THIS IS FINDON
— www.findonvillage.com created
by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex,
U.K.
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The photograph depicts the Findon Farmhouse
on the left in the Horsham Road. Grey Point standing in The Square
is in the centre.
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FINDON FARM DAIRY
Copyright Valerie Martin 2003
First published in the Findon News, May 2003
In 1911 Albert Short Senior retired to Kingswood and his son, Albert Junior, farmed the land
at Findon Farm in the Horsham Road. Young Albert Junior was
married to Alice and the couple had previously lived on School Hill and also at
the Running Horse in Nepcote, (now Nepcote House overlooking the Green). They
had two children, Ellen (Nellie) born 1899 and Ernest born in 1900.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the
Findon villagers had to fetch their fresh milk from Short's Farm. On occasions they had to stand and wait for the cows to be milked in the afternoon — or alternatively they could pass the time of day watching the milkmaids at their long and wearisome task of turning the butter churns.
In turn it was Albert Junior's son, Ernest, who
managed the dairy side of the business. Ernest eventually branched out to run a milk delivery
round twice on weekdays and once on Sundays. He was also a member of
the Findon Parish Council and a special constable as well as running the dairy
at the farm and looking after the distribution of milk. Mrs. Short
and Ernest's sister, Nellie, worked at
the farm in
the dairy.
At 6 a.m. each day the cows were driven for milking
from pastures beyond the racing stables and down through the area that is now
Beech Road. The procedure was repeated again at 1 p.m.
At the beginning of March 2003, I received an
interesting e-mail from John Stepney concerning the art of collecting Findon
milk bottles...
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3rd March 2003.
Valerie,
Another of my (lesser known) hobbies is collecting
old milk bottles.
I have many from Sussex dairies but was pleased to
see this one recently from Findon Farm Dairy and thought you could
make a short article on it.
Twice a year us milk bottle collectors get together,
last Autumn it was Scotland this Spring it was Crawley.
We have exhibitions, sales, swaps, auction and
generally discuss milk bottles. One of the displays was by a man
from Worthing (Mike Harmer).
The Findon Bottle won best bottle in show. I
am hoping you can perhaps ask if anyone can tell us more about milk
production at Findon Farm.
Also wonder if you could mention that I am most
interested in collecting old milk bottles (and Dairyana which is
anything to do with dairies eg cream pots, milk churns etc).
We may find someone else interested in the wonderful
hobby or better still might find someone with some old milk bottles to
dispose of which I could give a good home to.
js
John Stepney,
North End, Findon, West Sussex.
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Fifty-six year old Mike Harmer is a man besotted with bottles
of yesteryear that contained the white stuff. He has more than a
thousand in his immense collection just south of Findon in nearby Worthing.
He commenced his hobby in the 1980s and has since become almost
an expert on all shapes and sizes of milk bottles — half pints, third-pints,
quarts.... and bottles made from green glass .... and even some prized items
dating back to the First World War.
Enthusiasts travel the countryside endeavouring to arrange
swops of their bottles. John Stepney is going to Inverness this
June in the hope of swopping some of his South of England items with
collectors over the border. I don't think he'll find any Findon Farm
Dairy ones up there though.
If you live locally, please do search in your sheds, garages
and outhouses and see if you can find any of those rare Findon milk bottles originating from Findon Farm for John to add to
his collection.
Within a few hours of my appeal going out for Findon Farm Dairy
milk bottles, I received an e-mail from The Argus. It seems that
the newspaper reporters go into this website to get the local news!
They proposed an interesting idea to float on the milk bottle
doorstep.....
5th April 2003.
Hello Valerie
I am trying to get in touch with John Stepney whose
unusual hobby is collecting milk bottles.
We want to do a nice page 3 picture spread for next
Wednesday's Worthing edition of the Argus so need to speak to him
asap........
Many thanks
James Lancaster
James Lancaster, The Argus, Worthing, West Sussex.
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Continue if you would like to read
about the Old Pond Green area of Findon
Farm.
This is Findon —
www.findonvillage.com is
a continually growing record created exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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