Dave Joy • £16.99 Pen & Sword

This book is the first social and family history of the British city dairy, drawing on archival records and case studies to journey from the cowkeepers of the 1800s, through two world wars and the supermarket revolution. Complete with a guide on how to trace dairy ancestry.   The early 19th century witnessed the mass movement of people from Britain’s countryside into its burgeoning towns and cities; people came to the city in search of work. This prompted many dairy farmers to follow suit and move themselves, their family and their cows into the country’s growing metropolises, where they opened the first generation of city dairies.

In the 1830s, transportation in Britain was revolutionised by the coming of the railways, enabling foodstuffs, including milk, to be transported in bulk from countryside to city. Large dairy companies took advantage of this opportunity, opening a new generation of retail dairies. The demand for milk was so great that some cities boasted a dairy at the end of every street.

For the next hundred years the cowkeepers fought a rear-guard action against the mighty corporate dairies and their attempts to monopolise the liquid milk market. These local dairies were kept in the family, handed down through successive generations.

The sixties and seventies saw the arrival of the supermarket, a game-changer in retailing. To survive, the city dairy had to change once more. Dave Joy tells the whole story in this new book.