Horace The Milkman With His Horse And Cart

A Memory of Hatch End.

There was strong competition among us young lads in the 1950s to be allowed to help Horace, our local United Dairies milkman, with his milk round in Hillview Road, Grimsdyke Road and Sylvia Avenue.

Horace would allow two of us to help him deliver and in return we were given a one third size bottle of orange squash and a ride on the seat on top of the cart at the end of the round! It was frighteningly high up! I never got to hold the reins - indeed no one did as his horse knew the round so well that it moved on to the next house with just a call from Horace walking along the pavement!

After a few years the horses were retired and electric milk floats were introduced. Horace used his new electric milk float to help my father get his car started outside our home in Hillview Road on a Saturday morning. Dad's old Ford Prefect had a flat battery and he didn't fancy using the crank handle. We got Horace to use his milk float to push our car along the road for a "bump start". Dad let out the clutch after Horace pushed us along gathering speed for a few yards. But the sudden braking of our car as the clutch bit and the engine roared into life caused poor Horace's milk float to hit our back bumper. A great chunk at the front of the United dairies milk float caved in and Horace was really upset. I hope he didn't get into too much trouble back at his depot.

Horace was a popular milkman and when we heard he was retiring our neighbours held a collection for a retirement present.