LIVERPOOL COWKEEPERS

[skyblueFF]

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

[Jackie464]

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

[ignz]

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

[celia]

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 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

Celia

[CaroleW]

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

[purlin]

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.

[Meaglin]

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 

[skyblueFF]

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

[Jackie464]

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