Day 67. The Quart Can

In the days before the milkman's float, everybody collected their milk from the local farms. Both farms in Preston in the 20^th century kept dairy cows, and both sold milk at the door. Park Farm also filled the 1/3 pint bottles provided free each day to the children at Preston School.

Everybody's containers were left lined up outside the dairy until milking was finished, and the owners would return later to collect them. The two-pint or quart cans held enough milk for a day or two – the longest it would stay fresh in the days before refrigeration.

Collecting the milk was often a children's job, and on the way home they would dare each other to swing the  cans round over their heads, without losing the milk. They were often sent back again by their angry mothers on delivery of an empty can.

  

Fetching the milk from Park Farm c.1954. Phyllis Wood; Elizabeth Beavington; Jenny Gibbins; Christine Keeley, Jenny's cousin; John Spencer; Kenny Paxford.

After the mid 20^th century, stricter hygiene regulations and pasteurisation laws meant milk had to be delivered to a central processing plant to be bottled before sale. Then arrived a new figure who has since become iconic of British culture: the milkman.