Ashfield Farm Dairies
January 18, 2010 by John · 5 Comments
Many thanks to Kevin Radford who sent me the above photo of an old milk float belonging to the once Hoylake based Ashfield Farm Dairies. The road in view is Rudd Street and Kevin is on the left – his dad was having a tea break.
Kevin recalls that Ashfield Dairies were located toward the main road end of Manor Road. Express Dairies later took over Ashfield and moved to the Carr Lane. I’m guessing that the garage in Manor Road that is there today and pictured below used to be part of of the dairy. Am I right do you think?
The front:
the rear from the entry:
Possible related posts (computer generated):
Before Ashfield Dairy’s had the elctric float, they delivered milk by bicycle and pony and trap. The stables were situated in Black Lane and later converted for charging the electric vehicles.
I used to live the other side of Manor Road and looked-out on the building shown. Our first neighbour was Bill Shaw who was born and lived all his life in Manor Road from the early 1900s and he advised the building shown was the cold store for the dairy. I was shown inside once and it is certainly not a stable – the floor level is about a meter above ground level – presumably designed as a loading dock.
Roger
I LIVED AT 11 NEWTON ROAD IN THE 40s.AND SOME TIMES WAS ALLOWED TO RIDE ON THE
HORSE AND TRAP DRIVEN BY A ELDERY CHAP TO DELIVER TO THE POSH HOUSES BETWEEN
HOYLAKE AND MEOLS.YES THE DAIRY WAS AT THE TOP OF MANOR ROAD YOU COULD SMELL THE
MILK AS YOU WALKED PASSED ,THEY KEPT A SHOP ON THE CORNER WHICH SOLD DAIRY PRODUCTS
Yes, the building in Manor Road was a cold store, the machinery was located where there is a silver car jammed into the yard in the photo. Milk delivery was very early in the morning, The loading door was level with the truck beds, you just had to drag the clinking stack of crates into the store with a hook. I lived a few doors away and you didn’t need an alarm clock! The trucks came from “Pool Bank Dairies, Tarvin” which is in Cheshire. There was broken glass all around, making it difficult for me as after school, as I would often run bare foot down to the sea for a swim. The milk floats were charged at the old stables behind the Parish Church yard, you could hear the humm of the chargers when you walked past.