My great grandfather’s early life and career took some interesting twists and turns. He was born illegitimately in Luton, initially followed in his baker father’s footsteps but then worked in the London Dairy industry before becoming an RAF Motor Engineer. Before researching Fred’s career I knew next to nothing about London’s dairy industries in the 19th/20th centuries. But now I know more.

Tending cows, driving engines

When my great grandfather Frederick Ephgrave married Phoebe Caroline Gibson on 7 June 1896 at St Andrew’s Church, Canal Street, Hoxton, his occupation was recorded as ‘Cowman’. I was a bit taken aback by this. If I had thought about it at all, I would have imagined that dairies were rural affairs, where cows roamed in fields, brought in twice a day for milking and the milk transported into villages, towns and cities. But of course, before mass industrialisation and the building boom, much of London was itself still fairly rural. Without refrigeration, sterlisation or pasteurisation, milk would also soon ‘go off’, so transporting it long distances would not be sensible.

So what did a Cowman do exactly, and where did he work? Wikipedia suggests that the term originates in England and such a person …

“… originally was a minor landowner, a yeoman, rather than a cowherd or herdsman … Today, however, in the British Isles the cowman usually is an employee, synonymous with cowherd”.

At the time of the 1891 census, he was a baker’s assistant in London Colney, Hertfordshire. Perhaps he didn’t take to baking, there wasn’t enough work, or he wanted to try his chances in London. Within five years, it seems likely that he was employed to look after cows in one of London’s Victorian dairies. His children’s birth and death certificates (BCs/DCs) and later censuses, however, suggest that he was as much involved with milk distribution and processing as with animals:

2 December 1896	Cowman	BC Rosa Virginia Ephgrave	Nevill Road, South Hornsey
6 February 1899	Carter	BC Clara Louise Ephgrave	Culford Road, Hackney
19 October 1900	Dairyman’s Foreman	BC Frederick William James Ephgrave	Culford Road, Hackney
31 March 1901	Milk Steriliser	1901 census	Culford Road, Hackney
27 December 1901	Stationary Engine Driver	BC Jessie Ephgrave	Stamford Hill, Hackney
20 June 1904	Cowman	DC Mary Ephgrave	Shakespeare Road, South Hornsey
1 November 1905	Cowman	BC Alice Maud Ephgrave	Cowper Road, Stoke Newington
20 March 1907	Milk Carrier	BC Edward Thomas Ephgrave	Cowper Road, Stoke Newington
13 December 1910	Dairy Yardman	DC Florence Louisa Ephgrave	Boone’s Street, Lee, Lewisham
6 April 1911	Dairy Machinist	1911 census	Boone’s Street, Lee, Lewisham
24 June 1915	Dairyman’s Yardman	BC Grace Hilda Ephgrave	Courthill Road, Lewisham
11 March 1920	Engineer Fitter	BC Gladys Edna Dorothy Ephgrave	Courthill Road, Lewisham
19 June 1921	Engineer’s Motor Fitter, Royal Air Force No 1 Stores (BFPO?) Kidbrook	1921 census	Courthill Road, Lewisham
13 February 1923	Engineer’s Fitter	DC Frederick Ephgrave	Courthill Road, Lewisham

London’s dairies

The London Details blog at https://baldwinhamey.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/dairy-supply-company/ acknowledges the difficulties of transporting milk as London expanded. It also notes that, earlier in the 19th century, milk was often watered down or otherwise tampered with, and animal husbandry left much to be desired. The mid-1880s saw a ‘cow plague’, which led to milk being transported once more from the country, for example from Derbyshire, by the Express Dairy, which had an extensive network of retail outlets in London. But by the 1890s, city dairies were back in business … and perhaps that is how Fred came to find work, first as a Cowman, then taking advantage of new technology as a Milk Steriliser or Dairy Machinist.

Pasteurizer in a creamery. Date: (c) 1906.
Sourced from Digital Commonwealth website via Look & Learn

The first person to sell sterilised milk in England was Anthony Hailwood, according to Wikipedia. In 1901, when Fred worked as a Sterliser, the process was still fairly new:

In 1894, Hailwood began the commercial sterilisation of milk in the UK, providing it under the name of the Cheshire Sterilised Milk Company. This meant that milk could be stored for a longer time.

The Ephgraves’ home in Culford Road in Hackney (de Beauvoir Town) was part of a sprawling, built-up urban area of terraced housing. According to North London Railway – Balls Pond Road (edithsstreets.blogspot.com) 157 Culford Road was home to the:

“Sterilised Milk Company which later became Home Counties Dairies, supplying sterilised milk. After that, it became United Dairies and then Unigate”.

At no.178, opposite, and next door to the Ephgraves at 176, was the Headquarters of the firm, begun by a Mr Lane around 1900. Although the 1901 census does not show any dairy workers at these addresses, eBay and Hackney Archives have images of milk bottles produced by the Sterilised Milk Company, showing the address 157 Culford Road.

It seems likely, then, that Fred worked for the newly established Sterilised Milk Company from at least 1901. United Dairies, which took over the Company, also took on dairies in South London, several of which were in Lee, Lewisham, whence the Ephgraves moved between 1907 and 1910. The Running Past blog has photos and ephemera from various Lee dairy farms, including College Farm, which was incorporated by United in 1927. It seems that the number of dairy farms in the area halved between 1919-1924, and this is perhaps how Fred came to take the engineering skills learned in the dairies to take a job at the RAF Depot, perhaps even during WW1. He may only have done so for a fairly short time, however, as he died of pneumonia and dilatation of the heart at the young age of 50 in 1923, his occupation recorded as Engineer’s Fitter.