Celia contacted me about her ancestor John Johnson, who had a dairy at 41 Aberdeen Street. She was trying to get an idea of the size of the cowkeeping business. Here's what I had to offer:
One way of gauging the scale of operations is via the census records, as some enumerators included details such as the number of cows. Unfortunately, that's not happened in John's case. Another way is to look at the size of the premises. Although 41 Aberdeen Street no longer exists, you can see from the attached image of an old map that it was one of the larger properties on the street. Even though it was not at the end of the terrace, there is access to the rear of the property via a back entry.
John's given profession of Cowkeeper indicates he was producing milk on site, rather than just acting as a retailer. The size of the property, plus the duration of John's occupation, suggest it was a reasonably large business, utilising a flying herd of about 20+ cows at any one time. This was the typical size for a profitable cowkeeping business - the same size as the Joy family's Wellington Dairy.
Another indication that 41 Aberdeen Street accommodated a good-sized business is that a number of cowkeepers used the premises after John had sold up:
1891 - Ann Lewis (Milk Dealer)
1894 - Jas Parkinson (Dairyman)
1900 - William Owens (Cowkeeper)
1901 - Humphrey Owens (Cowkeeper)
1918 - Mary Thomas (Dairyman)
1926 - Mary Thomas (Dairyman)
1938 - Arthur Haygarth (Dairyman)
One way of gauging the scale of operations is via the census records, as some enumerators included details such as the number of cows. Unfortunately, that's not happened in John's case. Another way is to look at the size of the premises. Although 41 Aberdeen Street no longer exists, you can see from the attached image of an old map that it was one of the larger properties on the street. Even though it was not at the end of the terrace, there is access to the rear of the property via a back entry.
John's given profession of Cowkeeper indicates he was producing milk on site, rather than just acting as a retailer. The size of the property, plus the duration of John's occupation, suggest it was a reasonably large business, utilising a flying herd of about 20+ cows at any one time. This was the typical size for a profitable cowkeeping business - the same size as the Joy family's Wellington Dairy.
Another indication that 41 Aberdeen Street accommodated a good-sized business is that a number of cowkeepers used the premises after John had sold up:
1891 - Ann Lewis (Milk Dealer)
1894 - Jas Parkinson (Dairyman)
1900 - William Owens (Cowkeeper)
1901 - Humphrey Owens (Cowkeeper)
1918 - Mary Thomas (Dairyman)
1926 - Mary Thomas (Dairyman)
1938 - Arthur Haygarth (Dairyman)
RSS Feed