Liverpool Cowkeepers by Dave Joy
The mid-1800s witnessed a mass exodus from the Pennine ‘Dales’ as the then latest generation of farmers and miners sought a new life in the New World. However, many of these found a new life for themselves a bit closer to home – they became Liverpool Cowkeepers, keeping cows in their back yards and selling milk to a rapidly expanding city population with an insatiable need for fresh food.
The Liverpool Cowkeepers became part of the life and economy of the city and continued to serve its people for over a hundred years. They overcame many challenges and survived through hard work, good dales business nous and the ability to adapt. They started out as farmers, adapted to become city cowkeepers and then adapted again to become suburban milkmen – part of the best doorstep food delivery service in the world and a key part of the British way of life.
Dave Joy draws on his own family history to tell the story of the lives and times of the Liverpool Cowkeepers. The Joy family came from the upper Wharfedale valley in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and established cowhouses in the Liverpool districts of Wavertree and Garston. They continued in this way of life for several generations, becoming one of the city’s last cowkeeping families.
Liverpool Cowkeepers by Dave Joy is available from Amberley Publishing (www.amberley-books.com) and from Amazon [£15.99]. ISBN 9781445663227
OR if you would like a signed copy posted to you, drop me an email - davejoy-author@hotmail.com
REVIEWS
Extract of Review by Peter Brears for Folk Life (Vol. 56, Issue 2, 2018)
Dave Joy’s book is soundly based on a deep study of cowkeeping, setting the Liverpool trade into its national context. Its most important contribution, however, is that it introduces a wealth of human experience into the subject through his intimate knowledge of his family’s long-term involvement in the trade. The wealth of photographs . . . helps to put flesh on the biographical bones of his numerous cowkeeping ancestors. In this way it not only provides a unique insight into the history of milk production in this country, but, just as importantly, shows how a family’s history can go far beyond mere genealogy to provide a really enlightening and entertaining read.
Reviewed by Colin Serjent for Nerve Magazine:
Having lived on a diary farm in my youth this book has a special appeal for me. I can never forget the first time I drank milk straight from a cow, not the tasteless stuff you get from supermarkets, charging £1 for four pints of so-called milk. Author Dave Joy reflects on his own family history to relate the life and times of the Liverpool cowkeepers.
In the mid-1800s, the Joy family moved from the beautiful surroundings of the upper Wharfedale Valley, set in the Yorkshire Dales, to the urban environment of Liverpool. Before long they set up successful cowhouses in the Liverpool districts of Garston and Wavertree. Over a number of generations they continued to maintain this tradition and became one of the last remaining cowkeeping families in the city.
Included in the book are many archive photographs of this form of lifestyle, the oldest, showing a gathering of the Joy family, dating back to 1880. The book does not restrict itself to the practice of cowkeeping in Liverpool, but traces how the practice evolved from traditional dairy farming in the Yorkshire Dales.
The practice of keeping cows was not restricted to just Liverpool. It was common in many urban areas in the 1800s.
In explaining why he decided to write this book Dave Joy says “As a boy, the family’s dairy was a very special place for me. So much so that as a grown man I wanted to know more about the lives of my antecedents. This is their story and the story of the many others who became Liverpool cowkeepers.”
Reviewed by the Merseysider magazine:
Dave Joy’s book is extremely well researched, and tells a fascinating story, one that will surprise and delight many readers. The numerous illustrations effectively complement the text, and include contemporary photographs of buildings (still standing in Liverpool), which once housed the city’s cows.
Reviewed by Ken Rogers for Liverpool Echo, Sunday Memories, 2 October 2016:
Back in July, a Sunday Memories reader asked a question about the old Cowhouses in districts like Everton and this enabled me to highlight how a little bit of the countryside was brought into the heart of our inner cities by farmers from areas like the Pennine Dales. Goods were extremely perishable before the age of refrigeration and so that invoked a daily visit to the local corner shops rather than the giant supermarket sweep we undertake today.
Now a fascinating book on the subject, Liverpool Cowkeepers, has been penned by Dave Joy who draws on his own family history to tell the life and times of those farmers from the Yorkshire Dales who established cowhouses in Wavertree and Garston.
Dave explains how the move from countryside to city was not a straightforward relocation for farmers, but rather a ‘chain migration’ involving many family members.
It was the advent of the railways in Victorian England that initially enabled this to happen. News spread back to the Dales that money was to be made in Liverpool and more cowkeepers – and their animals – soon followed. They were looked on almost as foreigners because their country drawl was so different to that of the locals.
But the opportunity to get fresh milk on your doorstep on a daily basis was a massive boost to Liverpool communities. Milking in a back yard cowhouse would begin around 5am with delivery by horse and cart at 7.30am. Second milking was at 2pm with a follow-up delivery at 4.30pm.
Prior to the introduction of milk bottles, milk was dispensed from churns into the customers’ own jugs using a measuring ladle. If you lived close to a cowhouse, as my father did in Everton, you could just pop down the street for your fresh milk.
While the men handled the deliveries, the woman of the family handled the direct sales to locals from the yards. They would make and sell butter, cheese and cream, and many even accommodated hens and a couple of pigs to enable them to sell eggs and bacon.
The story of this inner city farming revolution which continued right up to the 1970s is fascinating. ‘Liverpool Cowkeepers’ by Dave Joy is out now, published by Amberley at £15.99.
The Liverpool Cowkeepers became part of the life and economy of the city and continued to serve its people for over a hundred years. They overcame many challenges and survived through hard work, good dales business nous and the ability to adapt. They started out as farmers, adapted to become city cowkeepers and then adapted again to become suburban milkmen – part of the best doorstep food delivery service in the world and a key part of the British way of life.
Dave Joy draws on his own family history to tell the story of the lives and times of the Liverpool Cowkeepers. The Joy family came from the upper Wharfedale valley in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and established cowhouses in the Liverpool districts of Wavertree and Garston. They continued in this way of life for several generations, becoming one of the city’s last cowkeeping families.
Liverpool Cowkeepers by Dave Joy is available from Amberley Publishing (www.amberley-books.com) and from Amazon [£15.99]. ISBN 9781445663227
OR if you would like a signed copy posted to you, drop me an email - davejoy-author@hotmail.com
REVIEWS
Extract of Review by Peter Brears for Folk Life (Vol. 56, Issue 2, 2018)
Dave Joy’s book is soundly based on a deep study of cowkeeping, setting the Liverpool trade into its national context. Its most important contribution, however, is that it introduces a wealth of human experience into the subject through his intimate knowledge of his family’s long-term involvement in the trade. The wealth of photographs . . . helps to put flesh on the biographical bones of his numerous cowkeeping ancestors. In this way it not only provides a unique insight into the history of milk production in this country, but, just as importantly, shows how a family’s history can go far beyond mere genealogy to provide a really enlightening and entertaining read.
Reviewed by Colin Serjent for Nerve Magazine:
Having lived on a diary farm in my youth this book has a special appeal for me. I can never forget the first time I drank milk straight from a cow, not the tasteless stuff you get from supermarkets, charging £1 for four pints of so-called milk. Author Dave Joy reflects on his own family history to relate the life and times of the Liverpool cowkeepers.
In the mid-1800s, the Joy family moved from the beautiful surroundings of the upper Wharfedale Valley, set in the Yorkshire Dales, to the urban environment of Liverpool. Before long they set up successful cowhouses in the Liverpool districts of Garston and Wavertree. Over a number of generations they continued to maintain this tradition and became one of the last remaining cowkeeping families in the city.
Included in the book are many archive photographs of this form of lifestyle, the oldest, showing a gathering of the Joy family, dating back to 1880. The book does not restrict itself to the practice of cowkeeping in Liverpool, but traces how the practice evolved from traditional dairy farming in the Yorkshire Dales.
The practice of keeping cows was not restricted to just Liverpool. It was common in many urban areas in the 1800s.
In explaining why he decided to write this book Dave Joy says “As a boy, the family’s dairy was a very special place for me. So much so that as a grown man I wanted to know more about the lives of my antecedents. This is their story and the story of the many others who became Liverpool cowkeepers.”
Reviewed by the Merseysider magazine:
Dave Joy’s book is extremely well researched, and tells a fascinating story, one that will surprise and delight many readers. The numerous illustrations effectively complement the text, and include contemporary photographs of buildings (still standing in Liverpool), which once housed the city’s cows.
Reviewed by Ken Rogers for Liverpool Echo, Sunday Memories, 2 October 2016:
Back in July, a Sunday Memories reader asked a question about the old Cowhouses in districts like Everton and this enabled me to highlight how a little bit of the countryside was brought into the heart of our inner cities by farmers from areas like the Pennine Dales. Goods were extremely perishable before the age of refrigeration and so that invoked a daily visit to the local corner shops rather than the giant supermarket sweep we undertake today.
Now a fascinating book on the subject, Liverpool Cowkeepers, has been penned by Dave Joy who draws on his own family history to tell the life and times of those farmers from the Yorkshire Dales who established cowhouses in Wavertree and Garston.
Dave explains how the move from countryside to city was not a straightforward relocation for farmers, but rather a ‘chain migration’ involving many family members.
It was the advent of the railways in Victorian England that initially enabled this to happen. News spread back to the Dales that money was to be made in Liverpool and more cowkeepers – and their animals – soon followed. They were looked on almost as foreigners because their country drawl was so different to that of the locals.
But the opportunity to get fresh milk on your doorstep on a daily basis was a massive boost to Liverpool communities. Milking in a back yard cowhouse would begin around 5am with delivery by horse and cart at 7.30am. Second milking was at 2pm with a follow-up delivery at 4.30pm.
Prior to the introduction of milk bottles, milk was dispensed from churns into the customers’ own jugs using a measuring ladle. If you lived close to a cowhouse, as my father did in Everton, you could just pop down the street for your fresh milk.
While the men handled the deliveries, the woman of the family handled the direct sales to locals from the yards. They would make and sell butter, cheese and cream, and many even accommodated hens and a couple of pigs to enable them to sell eggs and bacon.
The story of this inner city farming revolution which continued right up to the 1970s is fascinating. ‘Liverpool Cowkeepers’ by Dave Joy is out now, published by Amberley at £15.99.