Did You Know? - There were dairies in Bez Valley

Shard found

I found a shard on Collard's Folly...... a few shard's actually.  I tried to stick them together with tape, not successfully! (I won't make a good Archeologist)

The shard

Here it is, a vintage milk bottle!

Shamrock Dairy

56 Tenth Avenue (I think)

Bez Valley

PO Box 59022

Tel: 25-8941

On the other side of the bottle it lists nels dairy, 2nd Ave, Victory Park, JHB.

This was the only photo I could find online of a Nels milk bottle.  Also with the blue circles.

Can you remember the plastic milk/Juice bottle caddy?

                                         

I did some research on cows in Johannesburg (why, I don't know, I just had to😁)

I found a document - PROVISIONING JOHANNESBURG, 1886 – 1906 by ELIZABETH ANN CRIPPS (she might even be family, my mom's maiden surname was Cripps)     

                Below is a snippet,

'In the 1896 Census of Johannesburg there were 29 Dairy Farmers, and 2,514 Horned Cattle.

There were a number of cows accommodated behind the house across the street (in Bez Valley). In the morning after milking they were led to where the grass was growing luxuriantly on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Jukskei river. My parents lived next door to a lady who ran a dairy and were lent her cart and horse for a Sunday, but the horse stopped outside every house where it used to deliver milk. (Dorothy Wigley). Milk deliveries were unnecessary because nearly everyone had their own cows'

I also found a blogspot where the dairy is also mentioned,

'She remembers Shamrock Dairies at the bottom of 10th Avenue, next to the "sluit", and the laundry a block away in 9th Avenue. Every day the children used to fetch four pints of milk from the dairy in silver milk buckets. On an average day Lillian would play in the streets until 4 o’clock and then come home and wash her hands, before going to fetch the milk'

Shamrock Dairy Location

Snippets below,

It mentions that Stands 1161-1166 Tenth Avenue Bezuidenhout Valley was owned by Messrs. Hurly Bros.  They wrote a letter to apply to house a 100 people in their Dairy premises.  They wanted to form a company that comprised of 5 existing dairies.  These dairies would then close down and operate from the new premises.  The dairies were situated in Observatory, Bezuidenhout Valley, Troyeville and Kensington South.  

"Apart from the six stands on which the Shamrock Dairy is situated, Messrs. Hurly Bros, own a piece of ground, approximately 10 acres in extent, adjoining these to the East and South This ground is at present let to market gardeners. To the West of the D airy is a disused laundry occupying several stands".

(this is Victoria Yards where we had our staff function not too long ago) 

Sources:

https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/240168105/THIS_IS_AN_OLD_NELS_MILK_BOTTLE_IN_THEOORIGINAL_ORANGE_MILK_BOTTLE_HOLDER_CRACK_IN_THE_BOTTLE.html

http://melodyemmettsbezvalley.blogspot.com/2011/11/still-friends.html

http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/5966/thesis_cripps_e.pdf?sequence=1     

https://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/95884307/3_X_Rare_Vintage_South_African_Half_Pint_Milk_Bottles.html