Midland Counties Dairy

[Barr_Beacon]

Tame Valley, Perry Barr Midland Counties Dairy Ltd



Nicklin, Phyllis (1967) Tame Valley, Perry Barr Midland Counties Dairy Ltd. [Image] (Unpublished)

Hope you don't mind, I thought I'd adjust the brightness and contrast and increase the size to see what would happen. You can see the Zig Zag bridge! I must have passed this building thousands of times over the years. Have they built on the site yet?

 

[landcrab9]

I was a milkman with Midland Counties Dairy around 1959/60. Based at Manchester Street Depot.
My round covered the area, Wheeler St, New John St, Russell St, Villa St, Little King St, Summer Lane, Farm Street & many others I can't recall off hand. Later I progressed to a much bigger and better round at Sparkbrook/ Sparkhill area.
My supervisor was a cracking bloke named Charlie Avery. My best pals were Jack Hickman & Barry Docker. Happy days.
Bryan.

 

[landcrab9]

This photograph, uncredited, is of Kingstanding. However it could easily represent any milk delivery people and their horses in much of the towns in the UK.

That would be a Co-op dairyman, with the long brown overall. Midland Counties were short white coats.
Bryan.

 

[Bradbury]

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.

Didn't Midland buy up Wakeden daires about 1960? Cheers Tony

 

[tontohnz]

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

Yes. I remember. Worked there from 1973 until it closed in 1980. Send your right. The canteen was awesome. Great breakfast and always had the shepherds pie, peas, chips and gravy. That was a feast. Anyone remember Rose the lady that gave the clean overalls. Whites as they were known. Always in Wellington boots and always washing your hands when you came onto the production floor. I used to order the cartons, wrapping and lolly sticks etc for the production lines. The speciality ice cream that was on the 3rd floor was Baskin Robbins.

 

[Vivienne14]

A horse driven delivery vehicle. No date for this one and no location. Any ideas ? Don't think it’s outside the Corportion Street factory. Viv.

 

[Radiorails]

I wonder if this was something new? Maybe wheels with pneumatic tyres (the Dunlop ad in the background) - generally most delivery carts had wooden wheels with steel tyres.

 

[Astoness]

I wonder if this was something new? Maybe wheels with pneumatic tyres (the Dunlop ad in the background) - generally most delivery carts had wooden wheels with steel tyres.

good point alan...i wonder if the photo was actually taken outside dunlops

lyn

 

[paul stacey]

I would hazard a guess at the 30's or 40's. Paul

 

[Astoness]

Edit, this post copied to this thread from the Bordesley Green Road thread as it shows a MCD cart (bottom left)

 

[Mark Hudson]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can place where this photo was taken please ie. the street? The photo dates to about 1970 and shows a Bedford TK with a trailer load of sterilised milk bottle empties departing from a Midland Counties / Unigate depot. I note the adjoining building is signed 'Kenrick and Jefferson' who were printers based in West Bromwich but they may, of course, had premises elsewhere in the West Midlands. I have had another person suggest that it could be I have a long-standing interest in the history of dairies and also collect old milk bottles should anyone have anything old and interesting they may wish to sell. Thank you for your attention. Mark Hudson

 

[Radiorails]

I do not think it is in Birmingham as the lamp post seems wrong for the city. Not far away I guess as the TK has a Birmingham registration.

 

[jmadone]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can place where this photo was taken please ie. the street? The photo dates to about 1970 and shows a Bedford TK with a trailer load of sterilised milk bottle empties departing from a Midland Counties / Unigate depot. I note the adjoining building is signed 'Kenrick and Jefferson' who were printers based in West Bromwich but they may, of course, had premises elsewhere in the West Midlands. I have had another person suggest that it could be I have a long-standing interest in the history of dairies and also collect old milk bottles should anyone have anything old and interesting they may wish to sell. Thank you for your attention. Mark Hudson

The building next door Kendrick & Jefferson. They were a printing/stationery company based in West \Bromwich

 

[Vivienne14]

That seems to have been resolved.

While searching for information about the query in the earlier post I came across an MC depot at Perry Pont, Perry Barr. This seems to be a similar depot to the West Bromwich one.

It opened in 1964. I don’t remember there being an MC depot in Perry Barr. Viv.

 

[mikejee]

Here are addresses of Midland Counties dairies from the 1965 Kellys

 

[Vivienne14]

I think the Perry Pont Depot must have been the one listed as 205 Aldridge Road. It would have been near the Zig Zag bridge and River Tame. There’s a trading estate there, which is where I think it would have been.

Also learnt there was a Depot on Kingstanding Road, a stones throw from where I lived - didn’t know that was there either in the 1960s. Must have walked past it thousands of times, almost every day !

Viv.

 

[jmadone]

Here are addresses of Midland Counties dairies from the 1965 Kellys

View attachment 148086

There were also depots at Chelmsley Wood and Tamworth.

 

[oldMohawk]

It was by the 'zig-zag' bridge on the Aldridge Road - I remember it well and in 1967 Phyllis Nicklin photographed it.

The image above is the original. The image below has been slightly enhanced

 

[Vivienne14]

Now that’s more familiar. Funny how you can pass it on the bus virtually every day and not really register what building it was. I also used the bus stop opposite quite often as my Nan lived just a little way along Aldridge Road. We drifted through the days with our eyes almost closed to buildings - unless it had a pub sign, a club sign or a clothes shop sign on it !

Viv.

 

[Mark Hudson]

Am now aware the photo was taken in 1971 at Bratt Street, West Bromwich.

 

[Merry Matelot]

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

 

[oldMohawk]

This aerial photo was taken in 1950 and the building in Phyllis Nicklin's 1967 photo had not yet been built. I've marked (green) where she probably stood on the zig-zag bridge. The Church Tavern is top left in the photo.


The dairy (see post#116) had 'come and gone' between the date of the above photo and today's view below.

 

[Radiorails]

Am now aware the photo was taken in 1971 at Bratt Street, West Bromwich.

I just knew the lamp post was not sited in Birmingham. Another picture solved.

 

[chris wood]

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.

 

[chris wood]

I worked at Moland Street from leaving school in '69 to going "on the buses" in 76. I started as a "runner" learning all the rounds. When I was 17 I took my milk float test. This was taken at Perry Pont and I think lasted around 10 mins. I then took over my own round covering Aston and Witton. Names I remember are Len Higgins my first manager then after he retired Eric Steel took over. Other names were George Williams, John Jukes, John Cartledge, Steve Cleaver. I can remember a number of other first names, but not their sur names, its an age think I think.

I WORKED AT MOLAND STREET DAIRY. I WAS A YARDMAN . LEN HIGGINS WAS THE MANAGER, NORMAN WAS THE UNDER MANAGER. I REMEMBER JIMMY YAPP. OLD GEORGE.BEITTIE SHE WORKED IN THE OFFCE. DAVID WAS THE YARDMAN I DID HIS DAYS OFF. I WORKED MOST OF THE TIME AT KINGSTANDING DAIRYTHEN TRANSFERED TO PERRY PONT AS DRIVER. THE BOSS WAS HARRY GRAY ,NORMAN AND JOE BALL, DRIVERS I REMEMBER --COLLIN RENOLDS,WINKY AND MANY MORE NAMES I CANNOT REMEMBER AT PRESENT. HAPPY DAYS

 

[Russ32]

Hi all, loved reading these replies, my late father worked at the Brierley Hill depot, then relocated to the Kidderminster branch, I remember sitting on an upturned pop bottle crate in his old bull nose mk1 transit, battering around the village of Wolverley and Fairfield estate, he stayed until retirement but saw the changes to unigate, co op, dairy crest and now milk and more, he also went on to the wholesale side driving an old Bedford tk, before finishing off as the yardman before the depot closed, great memories, stay safe..

 

[Round 21 Tim]

Hi , anyone here from Kingstanding dairy I worked there late 70's into the 80's. I remember working with Roy T when I first started, showing me all the tricks of the trade. The guy was a legend. Others around that time Big Roy, Alan Brian and Ken the yardman. Happy days.

 

[Paul51]

I was a refrigeration engineer at Midland Counties Ice Cream from 1973 till 1981 I ran and maintained the refrigeration plant that froze the machines that produced the Ice Cream and Lollies etc, Most of the Ice cream on the production area was produced in bulk for large supermarket outlets. But up on the top floor there was a large plant for producing Baskin & Robbins 31 flavours, and on the first floor there was a Cryo production line using liquid nitrogen to freeze and harden the Bertorelli range . It was a very nice place to work for in those days, and it was a shame that Lyons Maid chose to shut the Birmingham factory down.

 

[Vivienne14]

Welcome Paul. I worked there as a student, just the summer night shift about 1970. Worked on the ground floor on packing choc ices, soft scoop in big tubs and orange lollies (great to have to hand in the heat of the hot summer). I also did some nights up on the floor that did the mivvies - they were processed on frozen flat trays. You had to wear gloves to handle the icy trays otherwise the trays stuck to your hands. And I worked on the fancy whole frozen (real) orange and lemon ices/sorbets - were they the Bertorelli ones you mention ?

Shan’t forget the constant slushy floors with the running water to clear away spillages. It was an interesting experience having never worked in a factory before. When it was hot in the night it was good to get a fag break alongside the canal where it was marginally cooler. Shan’t forget the constant slushy floors with the running water to clear away dropages - just as well we had the white wellies for footwear.

And the money was good - well it seemed so to me. I think it was a long shift starting at, I think 8.00 pm until 8.00 am. Played havoc with your sleep pattern. Don’t think many factories generally employed females on night shifts at the time.

And what a relief when you went off shift at 8.00 am and out into the fresh sunny morning. The experience made a very big impression on me. Viv.

 

[Mark Hudson]

Didn't Midland buy up Wakeden daires about 1960? Cheers Tony

MCD / Wacaden

For much of the last century, the WACADEN (Wathes Cattell & Gurden) dairy was the third largest in Birmingham, after Birmingham Co-op and Midland Counties Dairy. The main Wacaden processing dairy was in Nova Scotia Street to the north of Curzon Street railway station (where Millennium Point is today). The Wacaden dairy business was acquired by Midland Counties Dairy in about 1963. Midland Counties opened their new dairy in Aldridge Road, Perry Barr in 1964 to replace their old dairy at the top of Corporation Street which was demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for the Aston Expressway. The new dairy at Perry Barr could accommodate the extra capacity to meet the former Wacaden customers needs and so the Nova Scotia Street dairy was closed soon after in 1964.