Milk hygiene consisted of removing by hand anything that could be seen floating on the surface of the milk! Sometimes the liquid was warm, and direct from the cows. Also it was rich full-cream milk and considered to be very healthy. The incidence of tuberculosis in the village was not related to the milk from infected cows for many years. TT tested milk was a later invention.

One sheer delight of mine related to the delivery “boy”, Frank. Each day a number of grocery orders were made up, carefully wrapped with brown paper and tied with brown string. Frank rode a specially designed delivery bicycle which had a deep container at the front. I would meet Frank in the shop yard just as he started on his round of deliveries. If there was sufficient room I would climb into the container, and travel the old lanes of Gatley; in this way I visited all types of large houses. As a special treat I was allowed to deliver parcels to the house doors. Occasionally, I would get a toffee or a slab of cake from the lady of the house. This was bliss indeed for a boy of six or seven.

The main source of house heating was by coal fire, every two weeks or so an old plodding cart horse used to drag a massive flat topped coal wagon round the village. It would arrive on Oakwood Avenue loaded with many hundredweight bags of coal. The black faced coalman, wearing his heavy protective jacket, would deftly swing each bag in turn up onto his massive shoulders and trudge into our yard. With a swift swinging heave the contents of the bag would join the existing pile of black nuggets in our coal shed. The housewives would stand about chatting, but quietly counting the number of bags delivered. There would be no misunderstanding about the number of bags nor the payment.

Chapter 10