This was the very unflattering nickname given to milk production of 150 years ago. Our speaker at the History Club meeting in February was Dr. Rodger Dalton and during his talk on the Railway, Milk Trade and Derbyshire Farming he explained that milk supply was so subject to contamination and adulteration that it became known as this “troublesome trade”.
Growing corn became uneconomic for farmers after the repeal of the Corn Laws, so many of them went into dairy. Around here however, they had great difficulty in getting liquid milk to consumers in the towns and so they concentrated on cheese making. Many of our farms used to have a cheese press in the dairy and they would raise pigs using the surplus whey. They also changed the breed of their cattle from the old Longhorn to the Shorthorn and because much of the upland areas were covered in heath, they burnt and limed and ploughed on the limestone moors (such as our Heathydales) until they could make good pastureland. Around here, we made Factor’s (dealer’s) cheese of about 20lbs weight, but it was described as only a middling sort of product. One of the customers for this cheese was the Navy and they actually jumped on it to test it! Eventually, we developed small factories for more efficient manufacture such as those at Hartington, Gratton, Grange Mill and Parwich. Urban dairies sprang up in towns (Islington was reputed to have 20,000 cows tied up), with the fodder being carted in and the manure carted back to the countryside. This process was terribly subject to contamination and in 1865 the cattle plague Rinderpest, a disease imported from Estonia, played havoc. Stray dogs were put down, agricultural shows cancelled and cattle were ‘treated’ with pepper, vinegar, nitre and saltpetre, with little success. Worldwide events affected also trade. During the Napoleonic Wars the price of cheese tripled, but by the 1870s we were importing 74,000 tons of American cheese, because it was 10 shillings a hundredweight cheaper than the home production of 80,000 tons. The explosion of railway transport in the mid 1800s altered the trade again and soon 80% of all milk was being carried by rail. Because of their dubious practices, many town cowkeepers lost their customers to the sweet uncontaminated milk coming in from the countryside. Because of the railways, Burton on Trent greatly expanded its beer production so brewers’ grains became readily available as fodder. Even the workhouses in Manchester benefited from the railways, because then they could have freshly delivered milk. However, this “troublesome trade” still took its toll – infant deaths in 1900 were 150 per thousand, the same figure as it had been in 1840! One of the biggest culprits was tuberculosis, so when Nestle opened up a milk processing factory in Ashbourne they did a great trade, because mothers trusted tinned milk more than the fresh. On a lighter note, our speaker told us that Dairy Crest still delivered to his doorstep. He rang them up to alter his order and noticed a foreign accent so asked where he was speaking from – Manilla! Another superbly informative talk for the club – come and join us on March 14th at 8pm in the Institute, when we shall be having a talk about the restoration of Heage windmill.
Brian Woodall