14 March 2011, Cowkeepers in Liverpool from the Yorkshire Dales, Duncan Scott

Did you know that up until 1975 there were cowkeepers in Liverpool?

Mr Scott had interviewed members of the Capstick family originally from and maintaining close links with Howgill in Cumbria. Some of them had moved to Liverpool in the early 1800s when there was not enough work and others in the family went as far as Nova Scotia, Missouri and New Zealand. He showed pictures of their cottages with attached dairies, cellars, shippons and yards in West Derby and Mossley Hill.

In 1878 there were 452 cowhouses in Liverpool, in 1900, 900 cowhouses with 4000 cattle, and in 1939, 199 cowhouses with 2500 cattle. Fodder was grass supplied from parks and cemeteries and hay and rotten vegetables were exchanged for milk. Although the cowkeepers were in competition with each other, they were a closely knit group with strong community links to their suppliers of equipment and services.

Cows were milked twice a day and the milk delivered daily by cart to nearby streets first in churns and later bottled. With the advent of mechanisation in bottling and the influx of larger dairies, numbers steadily declined until the last cowhouse closed in 1975.