Doorstep Deliveries


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Seems that a lot of folk now buy their milk, eggs etc from a supermarket. We still have the "luxury" of having local dairyman deliver to the door, but back in my early days milk was delivered in our area by Mr Cope in his pony and trap and the milk was dispensed from a churn into your own jug.

My best friend's Aunt had a dairy sales shop in the front room of her house on Alfred St Central and sold milk, eggs and broken eggs in glass jars, from the doorstep, and also had a milk round in the morning taking all this in a hand cart around Alfred Street, Union Road etc.

Were these type of deliveries common elsewhere in Nottingham?

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Lovely memories. Southglade Road on Bestwood Estate we had:- Milk. Co-op I think, though possibly later Northern Dairies or somesuch. Bread. Co-op. Fruit and Veg. A Co-op van at least weekly..

I used to go to Marsdens on Carlton Road for my Mum. They. Had a big red slicing machine for the cooked meats and bacon, my Mum always had hers cut on number 5 so it was all nice and crispy. Marsdens

We had doorstep deliveries back in the 50' and 60's at Hucknall - the milkman, breadman, paper lad, Corona, rent collector, Insurance man, catalogue collectors and the odd hawker when my mam sent me t

I can't go back to the days of horse-drawn delivery, but I remember there were a lot of delivery vans around on Clifton in the early 1960s selling a wide range of goods. And it's amazing how many of those vans belonged to the Co-op.

I'm not sure why there were so many, because it's not as if there weren't any shops on Clifton in those days. You could buy everything within a few minutes' walk, so why bother waiting for a van?

Milk - Co-op and Northern Dairies

Soft drinks - Corona, Redgate, Alpine, etc

Bread - Co-op

Coal/coke - Co-op (or if you were on Clifton, Nevin's)

Tea - can't remember

Fish - " "

milk.jpg

And have things gone round full circle? The streets are now full of Asda/Sainsbury's/Tesco Online vans delivering stuff.

Not to mention all the UPS/TNT/DHL parcels vans delivering things from Amazon

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When we lived on Aslockton Drive early 1950s, there was milk and bread delivered separately each day in electric floats by the Co-op. Also Corona delivered pop weekly in those interesting bottles with a very stiff spring lever that pulled the stopper down tight, so that the contents didn't go flat. In Long Eaton from 1954 onwards the bread and milk continued in similar fashion - although there was also the option of Northern Dairies for milk. I can't remember whether Carters delivered soft drinks but I think they may have done. There was also a van that delivered Grimsby fish once a week. The milk and bread deliveries were made early in the morning, and you bought a supply of plastic or aluminium milk checks and bread checks (tokens) in advance, which were left out on the doorstep overnight as payment.

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Stockhill/Nuthall road way in the fifties...Our baker had one of these vans for door to door fresh bread.Gadds Bread...with the slogan on the door...'By Gad that's good bread'

(PS....aint it nice to see a bumper that actually 'Bumps?' Not like today where a bump costs a fortune to repair)

Ford_Thames_Van_in_Norwich_Co_op_livery_zps9992b4c8.jpg

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Ron Chambers grocers on Burton Road Carlton used to deliver to yuor door.

Mum would write in her book what she wanted , take the book to the shop, he'd then make up the box (One box of groceries for 4 of us !!!) and deliveer it in his little Morris Van on a Friday evening.

I'd then go down with a fiver on a Saturday, pay for the groceries and get a 1/4 of ham off of the bone, next door to Ron Downings the green grocers and buy 2lb of cooking apples. Then it was back down the road to the bakers (Pat somebody) a dozen cobs and a "Sally Lunn" ,next door to him was the butchers and it was a joint for Sunday dinner, over Carlton Square to "Tarrys" newsagents and 'pay the papers' buy my copy of "Whizzer and Chips" (comic) all this from the same fiver !!

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Sawley branch of Long Eaton Co-op used to deliver the week's groceries too. They had order forms with a few standard items (including bread and milk checks) already printed on - you just specified the number/amount, and a lot of blank lines to write in whatever else you wanted. You handed it in by Friday morning, and lads would deliver the box (quantity one - as Beefsteak remembers) around tea time, on a delivery bike (small front wheel to accommodate wire enclosure for goods - any offers for a picture?) And they slipped a blank form in for next week.

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There used to be a mobile fish and chip van, it used to stop outside Charles 11 pub at Rise park. Health and safety must have had a lot to say, imagine one being involved in an accident.

It's interesting that this is making a small comeback (albeit in rural areas) The Half Moon at Morton is just one pub that is running a van around local villages. I noticed the Woodlark at Lambley does 'take away fish and chips too'. I reckon there's a bit of potential for it.

There is a local milk man who delivers in our area.

One where I live too. I confess I only hear that whirring electric milk float sound when it passes my house at some ungodly hour (3.30am-ish)

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Part of my job as an Electrician for the Coop was doing maintenance on Coop Milk floats at Meadow Lane Nottingham, Beechdale and Long Eaton dairys.

A hated job particularly replacing the big rectifiers in the battery chargers, of which there were hundreds in rows on a concrete plinth.

The big round plugs where it plugged into the vehicle floor would often require replacing.

Meadow Lane Nottingham had a big Greengrocery department, located in a wooden building, and I remember the big mobile shops.

The smell comes back to me all these years later, (1968) a mixture of diesel, lorry exhaust fumes and Fruit and Veg. Some of which were exotic to me then.

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Part of my job as an Electrician for the Coop was doing maintenance on Coop Milk floats at Meadow Lane Nottingham, Beechdale and Long Eaton dairys.

A hated job particularly replacing the big rectifiers in the battery chargers, of which there were hundreds in rows on a concrete plinth.

The big round plugs where it plugged into the vehicle floor would often require replacing.

Meadow Lane Nottingham had a big Greengrocery department, located in a wooden building, and I remember the big mobile shops.

The smell comes back to me all these years later, (1968) a mixture of diesel, lorry exhaust fumes and Fruit and Veg. Some of which were exotic to me then.

Hi, I was an apprentice mechanic at Meadow Lane at that time, I started in 1965 aged 15. I was apprenticed to a man called Reg Reynolds, I don't know if you knew any of the garage mechanics but some of the names I remember are Ron Wakefield (Wakey) Ted Elvidge, Geoff Wales, Bert Naylor and quite a few more. I have tried researching the Nottingham Co-op online but we seem to have been eradicated.

Al

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Litcho

Did quite a bit of maintenance in the Garage at the back. There was a lower level floor with large metal windows that looked out to the River, and at that time Railway Bridge.

I cant remember any names of the mechanics but can remember the Garage Manager, who might have been Eric.

First job of the day was to start the garage boiler which had a fault.

We would play around with it for a while before hitting the control box with a screwdriver to make it start.

First half hour of the day accounted for on the time sheet

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IN THE 50S WE USED TO HAVE MILK AND BREAD MAN DELIVER BUT OF COURSE IT WAS ELECTRIC MILK FLOAT WE ALSO HAD POP THINK IT WAS CARONA.

WHEN I USED TO GO AND STOP AT FRIENDS ON GEDLING PIT ESTATE 50S 60S THERE USED TO BE A BUS OR BIG TRANSIT THAT USED TO GO ROUND THE ESTATE SOLD EVERY THING BUT COAL OR SO IT APPEARED TO ME, CIGGARETTES FIRE WOOD FIRE LIGHTERS GREEN GROSERY GROSER AND I THINK A LOT OF HIS CUSTOMERS PAID AT THE END OF THE WEEK THOSE THAT DID NOT PAY UP BY SATURDAY DID NOT ANYTHING ELSE TILL THEY HAD PAID PREVIOUS BILL.

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I remember as a kid, we used to get our milk delivered.. as did most people, till a few years back. I remember my mum used to get pop in glass bottles, still remember the taste of the limeade and dandilion and burdock. There used to be a meat guy and a video van who used to come round every week or so.

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And iv just realised this is placed in '50s nottingham' woops. I can only go by the good old 90's....

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we had our coal delivered of course 19 hundred wieght every month winter or summer the other hundred wieght was given to pit pentioners, summer months our coal house would be so full we could not get any more in it would go on back yard and then it wouldbe put intosome of our nieghbours coal houses sometimes dad would sell it to them at a cheap price some he gave to the old people on the terrace so they could stay warm and as many still had the old coal range for cooking on they could always boil the kettle and cook there food.

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Forgive me is there an Italian connection here?

Nottingham has always had a big Italian populace, particularly in the Bakersfield area?

Mentioned before somewhere else? Ice Cream company bottom end of Radford... Dorset Street?

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