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Author Topic: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS  (Read 1599 times)
skyblueFF
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LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« on: Friday 03 April 09 08:47 BST (UK) »

Hello

Could any of you Liverpool experts please tell me anything about cowkeepers in Liverpool. It would seem that there was quite a tradition of people going to Liverpool from the Lune Valley area of Westmorland and West Riding and becoming cowkeepers. They also took local people with them as servants.
My GGF Edward Capstick was a Butcher and cowkeeper at 98 Admiral Street, Liverpool in the late 1800s.
Thank you.

Michael

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CAPSTICK, Westmorland and Liverpool
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Jackie464
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #1 on: Friday 03 April 09 10:56 BST (UK) »

Hi, I found this explanation of the occupation: 

COWKEEPER one who kept one or more cows in cities when a cow was kept in the back yard of a house, providing milk which was sold; forerunner of the local dairy OCCUPATION

Jackie
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ignz
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #2 on: Monday 06 April 09 05:31 BST (UK) »

Michael,
I also have a 2xgreat grandfather who was a cow keeper in Liverpool (although he only moved from just up the road in Ormskirk !). By 1901 one of his duaghters who evidently continued the tradition was described in the census as "Cow Keeper & Milk Seller" which probably better describes the purpose of the occupation.

I wouldn't have thought it a uniqeuly Liverpool tradition? As the cities grew rapidly during the mid-late C19 the population had to be fed and there was neither the transport infrastructure or storage technology to ship and keep especially perishable goods.

As the railways improved the "milk trains" beagn to be used to move fresh milk from rural areas to some of the cities, for example.

But even through the Edwardian era livestock were kept on what would then have been city fringes; the cities only really ballooned into "suburbia" with the advent of public transport (especially tram systems).

In the mid to late C19 Admiral Street would have been close to the edge of any high-density development - Toxteth Park was still just that 50 years earlier!

IG
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Liverpool, Wiltshire, Isle of Man, New Brunswick
celia
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #3 on: Monday 06 April 09 10:35 BST (UK) »

ig & Jackie
you have cleared up what has been a mystery to me for some years :)regarding cows in Liverpool.I do a lot of look-up in the postal directories for Liverpool.In the earlier ones
i have many times come across as an occupation,cowkeeper.
Where would they keep a cow in a growing city Huh silly thought really but i was under the impression that cowkeepers wouldn't be able to live in the outback of liverpool  as farmers.Then again i don't know any history out of the city Wink

Celia
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CaroleW
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #4 on: Monday 06 April 09 16:08 BST (UK) »

Hi

My husbands grandparents were cowkeepers and had a dairy in Lambeth Rd Liverpool prior to WW2 when it was bombed

When I was growing up in Liverpool in the 1950's there was a dairy in Attwood St just off Sleepers Hill where they had cows in the back yard.  We used to love peeping over the gates to see them
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purlin
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #5 on: Monday 06 April 09 17:28 BST (UK) »

small dairies often comprised one or two cow sheds/stalls, a cobbled yard, a small shop with the dairyman's living accommodation above.  you could take a jug and buy milk from the shop.  the dairy would serve the local neighbourhood with milk and eggs.  some dairymen would have horse and cart, others would deliver using a hand cart.  the dairies were very common in liverpool.
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Meaglin
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 09 April 09 10:40 BST (UK) »

I too have a relative who was a cowkeeper in Liverpool. In the 1881 census he was a joiner living in Parbold, however by 1891 he was living in Hare Street, Hare Place Court and was listed as a cowkeeper milk. I had heard family stories of him being a dairyman. I love all the above replies as it builds a picture of life then, however  in todays age I dont think I would like my neighbours to keep cows in their back garden  Shocked
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skyblueFF
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 09 April 09 12:46 BST (UK) »

Hello

Thanks for the interesting replies. I am beginning to picture Liverpool as a very messy and smelly place with all those cows in the streets. I would love to see some photographs if anyone has any. I haven't been able to find any on the old photo sites.

Michael

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CAPSTICK, Westmorland and Liverpool
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Jackie464
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 09 April 09 12:52 BST (UK) »

Of course as well as the smell which I am sure the residents were quite used to - the other problem was the the milk they supplied spead the rampant TB epidemics.  Jackie
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MaryA
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 09 April 09 13:49 BST (UK) »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/26/george-scharf-london-john-soane

I've been told that this scene would be typical, with cows in the back and a counter to sell the milk at the front.
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Lunt (Wavertree/West Derby), Forshaw (West Derby), Richardson (Knowsley), Kent (Cheshire),
Cain (Hertfordshire, London), Larkins (Bedfordshire, London), Nunn (London), Lenton, Hillyard (Bedfordshire),
Parle, Lambert, Furlong, Wafer (Wexford)
Special separate interest in Longford (Blackrock, Dublin)
rattler
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #10 on: Monday 13 April 09 23:42 BST (UK) »

I lived off Lower Breck Road in 40s and 50s and I remember a small dairy called Metcalfs at the bottom of Grange Street.  They had a cow in the yard at the back.  I am glad I spotted this post, as no one else in the family remember it and reckon I was making it up.  Anne
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hiraeth
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #11 on: Friday 17 April 09 03:49 BST (UK) »

Hello

Thanks for the interesting replies. I am beginning to picture Liverpool as a very messy and smelly place with all those cows in the streets. I would love to see some photographs if anyone has any. I haven't been able to find any on the old photo sites.

Michael



Hi Michael

I have a Francis Roberts who is listed as a cowkeeper on 4-8 Garmoyle Road, Toxteth in 1891.   I recently looked on Google Street view to see if I could find a picture of the house.  It looks like the "barn" is still there.  amazing!
Its right at the North West end of Garmoyle Road if you want to check it out.

Heather
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MaryA
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #12 on: Friday 17 April 09 14:17 BST (UK) »

Immigrant Welsh builders constructed the terraced houses around County Road and Walton Lane during the last years of the 19th century. The Welsh brothers who financed and built them named the streets by using the initial letter of each spelling out their own names.

Owen and William Owen Elias are revealed, also I believe one of their sons was also added - Alfred

Oxton, Winslow, Eton, Neston, Andrew, Nimrod, Dane, Wilburn, Ismay, Lind, Lowel, Index, Arnot, Makin, Olney, Weldon, Euston, Nixon, Liston, Imrie, Aston Streets and Stuart Road. (I may have missed a few out there)

When these were built apparently provision was made for a Cowkeeper in each of these streets.
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Lunt (Wavertree/West Derby), Forshaw (West Derby), Richardson (Knowsley), Kent (Cheshire),
Cain (Hertfordshire, London), Larkins (Bedfordshire, London), Nunn (London), Lenton, Hillyard (Bedfordshire),
Parle, Lambert, Furlong, Wafer (Wexford)
Special separate interest in Longford (Blackrock, Dublin)
jan44
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #13 on: Saturday 18 April 09 00:07 BST (UK) »

 Grin

Interesting thread.

I took this photo in Keble Road Bootle about 5 years ago, the building (painted Green) with the big gates is on the 1891, 1901 census and later directories, the name on the 1901 census who occupied the building was Thomas Hindle - Cowkeeper, you can see the old cow shed in the background just peeping over the gates, it was in a bad way back then, but has since been fixed, the house is now 3 flats, but this is just an example of what other premises that cowkeepers had.



Jan


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MaryA
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Re: LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS
« Reply #14 on: Saturday 18 April 09 07:38 BST (UK) »

Hi Jan, I thought mention of the Welsh builders would attract you  Grin  This was mentioned in the talk given at the Liverpool FHS this week, about T J Hughes, but the story started further back with his mother Ann, who began trading in Old Hall Street.  When the houses were built in Walton, together with the shops, she was first to grab one of the most prominent, now where Ethel Austin's is on County Road.

Good pic of Keble Road.

Mary
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Census Information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Lunt (Wavertree/West Derby), Forshaw (West Derby), Richardson (Knowsley), Kent (Cheshire),
Cain (Hertfordshire, London), Larkins (Bedfordshire, London), Nunn (London), Lenton, Hillyard (Bedfordshire),
Parle, Lambert, Furlong, Wafer (Wexford)
Special separate interest in Longford (Blackrock, Dublin)
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