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Wacaden Dairy Wathes Cattell & Gurden Dairy

our mom used stera for tea and pass for drinking...i can think of nothing worse than putting stera milk yer cornflakes yuk :D i have never bought a bottle of stera in my life

lyn
 
You know that my memory is not what it used to be. I left Brum when I was 16. I haven't a clue about sterilized or pasteurized milk. I just never liked milk, and warm or hot milk even less! In those days it seemed that milk was more prolific in daily life than it is now. Our mom would make tomato soup with milk, which, even to this day, makes tomato soup not one of my favorites. She would cook haddock in milk, my older brother still doesn't eat haddock...coffee made with milk instead of water and rice pudding with lots of SKIN on the top, still makes me gag!! I wouldn't eat rice pudding at all until Ambrosia (the 10 second sweat, delicious to eat) came out in tins. School milk was a problem, I recall only looking forward to milk so that I could make a spinner out of the foil top (stick a penny in it and make a good rim) anyone remember doing that?
Dave A
 
hi dave you have just bought to mind that when the bottles of pass milk was left on the step too long in the winter the milk would freeze and rise out of the top of the bottle forcing the silver tops to rise with it...looked like the milk had a little hat on:D

lyn
 
The small milk given at one time to school children - in my days anyway - was pasteurized. There was also TT (tuberculin tested) which was much the same as pasteurized. One very retrograde step, in my view, was the curtailment of milk to some school children: I looked forward to my daily bottle and was always first in the queue for the spares not taken by absentees, wimps or haters of milk. :D
Moving away from the city (and maybe on the outer fringes) would find milk being delivered in churns and ladled into your own jugs. This was usually a horse and cart delivery, often a lady was the dairymaid. I had an aunt in the Potteries who, although it being a built up area, had such a delivery of milk. In some areas the pasteurized milk was in a wider topped bottle with a cardboard top. Many dairies had their company names on the bottle, etched or painted having become collectors items I guess nowadays. Due to the easily penetrated tops, by birds and some youngsters, maybe the more secure sterilized bottle cap was another reason , beside the longer lasting attribute, that caused it to be favoured by many ladies.
 
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yes i can recall those little bottles of milk at school in those early years
Iwas a milk monitor at st marys school Aston
and in the winter bleak winters then days , deep in snow we had to dragg all those little crates across the play ground
to the school building and eventualy we had to take them all around the school classes
luckly and very nice indeed at that school we would get the cup of cocco first , then in the after noon we would get our milk
Iam sure there is quite afew guys and possible gals on this forum have been at that school as well
I was living at my nans house in whitehouse street and the play ground wall backed on to our gardens
so i never had to walk down and around to the school it was always a bunk up the wall and i am in,
good old days i think , saying that i always thought that when you get older it gets easy
but by golly it aint by a long chalk ,, well thats my theory Astonian,,,, Alan,,,,
 
It was the school milk that thoroughly put me off milk. We were forced to drink it and, as Lyn says, in winter the milk often froze. It would then be left in front of a fire for several hours to melt , which resulted in vile-tasting warm tepid milk - Ugh
 
Astoness said:
our mom used stera for tea and pass for drinking...i can think of nothing worse than putting stera milk yer cornflakes yuk :D i have never bought a bottle of stera in my life
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Your must have been very posh then Lyn :)

We used stera in tea, then when mom had a baby she would get him the odd bottle of pass.
 
Then, of course, was the creamy topping on pasteurized milk. As most milk today comes in plastic containers the cream content is not so evident. I did not notice the amount of cream as a youngster but since living in Devon I did notice. when it was the old 1 pint glass bottles, that in other parts of the country the colour of the mild was slightly a lighter colour and less cream at the top. All this reminds me of the tubbies. :D
 
Garden, cookie. My Mom's first job was with them as a Dairy Analysis. She left them in 1930 when she married my Dad. When she went to work during the war (WWII ) it was as the cook in a factory ( Gold's ) which was on the other side of the yard from Wacaden's.
Life's a bit strange isn't it
 
Serra was supposed to have a shelf life of 6 days but pass only 2 days. This of course was before everyone had fridges. Now I buy Long Life Milk from the supermarket and could have a litre carton open for more than a week.
 
We only had sterra milk at home when I was a child or perhaps a pint of Jersey as a treat occasionally.
When we used to go on holiday to Cornwall we had great difficulty in finding any! I didn't know then that it was a very Midland thing.
 
Wathes Cattell & Gurden Dairy in Woodbridge Road Moseley. I can remember collecting a carton of milk from that machine on a couple of occasions before shops started opening seven days a week.
 

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Hi Phil
Nice to hear from you again after all the abscence
Regarding those milk machines ,i think the first encounter i had was probaly one of the first machines
Sited around the area of kings heath from the dairy and that was situated out side that big news agents out side the front of the
Kings way pub kings heath and that shop then introduce a news paper machine automatic
put your coins in and get your news paper
the second one i encountered was at the cook shop bakers on springhill oppersite the coach and horse pub ,
but to be honest i dont think they lasted and survived the course they went out of fashion ,
Oh by the way phil i have been discussing you with a very good friend of mine and yours i beleive from the past
he his in fact my very close neibour when i mentionioned the kingsway
whom you would know from the past from the kings heath societyu , yes brian,,
kings way brian he as not had chance to do much at the moment with the kingsheath society for a long time as you would be
aware of it
but i have told him about us here and on and off in these last few weeks he had the opportunity to look in on us here on the BHF
 
Obviously when grocery shops started stopping open until all hours and even on a Sunday, the idea of vending anything by machine was over along with walking up to the local bakery for a loaf of bread on a Sunday night.
 
Hi Alan

I remember the newsagents to the front of the Kingsway Cinema well, though I have to say that I have no recollection of the milk machine or newspaper machine you describe. Though admittedly I didn't use the Kingsway Cinema a great deal and the only film I can remember seeing there was "The Robe" when it first came out in the 50's.

I also have to admit to not knowing Kingsway Brian that you mention, and neither do I know or have any affiliation with the Kings Heath Society, so perhaps you are thinking of someone else.
 
Wacaden milk came to our house in the 50's, they delivered with a horse and cart, and I helped our milkman on Saturdays. Paul
 
hi phil
these machine was out side the news agents in the late 50, early sixtys both of them
brian done alot on the kings heath forum he said the phil used the user name phil 47
but i will asked him againin the morning and he ued to be on the BhF as he recalls phil
brian was a member of the kings heath forum and he done alot of work on there for them
 
Alan

Yes my username used to be phil47, but I have no memory of a Brian, if as you say he was a member of this forum then I might have communicated with him in the past but in ten years I have communicated with a lot of members and I'm a lot sorry to say I don't remember them all. Though I do know I have no knowledge of the Kings Heath Forum or Society at least I can't remember if I ever knew it existed. So I would be interested in what your friend has to say.
 
Steri as we called it in Toxteth was not just a midland thing. I think it was widely available in most big towns. Definitely a bit "rough" to rely on steri but of course it didn't go off for yonks. Ordinary milk did but mum then used it to make the most delicious home made scones.
[Apols from a Scouser, mind you I've now been in Brum for 50 years]
 
My Mom, Ellen Louise Hadnet started work at Wacaden in their main dairy in c1927. as a Dairy Analist. She left them in 1930 when she married as they had some policy ,maybe not employing married women or that she was turning 21 and would be entitled to adult rate of pay.
She went to them during WW2 to see if she could get a job and was referred to a factory situated across the yard 4 or 5 floors up and came out as their cook. This was a place turning out munitions casing and she stayed until after the war.
This may have lead to her spending many years starting up several cafes ending up as manageress for Wimpy Bar when they came to Brum.
 
Phil said:
Wathes Cattell & Gurden Dairy in Woodbridge Road Moseley. I can remember collecting a carton of milk from that machine on a couple of occasions before shops started opening seven days a week.
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Hi Phil, are you ok if I use this photo in the Moseley B13 Magazine this month? We have a regular feature written by Peter Streets about his recollections of Moseley in the 1950s as a young boy. His memory is incredible! The next instalment covers Woodbridge Road, down the High Street to King Edward Road and includes Wacaden Dairy. It would be great to illustrate it with this photo. Thanks
 
Stitcher said:
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Hi Stitcher, I would love to use this image in the next Moseley B13 Magazine. We have a feature written by Peter Streets about his recollections of Moseley in the 1950s. He has an incredible memory! This month's recollections cover Woodbridge Road and include mention of Wacaden's dairy. This image would be a fabulous inclusion. Hope that's ok? Thanks Sophie (editor)
 
Hi Sophie

As I only collect photos from sources that do not claim copyright issues as far as I know therefore as far as I am concerned there is no issue, but I can never be sure of the copyright position of any of them. I always post images under the proviso that on proof of a copyright issue I will remove it without hesitation. In your case published to a magazine that would be hard to do, so its up to yo if you use it or nor but being as the image is not mine you will see its not my place to give permission.
 
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