the udder way

Prior to the First World War, a thriving dairy industry existed in Liverpool. Many families from the Yorkshire Dales went into the business of supplying milk to the fast-growing urban population, keeping cows in the city and selling the milk to homes on the city streets. The story of these enterprising families is told through one family who stayed in Liverpool for twenty years before retiring to a farm in the Yorkshire Dales that they had bought with the profit of their Liverpool milk business. The business started with two cows and ended with forty-six cows and three horses. The Liverpool house where they lived was at the end of a row, and the front room formed a dairy where people arrived at all hours to buy milk. A short distance away were the buildings housing cattle. The daughter took a horse-drawn lorry to the local cemetery in the summers to collect loads of grass cuttings, which had been put into piles by the cemetery maintenance men. Hay for the animals was obtained from a local farmer who would dump a load on his way to the city market and load up with manure on his way ome.



On the 18th July 2005, in the early hours of the morning, 5cows, 5 calves, 3 stockmen and a milking parlour arrived in Toxteth, Liverpool and remained for 9 days.


		CITY FARMING 211

		Redressing the balance

	Prior to the First World War, a thriving dairy industry existed in Liverpool. Many families from the Yorkshire Dales went into the business of supplying milk to the fast-growing urban population, keeping cows in the city and selling the milk to homes on the city streets. The story of these enterprising families is told through one family who stayed in Liverpool for twenty years before retiring to a farm in the Yorkshire Dales that they had bought with the profit of their Liverpool milk business. The business started with two cows and ended with forty-six cows and three horses. The Liverpool house where they lived was at the end of a row, and the front room formed a dairy where people arrived at all hours to buy milk. A short distance away were the buildings housing cattle. The daughter took a horse-drawn lorry to the local cemetery in the summers to collect loads of grass cuttings, which had been put into piles by the cemetery maintenance men. Hay for the animals was obtained from a local farmer who would dump a load on his way to the city market and load up with manure on his way ome.