THE FLATLEY DRYER

[Big Kev]

It was third of a pint bottles when I started school in 66.

[MickBrett]

I found this photo somewhere today -it's how I remember it Low height crates, half, third (?) of a pint bottles, and a straw . . . .

Then along came Maggie Thatcher, the milk snatcher...

[PanBiker]

Orange Juice as well for the lactose intolerant kids.

As for Maggie Thatcher, forever shame on her.

[Stanley]

They are third pint bottles David. I delivered thousands of those crates when I worked for West Marton Dairies. That's the first time I have ever seen a picture of it being drunk. That's about Kev vintage because they are foil caps. In my schooldays they were waxed cardboard closures and the bottles had thick necks to accommodate them. They had a perforated hole in the middle you pushed in to insert the straw. Very useful as templates for making wool bobbles!

[plaques]

The aluminium foils gave rise to the poor mans frizbee. Hold the top between your forefinger and middle finger and with a deft flick of the wrist.. a flying saucer.

[Tripps]

Well - that went well.

I thought it was a third of a pint, but in the picture they looked too big for that, so 'I hedged my bets'.

PS I don't think 'lactose intolerance' had been invented in the 1940/50's.

[Tizer]

All I remember of school milk was the teachers trying to make us drink it even when it had `gone off' by being left standing out in the sun!

[Big Kev]

I remember that happening too, same with eating school dinners regardless of whether you threw up after eating it.

[MickBrett]

Take a bite out of a penny Jammy Dodger then swill it down with a good slurp of milk. Childhood heaven

[PanBiker]

PS I don't think 'lactose intolerance' had been invented in the 1940/50's.

All I know is that there were always a few orange juices in the crate when I started school in 1957. It was always the same kids that got them, maybe they were just fussy. I loved my school milk and would take any spares going. Best in winter when the cream had frozen and pushed the top off, if you got to it before the blue tits.

[Tripps]

I think the nuns would have deemed orange juice to be sinful.

They told us chewing gum was made from dead cats to put us off, and that we were to go to bed every night with the thought that we might die in the night.

The new 'Biros' were of course were forbidden to be used.

Give me the child. . . .

[Stanley]

We made 'orange Juice' at Skipton depot from oranges, water and sugar and it was bottled in pints and thirds. You're right David, those bottles look big in the image but as far as I know there was never such a thing as a half pint glass bottle.
I must have been lucky, I can't remember milk ever going off or bad school dinners. I remember it freezing as Ian says and being put in the hearth in front of the big coke fire in the classroom to thaw... Imagine, open coke fires in a classroom! That's definitely Flatley Dryer country.....

[Tizer]

You're right David, those bottles look big in the image but as far as I know there was never such a thing as a half pint glass bottle.

Here's one... V&A

[Tripps]

Looks like it is a third of a pint.

Interesting that taking milk from the mouths of babes is universally remembered as Margaret Thatchers evil deed. I just found out that Edward Short (Labour) did something similar a few years earlier, but for a slightly older age group.

I don't know the full story, but didn't Labour close more pits than the Tories, or is that a fake internet type 'fact' ? I'm sure someone will tell me.

Speaking of 'pints' a benefit of leaving the EU is that we can now produce 'champagne' in pint bottles. Said to have been Winston Churchill's favourite bottle size. Makes it all seem so worthwhile. . . .

[Big Kev]

Speaking of 'pints' a benefit of leaving the EU is that we can now produce 'champagne' in pint bottles. Said to have been Winston Churchill's favourite bottle size. Makes it all seem so worthwhile. . . .

and probably pay magnum prices for it too

[Stanley]

Quite possible that more pits closed under Labour than Tory governments but that would include the reorganisation after nationalisation. Far more pits to work on. Point about the Tories is they administered the death blow to the industry with no notice. Labour's closures were constructive, Tory's destructive.
So, the half pint bottle for milk never existed?
Anyone remember the Tetra-pack? That was the future of packaging at one time.

[Tizer]

Looks like it is a third of a pint.

Yes, you're right - I messed up and posted the wrong link from my google search. Try this one instead:
This is a clear glass, half-pint milk bottle with name of dairying firm embossed on side 'W. Clifford & Sons Ltd. Dairy'. Reading University

[Big Kev]

Continuing the milk bottle theme

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[Stanley]

West Marton used to pack cream in these small stoneware pots with a closure of greaseproof paper and an elastic band below the neck. When they stopped using them and went on to bottles then cartons, the stock of pots was thrown out and buried behind the stable at the top of the yard. Treasure trove......

[Big Kev]

The little bottle in my pic was today in 23 The Grill in Church Street. There was just enough in it for 2 cups of coffee.

[Stanley]

A reliable source once told me that a soft drinks company in Nelson owned a farm on Coldweather and when they switched over to screw tops from pop alley bottles they took the redundant bottles up to the farm and repaired a swampy spot in the road by paving it with layers of bottles in alternate layers, necks up and necks down. If that's right, another treasure trove up there.....

[Stanley]

Bottled ink and a fountain pen. I suspect that these are Flatley Dryer country now.

[Tizer]

When my parents moved to a bungalow near us in Somerset it had a very long, narrow back garden which had been put to various uses. When we dug in one corner we found lots of old glass bottles including the Castrol oil ones as well as the usual pop bottles, jars, medicine bottles etc.

[Tripps]

Bottled ink and a fountain pen. I suspect that these are Flatley Dryer country now

Not here . . . .

Quink.JPG

[Big Kev]

Bottled ink and a fountain pen. I suspect that these are Flatley Dryer country now

Not here . . . .

Quink.JPG

Cartridges here, no ink bottles. The blue one has the converter to use with ink but I've never used it. They've been used for wedding pic props when the registrar only has a bic biro

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