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Midland Counties Dairy

N

negritaspider

TunisianBrummie
Don't really know where to put this!
My dad worked for them in the fifties...
I'd wait for him to come home on a Saturday, with a block of icecream wrapped up in white ice in newspaper!!
The ice would be immediately put into a bowl so that it would bubble and pop, and the icecream was naturally eaten up!!
He would park his truck (front end without trailer) at the top of the road - all the kids were jealous!!
 
Have put this on before but Mrs Wragg worked there in the fifties and lived in Holte Road. Maybe she worked there when your dad did Negritaspider. Her first name was Dolly. Maybe Dorothy. Jean.
 
My Grandad worked for Midland Dairies for many a year and threw the 50's, he had to retire due to ill health tho, he loved it, and used to help out his customers if they were stuck or needed anything. Think his round was Shard End way i'll have to check.
 
My Dad also worked for them having previously worked for 'Wathes Cattell and Gurden' (AKA WACADEN). I do not know whereabouts his round was - must ask my Half Sister if she knows. He started back in the Horse and Float days though this may have been when he worked for his Dad.
 
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My dad worked for midland counties from the depot in Shirley between Stanton Road and Sandy Hill road on the Stratford Road, He started in 1940 with a horse and cart and his round was Haslucks Green Road and its side roads from the Baldwin Pub upto the Colebrook pub.He left the depot when he was called up into the army in 1942 and returned to it in 1946 after de mob until 1948.
He still had a horse and cart but at the time electric hand carts were just started appearing,which he did not like nor trust, the co-op and midland couties roundsmen used to work hand in hand in those days, if anybody refused to pay one company and thought they could get a free weeks milk out of the other they used to find out different, as my dad and the co-op milkman used to meet in the colebrook pub every saturday and tell each other of the customers who owed more than 2 weeks money,that was of course after finding the husbands in the pubs and getting them to cough up the money owed as the wives used to tell him the Husbands were.
When I was nine I became a runner for the local midland counties milkman who ran out of the Solihull depot in Yew tree Lane,wrapping the yellow and white packets of butter in little paper bags trying to balance them on top of the pass bottles, all they used to sell back then was butter,unflavoured ski yoghurts,orange squash and sometimes third of a pint and a pint of made up orange squash, the roundsman was called Eric, a very tall thin man and it was round 4.
I stayed as a runner flicking in between the co-op and what later became Unigate, the last 2 yrs I stayed with Unigate still doing the rounds from the solihull depot deliverying my last bottle way back in 1976 and it was on round 4 I finished on.
At the Solihull depot I remeber the yard supervisor,his nickname was "H", about 6 yrs later I married and moved to Shirley,it was when I was in the front garden I heard a voice shouting me,it was "H" himself and he only lived 2 doors away, my dad turned up a few days later to visit and H and his wife was outside, it turned out that "H" and my dad had worked together as roundsmen after the war in Shirley and "H"s wifes dad had been the Depot Manager then
Small world ! though never did find out what "H" actually stood for
 
coalman, Small point, Midland Counties & Co-op milk was on Stratford Rd, Hall Green, hope you don`t mind me saying. Len.
 
Len
The co-op depot was indeed on the Stratford Road,Hall Green but the Midland Counties depot in Shirley was where I described as, on the stratford road in between Stanton road and Sandy Hill road with a small track on the right hand side of the building leading to the scrap metal place.
I remember this as my nan lived in Stanton Road,Shilrey from 1940 ish to 1967, and every saturday me and my sister who was 8 yrs older than me used to have to go and get the butter from there, the building is now a carpet place

John
 
Midland Counties had a depot on the Kingstanding Road in the 40s 50s. I think one of their guys got killed by a bus just by the junction with Cranbourne Road.

I had a part time job on the Wacaden horse and cart milk round in the late 40s around the Kinstanding area. E.
 
Hi,talking of childhood memories,does anybody remember the Midland Counties dairy at the top of Aston Road. I don't know if it's still there,having left Birmingham many years ago, but I remember being fascinated watching the filled milk bottles going past the big window on a conveyer belt. How easily we were amused in those days, Mal.
 
Sorry Mal it's no longer there! However like you I couldn't wait for my bus to and from town when living in Gt Lister St to pass that window just to see the bottles going round An added bonus would be if there was a traffic hold up as we got close or just outside near that big window.

I also remember the 'Stuffed animals' as a child, hate seeing such things now .
It was the fashion when I arrived here in NZ for many people to have stuffed Deer and even there Fawns as hunting trophies in their living rooms, no longer 'PC' though and must admit that's one 'PC' I'm in favour of
 
Had a look at the link Len some great names to look at on site about Ice cream companies like Tonibell etc who were snapped up by different companies ..some old pics as well ta :)
 
hi all
loved midlandcounties ices and used to help the wacoden milkie withhis round in bartley green he had a horse call eric and he wore a hat in the summer.
regards
paul
 
My Grandad worked for MCD, I have his driving certificates from them stating he had passed tests to enable him to drive a float, even have his little medal for it, he worked for years out of the Aston Depot I think it was until he retired due to ill health.
 
hi mike
yes thoses floats was terific to drive they really could move
i used to drive one around handsworth virtualy most of handsworth in those days i worked for midland counties delivering to door steps and the shops i loved every min; of it for years
during the fifties and the sixties then i went to the co/op
my older brother stayed with them for donkeys years and eventual
he moved into theyard manager at bagot st mo;and st and finalaly ended uo at pery barr and then retired and got is gold watch
he,snow enjoying is retirement he must have drank alot of gold tops as he looks very healthy never mind or should i say wealth
he his enjoying is life now being working out side for all is life as kept him healthy
have a nice day every body best wishes astonion ;;;
 
Astonian said:
hi mike
yes thoses floats was terific to drive they really could move
i used to drive one around handsworth virtualy most of handsworth in those days i worked for midland counties delivering to door steps and the shops i loved every min; of it for years
during the fifties and the sixties then i went to the co/op
my older brother stayed with them for donkeys years and eventual
he moved into theyard manager at bagot st mo;and st and finalaly ended uo at pery barr and then retired and got is gold watch
he,snow enjoying is retirement he must have drank alot of gold tops as he looks very healthy never mind or should i say wealth
he his enjoying is life now being working out side for all is life as kept him healthy
have a nice day every body best wishes astonion ;;;
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks Astonian. If you get the chance to go, the Transport Museum at Wythall has a really good collection of electic milk floats to see. Meanwhile if you were delivering round Handsworth I bet you got some stick off the blokes driving these:D
Mike
 
hi mike
many thanks for the info;on the floats being in the transport
museum i must have a look at them [ thats terrific ]
getting back on the subject of the competition
they was not a problem we rarely seen them
we had the monoply of the area we had the bulk of handsworth through out
mike afew years later on in life i took a job on inside there dairy
at island road it was poor and bad conditions there was nothink to compare with the midlads d; nor the co/op d ;
i left it and went to work at tubes ltd thats where i met our bazzm
one of our members there we virtualy worked along each other for years bazzm is a very nice guy if you got to know him you would agree with me honestly its a pitty he lives up in scotland now
any way mike sorry to go off the track there but them floats was terrific and quite fast i used to bomb around them in handsworth
even down thornhill rd those were the days mike
i wish i could put the clock back
take care mike and keep bringing on your threads terriffic
best wishes astonion ;;;;;;
 
Does anyone remember Midland Counties Dairy? I worked on the night shift there one summer as a student. It was then the ice cream factory and was quite an experience. Vivid memories include working on the "piano" named after the action a person needed to take to push the choc ices across onto a moving conveyor belt. Also remember the white wellies, the floor constantly running with water and the frequent fag breaks. Health and safety would have a field day today!! Seem to remember the money was good and quite a few people worked there in the summer and at the Valor heaters in the winter.
 
oh yes i remember the old midland dairyies i was a milk man and my round was handsworth
i used to have a laugh with the customers and i could tell you some carring on,s
all aroun the park ; grove lane and brunswick rd and virtualy every where it was a very large round indeed
my brother worked inside the dairy in the yard with his father inlaw
those was the good old days best wishes Astonian ;;;
 
I am not that fussed about ice cream but Midland Counties was different. Our neighbour in Holte road a Mrs Wragg was a supervisor there in the 50's. We paid a visit there from school one day. Jean.
 
Hello peoples,

Please stop confusing me, I ain't myself today ! don't know who I am but it's no improvement.

I thought Midland Counties Dairy was in Corporation St. Aston { Gosta green } ??????

There was a sort of garden come island outside and I learned to roller skate there.

You could see into the building and watch the bottles going round.

I don't remember anything about ice cream only the milk.

Betty.
 
MCD was at the top end of Baggot St. I spent hours as a kid watching the bottles going round and round. (Perhaps explains my lifetime in a state of hypnosis)
 
Bern I remember it as being on the Aston road by Aston Cross. Mind you my memory plays tricks these days. I think it was close to HP Sauce. Jean.
 
Jean i think Tony 1 has got it right the MCD that i remember was on the corner of Aston Rd and Baggot St like him i remember the bottles traveling along the conveyor in the windows it was one of those things that caught your eye when going into town on the tram. i assume they made their ice cream on that site i don,t know for certain. Dek
 
Hi all. When I worked there (early 1970s) they only made ice cream but it was talked about that milk was processed there in the past. Baggot Street rings a bell. The factory was I think located along the road that was (or became) aston expressway. There was a canal next to the factory. It was just outside Bham city centre on the Aston Uni side. Never been able to eat much ice cream after working there - indulged too much while I was there!!! I think the brand name was Lyons Maid. They also made a fancy range (sort of italian style) which was like little fruit bombes. Got through a lot of their real orange lollies during the very, very hot steamy summer I worked there. The best product to work on during the summer months was on the strawberry mivvi line as the mivvis used to come along the line on frozen trays (so cold your fingers used to stick to the trays). Nice and cool..................Also remember they had a great staff canteen - proper meals for us starving students.............Viv
 
MCD was on the corner of Bagot Street and the last little bit of Corporation Street where it met Aston Road at the canal. I also remember watching the bottles going along quickly on the conveyors. I remember the brick of ice cream too with wafers. My brother and I used to fight for the thickest slice so one of us was made to slice it and the other got to choose a slice. Those slices soon became regular sizes!! Lovely ice cream but I think Walls was better.
 
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