Tag Archives: milk

H.E. Robinson – Broadway Dairy

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Dairyman that had a shop at 356 London Road, Mitcham. In the ads below, this part of the London Road was known as The Broadway. In 2025, this address is occupied by a baby ultrasound clinic.

It’s not known when the business closed, although the latest telephone directory entry is 1958. The 1973 phone book shows Allen Bros (Triumph Centre) at this address.

A milkman with an H.E. Robinson cart. Date unknown. Photo kindly provided by his grandson.

1936 Mitcham Shopping Week ad

 

1937 ad

Text of ad:

ROBINSON’S MILK
RICHEST IN CREAM

Licensed to supply Certified and
Grade “A” Milk

Daily arrivals of Fresh Butter, Cream and
English New Laid Eggs
Agent for LYON’S Cakes and Pastries.

H. E. ROBINSON DAIRYMAN
BROADWAY DAIRY, LONDON RD. MITCHAM

A Private Firm under Personal Supervision
Telephone MITcham 2446

A clip from a 1912 postcard shows ‘.E. Robinson’ on the left with the White Hart on the right.

1912 postcard

This shows what is very likely to be H.E. Robinson at what is now 356 London Road, as shown in this ad from 1952:

1952 ad

1954 OS map

A news item from 1923 tells of two horse drawn milk carts colliding in Mitcham.

Mitcham Advertiser – Friday 22 June 1923
Image © Successor rightsholder unknown. Please contact us via support@britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk if you wish to claim rights to this title..

Maps are reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Mitcham Council gained more control over milk from 1922

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From the Mitcham Urban District Council minutes, volume VIII, 1922-23, pages 195-6, meeting of the Public Health and Burials Committee, on 12 September 1922:

11. MILK AND DAIRIES (AMENDMENT) Act, 1922

The Clerk submitted the following report re the Milk and Dairies (Amendment) Act, 1922:

To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee, Mrs. Hallowes and Gentlemen:

MILK AND DAIRIES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1922.

The provisions of the above Act came into operation on the 1st September 1922, the Act being passed in order to strengthen the hands of Local Authorities in their efforts to protect the milk supply from contamination. Some of the sections of the Act refer to the adulteration of milk and the regulations as to imported milk, the administration of which are in the hands of the inspectors appointed by the County Council and with which the District Council are not primarily concerned.

The District Council are, however, directly concerned with the
administration of the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order of 1885, which Order is amended by Section 2 of the new Act.

The Order in question requires the Council to keep a register of persons carrying on in the trade of cowkeepers, dairymen or purveyors of milk, and the Order gives gives the Council no power to refuse to register any person or remove him from the register. The Act of 1922 empowers the Local Authority to refuse to enter any person on the register or remove him from the register if satisfied that the public health is likely to be endangered by any act or default in relation in quality, storage or distribution of milk, provision being made
to remove the name of any person from the register and for appeal against the proposed removal.

I suggest that applications for registration should in future be presented to the Public Health Committee, accompanied by a recommendation from the Sanitary Inspector as to the advisability or otherwise of acceding to the application.

Yours obediently,
STEPHEN CHART,
Clerk to the Council.

It was Resolved, That the Report be received and the recommendation therein adopted.

Links
Registration of Dairies and Milk Shops in 1917
1934 Milk Licences

Minutes of meetings held by the Mitcham Urban District Council are available on request from the Merton Heritage and Local Studies Centre at Morden Library.