In the early years of the 20th century milk rounds were an accepted part of town life. Housewives scoured their milk jugs with boiling water, and bought milk which was ladled in from the churns on the dairyman or woman’s cart.

However sealed milk bottles had been invented in the 1880s and after the First World War became the standard way of retailing milk. They had the advantage of providing measured amounts, so deliveries could be completed much more quickly.

Hampshire Chronicle: Unigate’s Depot in Newton Lane, Romsey, 1979

Older readers will remember that the bottles might be topped either with a cardboard based cover or a metal one. These were the delight of blue tits, who would peck their way through them and enjoy the cream that had risen to the top of the milk. On cold mornings, the milk would freeze in the bottles and expand above the top of the bottle.

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Romsey had several dairies, one of which was the Aylesbury Dairy in The Hundred at Beauchamp House. This business had been acquired by William Harrison who came to the town in 1903 from Aldershot, and was run by him and his wife until his death in December 1939. Shortly before his death, the business was the victim of a petty fraud by a rival dairyman when William Stone, was caught taking Aylesbury Dairy’s milk bottles from customers’ doorsteps and fined £3.

Hampshire Chronicle: 30570 J. Stone’s milk float with horse knocking door at Fernside. The horse would also push door bells, c. 1925

After Harrison’s death, his wife continued the business for another couple of years and finally sold up in July 1942. It was not sold as a going concern and all the stock-in-trade was auctioned by Woolley and Wallis. The advertisement in the Advertiser listed what was on offer and thus gave a picture of the wherewithal needed by a small retail dairy.

Hampshire Chronicle: 30571 The Aylesbury Dairy milk float outside Beauchamp House, in The Hundred, c. 1910

It included equipment necessary for providing milk in bottles and included a ‘4 bottle milk filler’. The dairy had 200 milk bottles, of sizes a pint, a half pint and a quart (two pints). A pint is a little more than half a litre. Amongst the items for sale were 2 brass-mounted milk churns for a milk float and brass milk measures.

Hampshire Chronicle: 69724 One of the last milk rounds in Romsey, 1991

The items on the list included a ‘3-Wheel Milk Push Pram and loose top’, a Morris Cowley 2-seater car with two spare wheels and two delivery vans, both of which had been manufactured as recently as 1938.

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