🛒 Milk cart
Also known as: milk float
A historical cart carrying churns or bottles.
A milk cart is the cart a milkman used to deliver milk through the streets. Before bottles, it carried churns. The milkman ladled milk straight into his customers' jugs. Later the cart carried crates of bottles that were left on doorsteps.
In Britain, milkmen began serving towns around 1860. This became possible when railways started bringing fresh milk quickly from the countryside. Milk was delivered by horse-drawn carts, used from the late 19th century until the 1950s. As early as about 1880, British milk was delivered in bottles, and in 1975, 94% of milk was sold in glass bottles.
Horses were replaced by small electric vans called milk floats. Then home delivery itself almost disappeared. Fridges, supermarkets, plastic bottles and cartons made daily delivery unnecessary. By 2016, bottled milk made up only 3% of sales in Britain. The milk cart remains an image of the past, a time when fresh milk arrived every morning.
How it connects to milk
🛒 Milk cart → carries → 🍼 Bottle ← packed in ← 🥛 Milk
Links
- What it does
- 🫙 Milk churn, 🍼 Bottle
- Who works with it
- 🧑 Milkman
Frequently asked questions
How did the milkman sell milk before bottles?
He carried milk in churns and ladled it into jugs that customers brought out.
When did milk delivery start?
In British towns, around 1860, when railways began bringing fresh milk quickly from the countryside.