Delivering milk in a cold 1950s winter

The January picture (above) in the Reepham Life 2021 Calendar shows milk being delivered on Dereham Road in a very cold winter in the 1950s, with the house now known as Tyler’s Mead in the background.

A photograph (below) from the Reepham Archive in postcard format shows the house in the early 1900s.

In the 1901 census, Edward Le Neve is registered as living in the house with his wife Florence.

They were married in August 1900 in Oxnead parish and in the register Florence’s maiden name is given as Browne with her father named as Charles Edward Browne.

At the time of the marriage, Charles employed 10 men in the milling business and a further 10 on his 250-acre farm.

The card is postmarked 1907 and addressed to Mrs C. Browne in Marsham. Although the signature of the sender is not clear (it may have been a family nickname), this information allows us to assume that the writer was Florence since the message begins “Dear Mother”.

Edward Le Neve was the local registrar and relieving officer for the Aylsham Union – Reepham was part of that union at the time.

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act introduced a national welfare system of poor relief with administrative areas called “poor law unions”. Each union was run by an elected board of guardians.

The relieving officers had to identify the poor and needy in their district, visiting applicants in their homes to assess their health and living conditions, and offer appropriate financial relief and medical help if necessary.

By 1907 Edward and Florence had two children, Florence and Arthur. Arthur was born in 1902 and is probably the child in the second photograph. He attended Reepham National School (St Mary’s, Norwich Road) until July 1915, when he is recorded as “transferred”.

The family presumably moved to Aylsham as by 1920 Edward is found in the town’s electoral roll.

Janet Archer

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