmmmmm....

[George 1978]

Re: Milkmen/women

These days now I have the milk in plastic bottles from the supermarket, I now associate the colour green with semi-skimmed, rather than red and silver stripes.

[Zincubus]

Re: Milkmen/women

I remember our milkman had one tray at the back with fresh orange juice (with bits in the bottom )


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[Richard1978]

Re: Milkmen/women

Green Top was unpasteurised which was withdrawn in the late 1990s.

[Arran]

Re: Milkmen/women

The only time I used to regularly drink silver top milk was at nursery and primary school. At home I had plastic bottles. There used to be several shops that sold 2 and 4 pint plastic bottles locally so not many kids at my school had milk delivered by the milkman at home although I vaguely remember a milk float doing its rounds early in the morning. I never managed to find out the name of the dairy that supplied milk to my school but it was delivered in a van rather than a milk float. It might have been an LEA supplier that bought a tanker load of milk then bottled it for schools. My cousin who lived in a different part of town originally had silver top milk from the milkman at home but around 2000 it was changed to semi-skimmed with red and silver stripe tops. Red top homogenised was around at the time and I got a bit confused between the two.

[MalcolmAndSheldon]

Re: Milkmen/women

@Arran

When I used to deliver milk as a weekend job, the milk which was delivered in bottles with foil tops were the standard, semi-skimmed, skimmed and full fat varieties. These weren't homogenised, as homogenised milk came in a taller, slimmer bottle which had a bottle opener cap (same with the sterilised milk). They all came in glass bottles, no plastic involved anywhere.

And yes, I was delivering semi-skimmed milk back then - and this would have been in the mid 1980s. The provider was a large privately owned firm (not Co-op or Unigate) which owned a number of dairies, both large and small, across a wide area.

[staffslad]

Re: Milkmen/women

We had a Co-op milkman up to about ten years ago, though I believe he was independent for the last few. We stopped it as the price difference was just too great compared to supermarket milk. I haven't seen him around for years now, so probably retired as he was getting on. It's a shame price killed it off. For the elderly and infirm he provided a valuable service which getting supermarket milk can't replace. It's another symptom of people becoming more and more isolated from those around them. Plus the end of the milkman and lonely housewife in a frilly nightie joke

[Arran]

Re: Milkmen/women

It's a bit confusing:

Red - homogenised. Same as blue top plastic.
Red and silver stripes - semi-skimmed homogenised. Same as green top plastic.
Silver - not homogenised. Not usually available in plastic bottles.

When did semi-skimmed become available from milkmen? Was it only available from larger dairies or did most smaller local dairies also sell it? I think red top homogenised milk started to replace silver top milk in the late 1990s.

[MalcolmAndSheldon]

Re: Milkmen/women

Yes, wasn't the milk that had the red and silver striped tops on, semi-skimmed? I remember our family fridge having that milk in.

Yep! The tops were as follows:

Silver - standard
Red and silver stripes - semi-skimmed
Blue and silver in a gingham style patten - skimmed
Gold - full fat

Homogenised and sterilised milk came in taller bottles with caps which needed a bottle opener, though I can't remember what colours were used to differentiate between the two.

[George 1978]

Re: Milkmen/women

Yes, wasn't the milk that had the red and silver striped tops on, semi-skimmed? I remember our family fridge having that milk in.

[Arran]

Re: Milkmen/women

I have encountered several people over the years who used milkmen to buy silver top milk but later stopped using milkmen when the milk became homogenised because they could buy it cheaper in shops. There are still some smaller dairies that sell silver top milk but it's now a small and shrinking market as most people want cheap semi-skimmed and they can't compete with big supermarkets.

[Richard1978]

Re: Milkmen/women

My parents still have milk delivered from a local dairy farm.

[Arran]

Re: Milkmen/women

It's quite common now for milk in glass bottles delivered by milkmen to be transported from hundreds of miles away in the bottles then the empty bottles are transported hundreds of miles back for refilling. There are very few dairies around in Britain which still use glass bottles so many that remain serve customers nationally rather than locally. The processing and bottling of milk and the delivery of milk have now become two completely separate businesses.

It's possible that much of the milk in glass bottles delivered by milkmen nowadays is not as fresh as the milk sold in supermarkets and could have come from even further away.

[Arran]

Re: Milkmen/women

They still have milkmen in my area but they deliver in bulk quantities to hotels and coffee shops rather than houses. They also deliver other things like juice and sugar.

In what year did milk deliveries to houses die as a mainstream business?

[Twocky61]

Re: Milkmen/women

He was such a wonderful man, in his 50's or 60's at the time I imagine. I wish I had been able to meet him later in life and let him know how much his friendship meant to the little me.

The sad thing is if this happened today everyone would wonder why this guy made friends with a little kid. back then it just happened and was absolutely fantastic.

Sadly that is a sign of the times

At school we had a teacher Mr P who taught us maths. He would let us in his classroom at break/lunch times to watch TV & to socialise. He even invited us to his cottage at weekends where his wife would give us cake & pop

Sadly too,If he did this nowadays all sorts of allegations would be thrown at him

He was a nice guy