Co-op electric milk float

[Mess 513]

Found this superb picture the other day.

https://www.wythall.org.uk/vehicles/v339dtv.asp

There was also a red Co-op bakery van with delicious fresh bread and cakes.

 

I lived on Elstree Drive in the 1950s and remember these vehicles coming round in the early morning. I would guess it would be around 8am when I got up for school. I thought there was a wheat sheaf in the co-op emblem but I could be wrong.

Along with the milk there was also an orange drink in a milk bottle available. I think it had a green foil top. Our neighbour had sterilised milk which had a red crown top in a narrow necked bottle. I liked the slightly caramel flavour it had and being sterilised lasted much longer. The pasteurised milk was mainly silver top although the extra creamy Channel Islands milk was gold top.

My primary school was Beechdale and the dairy was across the road. We had the silver punched out foil remainders from the milk bottle tops on a long roll which we used as Christmas decorations. I can remember the faint smell of sour milk on it.

Like many schools we also collected foil milk bottle tops for charity.
 

 

[Dark Angel 112]

   Our milk used to be delivered by one of these vehicles for years. I think you are right about the wheat sheaf being part of the emblem. 

[mary1947 1,876]

I also remember these milk floats !!!

But with very much sadness??

Due to being rehoused by council due to living in St Anns' we were given a new buildhouse at Daybrook Arnold a friend who I went to school with also moved up there, at the time there were only a few new houses built on the old railway, Each Friday the CO-OP man would delitver the milk and collect the monies owed, and each week he would shooo al the kids away from his float before leaving our close.  

Now I had 2 young boys and my friend had a little girl same age as my eldest, a little boy same age as my 2nd boy and she had just had a baby about 6 months old.   

This friday the milk man called when he had finished collecting the monies he went back to his float and after shoowin all the youngsters away got into the cab to drive away, but what he failed to notice at the time was my frieds little boy who was hidden behind or inbetween the large battery that these floats needed. so you can guess what happened, after I had walked all the way to Sherwood to fetch my friends mum,  the next day we were leaving for another house, I never saw my friend again till years later,  and I mean years by this time we were both in our 40s but this was never mentioned by either of us. 

BUT it sticks in my mind as though it was only yesterday that the tragic accident happened. I also think of that driver who is probly not with us any more, but what he must have gone though,

[Cliff Ton 9,940]

....and the Co-Op fruit & veg electric delivery van.

 

 .....in the Meadows outside the Plumptre Arms.

[The Pianoman 1,480]

1938 registration on that. 

[philmayfield 5,347]

When we lived in Woodthorpe, way back, the milk cart was pulled by a horse. Midland Model Dairies I think.

[Ayupmeducks 1,728]

My late Dad used to work for Co-Op for a  while, he was a bread roundsman driving an electric "float" Out in all weather until he gave that up to drive trucks, the walking around delivering bread in all weathers didn't agree with his feet.

Mind those large canvas rain coats they were issued with were good quality.

From what I'm told, he started off with a milk round with horse and cart, until the horse got a little too eager to get back to the stables and ran over both his feet with the cart.

Don't ask me what rounds he had, I was too young to recall, pretty sure he covered part of St Anns on the bread round.

 

I also recall he worked for Prices bakery doing a country round bread and cake delivery, I went with him as  a young boy and still remember scoffing on fresh cakes.

[katyjay 4,983]

We had Co-op bread delivered to the house, wasn't the wheatsheaf on the bread vans? 

[MargieH 7,393]

@philmayfield  on Woodthorpe Drive, our milk was delivered by a certain Mr Moore who had the milk churns on a cart drawn by a whitish horse.  The milk was poured into our own milk jugs 

[philmayfield 5,347]

That was really the old fashioned way. Ours did come in bottles. We didn’t have bread delivered though. It was only a short walk to Mr. Taylor’s grocery shop on Marlborough Rd., opposite the end of Woodthorpe Avenue where we would collect a ‘policeman’s foot’. Grocery items were listed in a book and paid for weekly. He was a widower with a live in ‘housekeeper’ but I always had suspicions about the relationship.

[MargieH 7,393]

Phil, this memory of our milk delivery was when I was very young, around 1947/48 .  It just made a big impression on me as a small child

[LizzieM 9,222]

We moved to a brand new housing estate in Arnold in 1958.  At the time there were no local shops and groceries were only available in Arnold town centre a mile or so away.  Very few families had cars and I can’t remember there being a bus service in the early days.  The Nottingham Co-op were quick to see the opening and they delivered milk, bread and groceries to the (mainly) young families in the neighbourhood.  Within a couple of years a row of essential shops were built so the Co-op deliveries weren’t as necessary.
 One of my uncles was a Co-op milkman for a little while, I don’t know which area he worked in but tragically a small child crawled under his stationary float one day without him realising it.  When he set off again the child was run over and died.  He couldn’t cope with the tragedy and gave up the job immediately, he never came to terms with what had happened.  

[Dark Angel 112]

    The wheat sheaf was the emblem for C W S (Co operative Wholesale Society)

[mary1947 1,876]

On 10/13/2022 at 7:32 PM, LizzieM said:

We moved to a brand new housing estate in Arnold in 1958.  At the time there were no local shops and groceries were only available in Arnold town centre a mile or so away.  Very few families had cars and I can’t remember there being a bus service in the early days.  The Nottingham Co-op were quick to see the opening and they delivered milk, bread and groceries to the (mainly) young families in the neighbourhood.  Within a couple of years a row of essential shops were built so the Co-op deliveries weren’t as necessary.
 One of my uncles was a Co-op milkman for a little while, I don’t know which area he worked in but tragically a small child crawled under his stationary float one day without him realising it.  When he set off again the child was run over and died.  He couldn’t cope with the tragedy and gave up the job immediately, he never came to terms with what had happened.  

Lizzie please see my post above it was my friends little boy. Posted Thursday 8 03

[mary1947 1,876]

Going off milk-floats OZ  but the pub Trumans was i beeave was facing The Talbot on the Market Square and it had pne of the longest bars there was not  any other pub in England  to match it.

[Cliff Ton 9,940]

This is the city centre Truman's - which was on Beastmarket Hill - but it appears to be a Shipstone pub. The name across the front refers to CB and WH Truman who were presumably the landlords.

 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ntgm012624/posterid/ntgm012624.html

[Dark Angel 112]

    Back to delivering milk:

 

 

     

 

 

 

[Rob.L 1,027]

Back to the milkman. 
 

Our local milk delivery person’s van has the noisiest Diesel engine around, and what appear to be floodlights on the sides of the van, which are bright enough to trigger our video doorbell when he drives past. That wouldn’t be a problem if he didn’t do his deliveries at 3am.

[Dark Angel 112]

@Rob.L: if you hear the milk float at 3 am, isn’t that a good sign. It means you’re still alive.

[LizzieM 9,222]

On 10/15/2022 at 6:24 AM, mary1947 said:

Lizzie please see my post above it was my friends little boy. Posted Thursday 8 03

How tragic for your friend to lose her child in such an accident.  However, this would not have involved my uncle as he was a milkman only in the mid 1950s which was surely at least a decade before the accident you’re referring to.  

[mary1947 1,876]

your right Lizzie at the time it was 1969 so thanks for feedback. Who ever was driving that milk float at that time it must have been arduous for them to accept.

[carni 10,046]

Before the demolition of 'St Anns' my Grandparents lived on Vicarage St, about three doors up from 'The Mechanics Arms' which was on the corner of 'Alfred St North'. He was a blacksmith. I never knew exactly what he did, but one of the Gents  on another Nottingham site, very kindly gave me an enlarged map off the area, showing my Grandads place of work, on the opposite side of Alfred St North, was Raywarp, where I worked at the time. This was early 1960s. Grandad, apparently was the Blacksmith who shoed and cared for the 'Dairy Horses' at that time. I don't know if the house they lived in on Vicarage St came with the job, or Council as they were originally from Mansfield.

[Cliff Ton 9,940]

@carni...you've probably seen this already, but here's two photos of the Mechanics Arms, Vicarage Street, and the Raywarp factory. (+ one photo which is irrelevant to this subject)

 

https://picturenottingham.co.uk/image-library.html?keywords=vicarage+street&showall=1#PN-NTGM013449

[carni 10,046]

Thankyou CliffTon. Grandads workplace was somewhere between Mechanics Arms and the top of Alfred St. Seeing the images again bring back so many memories for me. Family, Workplace and singing along in the pub., especially at Christmas with my buddy sewing machinists. Thanks again 'Mi Duck'.

[IAN FINN 568]

What was the area called just off Meadow Lane the streets i think were called Ashling St. and Sutton St. my great Grandad and Grandma lived at 9 Sutton St. directly behind Notts County football ground i dont see the streets there anymore,my Grandad and i would bicycle from Nuthall to Sutton St.and leave our bikes there and go and watch the football match.