The Smalls’ Dairying Business in Darlaston Green by Kathleen Mary Carter. 1977

“My parents, Thomas Small (aged 24) and his wife Florence (aged 21) were married at St. Lawrence Parish Church, Darlaston on January 31st 1897, and went to live at No. 46 Cramp Hill. Thomas was described as a Nut and Bolt Forger. At this address they had 3 children, Maud in 1897, Florence in 1899, and Sarah Anne in 1901.

In 1903 they moved to No. 90 The Green where Thomas set up a dairying business to supply fresh “loose” milk in the locality. A fourth daughter, Doris, was born in 1904. On the 1911 census, Thomas (38), his wife Florence, (35), their four daughters, and Florence’s sister Eliza were recorded at No. 90 The Green, where Thomas was an operator of an Oliver belt-driven forging machine at James Wiley’s nut and bolt works, described as a dairyman working on his own account at home. A son, Sidney, was born in 1914 and finally myself, Kathleen Mary, in 1921. Infant mortality at the time was still very high and the Smalls lost a boy, George, who died at birth, and a daughter Kate born in 1905 who died at 6 months.

Up to about 1919, in addition to the dairying operation, Thomas continued to work in the nut and bolt industry, in particular at a bolt manufacturing plant nearby in The Green. Around 1919 he gave all his time, and much of his family’s time, to the dairy business.

90 The Green was a typical 2 up/2 down worker’s house which predated the 1886 OS map on which it can be seen. It was the first in a terrace of 3 houses which faced directly on to the street pavement with an entry between nos. 90 and 91. The three houses backed on to a common blue brick paved yard, beyond which was a row of three “brew houses”. Behind the brew houses were two toilets with fixed wooden seats, shared between the three houses and not connected to a sewer until much later on.

Our brewhouse was a large building in which the previous occupant of No 90, William Small, a baker, had built a large bread oven of sufficient size to carry out his trade, his shop being in the front room of the house, which had a large shop window. There was a large cast iron solid fuel cooking range with a water heater alongside, which was a copper boiler for laundering with its own fire grate. There was a large red earthenware sink with a South Staffs water supply cold tap adjacent to which was a capped off well which was the house’s original supply of water. A hand operated mangle, tub, maid, buckets brooms and mops completed the loose fittings. Also kept there hanging on the wall was a loose galvanised steel bath, there being no bathroom in the house.

No.89 The Green was the Royal Exchange public house on the corner of Richards Street. In 1911 this was run by George Lucas, 42, a Beer Retailer, working on his own account, his wife Lydia, 39, and their seven children
(ages 16, 15, 11, 7, 5, 3, 1). They had previously lost three children. The pub was locally known as “The Glamour House” or simply “Lucases”. They brewed their own beer and had a brewery at the rear in Richards Street.

Between the Royal Exchange and No. 90 was a wide driveway with high black double gates which was the access for Small’s dairy. The driveway ran down to the end of the property where there was a second brick surfaced farmyard which ran right across the bottom of the yard common to 90-92. Facing this yard was a row of cowsheds which accommodated 6 stalls, and a shed for the calves. We also had some pigsties, and pens for poultry. Storage for animal feed was by space in the shed for the calves and in the loft of the brewhouse. Machinery such as a Chaff Cutter and a cutter for Mangolds were also housed there. A door at the top of the side entrance led on to a plot of land used as a garden which we used mainly for growing flowers. In addition we had one of the nearby allotments which we used for growing vegetables.

All of my sisters, and in due course myself, were put to good use in my father’s dairying activities. My older sisters and brother often talked about taking the cows down the streets opposite 90 The Green and over to the fields between Darlaston and Willenhall, then later rounding them up and herding them back home. There is a famous story of a cow going up an entry in Perry Street, and in order to extract it, it had to be led through the house, turned round in the back garden, then led back through the house into the street. The other chores were cutting chaff and mangolds, cleaning out the cow sheds and pigsties, making butter, and of course delivering the milk to our customers using a small churn and measure.

My father, Thomas Small, died in 1925 and we had to reduce the dairying activities, although we still continued as milk distributors. The “loose” milk was supplied to us by Mills of Willenhall Street.

The introduction of sterilised bottled milk and the poaching of customers by the Midland Dairies reduced our sales of loose milk and in due course necessitated our changing over to bottled milk, which also initially reduced our customers further. Our bottled milk was obtained from Imperial Dairies at Wolverhampton. There was a small wooden shed at the rear of the house that we called “The Dairy”, in which the bottled milk was stored in crates and protected from the elements.

By the end of the war, I was the only daughter living at No.90, with my husband, Bill Carter, and our two sons, born in 1942 and 1945, and my mother Florence Small. We had given up on the milk distribution business and the cow sheds were being used as garages for motor cars. We left the house in 1948 to escape the noise and pollution from the factories and coal fires in the area to live in a new council house on the new Rough Hay estate which of course was built on open land nearby where we used to pasture the cows. There is a short street there called Khyber Close which was named after some remains of the Addenbrooke's Iron Works known as The Khyber Pass through which my sisters said that they would drive the cows.

90 to 92 The Green were demolished in 1977. My husband , Bill, took some photos after the demolition showing the Royal Exchange and the garages at the end of the site, previously our cow sheds.”