How much longer shall we hear the distinctive city clatter of a Milk Float? Surely the days must be numbered for this fine English institution, in the light of supermarket milk being about half the price. I saw our local Milkman this week speeding along Clarendon Park Road and wonder if he knows of the impending speed humps that will blight all our lives very soon. Too late to protest. Letters had to be in by 30th April.
But just look at this simple electric truck. Perfectly designed for the job. I guess it probably covers about 20 miles a day. Therefore, with the aid of a calculator with fresh batteries, since 1965, when it was first registered it must have covered ( 44 years x 365 days = 16060 trips x 20 miles = 321,200 miles!!!!!
4 comments:
Cor Toby you've beaten me to it! I've been pratting about trying to get a decent shot of one of these for ages. It is still exactly the same livery as in my child / teenagehood. Pity the K&W white-tiled art deco dairy is no longer in existence. Particularly as I singularly failed to photograph that too.
The demise of the milkman will have a serious effect on British literature and movies. From Ernie, to the chap who nearly causes Richard Hannay's capture in The 39 Steps, and sundry stars from Michael Caine to Laurence Harvey nicking a bottle on their return home from a night's rumpy-pumpy: all gone. Mind you, I hate milk so I won't miss them much.
Are milk floats always powered by Exide batteries?
In our corner of the East End we have two milk deliveries - one by traditional float at 6am, and an earlier one by open-backed Sherpa with a Union Jack painted on its roof at 2am. This one makes a noise as it passes exactly like a Vespa stand being released, and caused me to leap out of bed in a half-sleep panic at least three times a week for the first year that we lived here.
Just the electric ones here in the City of Leicester, T.I.W. We have the Sherpa variety out at the Country Residence, where distance is more of an issue. I've a sneaky feeling the electric ones were made here in Market Harborough by 'Harbilt'.
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