Electric Milk Floats

[oldMohawk]

At the tender age of sixteen, when I came to live in Devon, I had work for a few weeks as helper on a local milk round.

Your post about helping on a milk round in Devon brought up old memories I haven't thought about since the 50's.
A group of us from our street went on a two week camping holiday in 1954 (mentioned with pics elsewhere on the forum) and we were smitten by the blonde daughter of the local dairy owner. She used to drive a milk float and deliver milk around Combe Martin. We tried to 'chat her up' even going into the dairy shop for bottles of milk, and clotted cream we didn't really need, but although friendly she was not at all impressed by young 'city slickers' from Brum..
oldmohawk...

 

[stars]

Hi
I came across this photo of a milk float in Hockley

Regards Stars

 

[flashbang]

l don't know how true this is so please don't take it as a fact.
Many years ago l was asked by an engineer if l knew why a milk float was called a float....
l didn't so he told me..

Futuristic
Light
Open
Automatic
Transport

The same man also sent me for a bucket of steam,
A left handed screwdriver
A long stand
A bubble for a spirit level....

 

[BernardR]

An interesting suggestion - I thought it might pre-date electric floats to the sled type things often used to transport goods over cobbled streets but he may well have been telling the truth.

 

[Radiorails]

we were smitten by the blonde daughter of the local dairy owner. She used to drive a milk float and deliver milk around Combe Martin. We tried to 'chat her up' even going into the dairy shop for bottles of milk, and clotted cream we didn't really need, but although friendly she was not at all impressed by young 'city slickers' from Brum..
oldmohawk...

I bet she was true Devon dumplin'. What is more I guess her father or mother - or both - had warned her about 'they furriners from up country' with their fanciful ways. Great memories OM, that often only require a small word, comment or so to rekindle them.

 

[Stitcher]

I know nothing about this picture other than what you can see. Birmingham Co-op laundry

 

[paul stacey]

all recent photo's of milk floats show them with a two or three crates, who remembers when they were loaded from floor to roof and the milky had to start at 4am in the morning to finish by 12pm.

 

[Lloyd]

I know nothing about this picture other than what you can see. Birmingham Co-op laundry

No picture, Stitcher???

 

[oldMohawk]

all recent photo's of milk floats show them with a two or three crates.

On this Milk Float pic I posted earlier, the Milkman seems to have a good load on, the crates on top look precarious, and it could be interesting if he stopped suddenly.
oldmohawk

 

[Stitcher]

paul, you are so correct, when the horses were replaced with electric floats at Hall Green milk depot the floats had to be loaded higher because they were smaller.

 

[Stitcher]

oldMowhawk, if I remember correctly those three wheeler ones that you had to walk with were called Yo-Yo's when I was with the Co-op. They were used on the rounds closest to the depot.

 

[oldMohawk]

Hi Stitcher,
The photo was a family photo taken about 1951 and I originally posted it in #13 GoTo Post 13
There was some discussion in the following posts and apparently it was the only photo that Wythall Museum had seen and they knew it's make and registration number but did not have a photo. They have had a copy for their records.
The original image in #13 is temporarily not visible because of the Coppermine upgrade.
oldmohawk

 

[Stitcher]

I remember when an old man had one for his round in Hall green. He was known as Pop Ferris and he prefered to walk than to have a proper electric truck.

 

[oldMohawk]

It looks like the Midland Counties hand driven milk floats were more 'up-market' than the Co Op floats.

[/TD]

 

[Rupert]

The picture of the lined up electric vehicles is great as are the others. The factory behind...laundry perhaps...seems to be camouflaged and perhaps this was a new delivery of trucks. Where did the laundry come from that required so many...I suppose hospitals, barracks, swiming baths and the like; although I thought that the latter did their own...but not private houses surely. At least not any I knew.

 

[Stitcher]

These were the beauties, Morrison Electricar. I worked on one as a bread roundsmans assistant for a short while in the mid fifties. It was based at Stetchford Co-op Bakery and the round I was on was Shard End which meant we had to go over the noisy Bailey Bridge twice a day. I moved to the Dairy Dept after a short while when they still had the horses at Hall Green Co-op milk depot. On the milk I was a spare assistant which meant I did the same six rounds every week on the regular assistants days off. When the horses were replaced I passed my driving test on a Morrison Electricar then left and got a job delivering small amounts of sand, gravel, slabs and general building supplies for W.J.Law & sons Clay Lane near the canal bridge. After awhile I moved up to seven and a half ton tippers then up six and eight wheeler tippers. Then I went onto road transport proper and saw the entire country incuding Wales and Scotland.

 

[Lloyd]

There is one of these restored at Wythall Museum, Stitcher. After bread deliveries finished they had the sides removed to convert them for milk delivery, but that is all now refitted along with the internal division for sliding the bread trays in.
The 'sun visor' above the windscreen incorporates a full-width mirror to see the dangers of small children sitting on the road in front of the vehicle.

 

[Rupert]

Beautiful looking machine.

 

[Stitcher]

Many people do not undersatand the work these machines coped with. They were fully laden when they left the yard in the morning and they were stopping and starting for up to six - eight hours a day and all day Fridays and Saturdays because the assistant did the deliveries as the roundsman collected the cash. This was improved if the assistant had a driving licence, because he could run with deliveries and finish before the roundsman then go back and help by writing the pink dividend tickets. Some of the rounds were too large for all the milk to be carried in one go so we were met during the deliveries by a large lorry and what empties we had were put onto the lorry and more milk was loaded onto the float.

 

[Vivienne14]

Remember the bread van. We always had a milkroll from them. Still love that bread, nice and light, not stodgy and was very easy to slice with handy ridges to guide your knife. Sometimes we'd have a large tin too, the more well cooked crust, the better. I can almost smell the insides of that van. We had our co-op number pencilled on an outside brick near the front door because no-one could ever remember the number. Viv.

 

[BilboC]

Definitely don't write off the electric float. TNT couriers have been using a large box van delivering around the City Centre for the last couple of years and Iron Mountain were encouraged, by us at KPMG, to deliver our files using an electric vehicle, which they do, extremely cost-effectively.

 

[Nigel Edwards]

Ah, the days of the Electric milk float. I learnt to drive (very unofficially in my early teens) on a Midland Counties Float helping 'Bill' from the Shirley Midland counties depot - I still fondly remember the Reg No: EOA937. This was a Saturday 2/6 job enabling me to buy the "Eagle" every week. On one occasion 'our' usual float was not available and was substituted by a 3 wheel cart job and I remember only just making it back to the depot along Stratford Road, after a long day around Hall Green. Already a 'bus nut' my future seemed mapped out - driving all sorts of vehicles and yes, I became a bus driver after leaving the RAF & MT 'heavies', later Coaches but those early days still come back from the 'nostalgia box' !

 

[Mark Hudson]

Hi Old Mohawk,Photo that raises a few questions.I think the horse and cart had been phased out around early 1960s,certainly by 1964 when I started at the Co-Op dairy on Kingstanding Road.However I cannot recall any floats like the one in your photo and it would definately have come from Kingstanding. Got my licence to drive a float whilst there and used it to get a car licence here in Oz.Great photo,Les

[/QUOTE]
The last milk delivery by horse drawn float with Birmingham Co-op was in Small Heath in 1961.

 

[Mark Hudson]

I know nothing about this picture other than what you can see. Birmingham Co-op laundry

Photo taken at the Birmingham Co-op laundry located in Handsworth on Park Lane close to the junction with Holyhead Rd. / Birmingham Rd. not far from the West Brom. F.C. stadium.

 

[mw0njm.]

see also

Bread Vehicles

and this bloke was a milkman with the coop:grinning: Sadly not in Birmingham!!!

birminghamhistory.co.uk

 

[Spargone]

The first electric milk floats that I remember were bright red three-wheelers operated by Slater's and serving the Sheldon area in the late 1950s.

I think they were taken over by Midland Counties but I only remember them operating four-wheelers.

I was late getting back to school one lunchtime and a Midland Counties driver offered me a lift so we 'raced' along Cranes Park Road!

 

[stars]

all recent photo's of milk floats show them with a two or three crates, who remembers when they were loaded from floor to roof and the milky had to start at 4am in the morning to finish by 12pm.

Me I used work for Birmingham co op on the estate the Mead way in the 1960s.

 

[stars]

The first electric milk floats that I remember were bright red three-wheelers operated by Slater's and serving the Sheldon area in the late 1950s.

I think they were taken over by Midland Counties but I only remember them operating four-wheelers.

I was late getting back to school one lunchtime and a Midland Counties driver offered me a lift so we 'raced' along Cranes Park Road!

I remember as a teenager we used stand outside the co op dairy on cranberry ave the mead way. We stood there very early and shout to the drivers do want a mate, some would say yes jump in and off you went I remember I used to help a elderly man called gabby who drove a 3 wheeler float. It had a triangle shaped bar instead of a steering wheel. His round covered the Cranes Park area of Sheldon. I remember it was a large round . No matter how bad the weather we always deliver their daily pints. But come Christmas the people were so nice a generous with their tips. Happy Days.

 

[Richard Dye]

I remember as a teenager we used stand outside the co op dairy on cranberry ave the mead way. We stood there very early and shout to the drivers do want a mate, some would say yes jump in and off you went I remember I used to help a elderly man called gabby who drove a 3 wheeler float. It had a triangle shaped bar instead of a steering wheel. His round covered the Cranes Park area of Sheldon. I remember it was a large round . No matter how bad the weather we always deliver their daily pints. But come Christmas the people were so nice a generous with their tips. Happy Days.

Yes, Christmas brings out the friendly side! I used to work for a butcher shop delivering meat. At Christmas my trade bike was loaded all day on Christmas Eve and so was my pocket full of tips and the occasional Christmas Box!

 

[Jonathan Del Mar]

I asked the Wythall Museum "Expert" on electric milk floats about this picture, and he replied thus:

"GOP 832 (fleet no. P8) is an August 1946 Graiseley 7/8cwt. One of about 12-15 of the type purchased by BCS.
Its chassis (no. 1058) failed on/around 30/9/50. A new chassis (no. 3468) was fitted under the same body.
It was withdrawn and scrapped December 1952.
Can we get a copy of the photo? Rare view - in fact only decent one of a BCS Graiseley I have seen.
Thanks."

Such a wonderful and moving photo, and tantalising to hear that Wythall have so many details of the Co-op fleet. However, there are two problems here: 1) GOP was first issued in December 1946. GOP 832 would be January 1947. Conceivably, it was manufactured in August, registered in January. So far, possible. However, 2) Birmingham C.B.C. always registered milk floats in 'Goods' series - of which GOP was not one. It might be FOP 832, in which case it would have been new in April 1945. Is that a possibility? Can anyone solve this conundrum?