THIS, according to The Northern Echo of 100 years or more ago, is Henry Baker of the Harrowgate Hill Dairy at the north end of Darlington with the first motorised milk van in town.

But what is he holding in his left hand? It looks like a miner's lamp, but why would a milkie go to work with such a thing?

READ MORE: ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREECHES: THE FIRST MOTORISED MILK VAN

“It is definitely not a miner’s lamp!” said Peter Daniels, in Bishop Auckland. “The dangling object is a milk can. These cans came in pint and quart (two-pint) sizes and were usually in white enamel, often with a blue edging, though the colours were reversed on some. It was also possible to obtain a galvanised (zinc plated) version, too.

“As a child aged about eight and upwards, my grandmother sometimes sent me to the nearby farm with one of these to buy milk. In rural Herefordshire many areas had no milk deliveries, particularly in the years following the introduction of mandatory tuberculin testing of milk, when farmers who had delivered milk could not afford to install pasteurisation equipment. That photo took me back a few years!”

Barbara Laurie, also in Bishop Auckland, has a similar tale about a milk pail.

“We had one just like this when I was a girl, which was no longer used for its original purpose, but was brought out every autumn when the family went out blackberrying.

“It was an enamelled container, white inside and dark blue outside, with a tight-fitting lid and carrying handle.

“In the early days of milkmen doing the rounds, he would have churns full of milk on the back of his cart/van – no bottles. The housewife would come out with her own little pail/jug/bowl and have it filled. The churn would be on a tipper mechanism for easy access.

“Henry must be delivering to a customer unable to come out into the street.”

The Northern Echo: Milkman Ernest Howes

This milkman, Ernest Howes, from Oxford, seems to have three different sized pails attached to his cart to measure out his milk

The Northern Echo: Our three milk bottles, although two of them probably once contained milk

Absolutely nothing is beyond the pail in these pages, so these milky memories remind us that among the many items which collect like detritus in our attic, things we’ve never quite be brave enough to throw away because they are strangely interesting, are these three dairy bottles. The Carrsides Dairies bottle, from Darlington, must have been milk, but we guess the Northern Dairies’ Orange Flash bottle and the Sunfresh bottle once contained orange juice that the milkman delivered to your doorstep.

Can anyone tell us anything about any of these bottles, and do you – like us – inexplicably have an old local milk bottle hidden away in a cupboard? Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk