Milking by hand has always been a laborious task; often the duty of the farmer's wife, daughters or servants within the household.

Early attempts to mechanise the process using various forms of suction pumps were tried in the 1890's but were not successful and could easily hurt the cow….

	...and so, whilst demand for milk grew rapidly in the inter-war years, the majority of farmers continued to milk by hand.
As late as 1942, the children of the farm were expected to play their part in milking the herd…	Copyright permission pending for this image

[Joe Spencer on the old milking process]

Even on the larger estate farms where 'model dairies' had been built,by 1930, and hygiene was considered important; the milking was still done in the old traditional way….

The three-legged milking stool…

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