Advent Day 2 – Peek Bros. milk bottle

In the run up to Christmas we’ll show some of the objects added to the Museum’s collection in the last 12 months. These objects will be on display at the Museum until we close for Christmas on 16th December.

20 Objects 03 Peek Brothers Bottle (2)

IMG_0901 (2)

This milk bottle was supplied by Peek Brothers of Widdrington Farm in Noak Hill. This farm was created in the 1870s -1880s following the amalgamation of two smaller farms that had medieval origins. Widdrington Farm was formerly known as Joys Farm and still exists today.  This bottle would ordinarily have been cleaned and returned to the dairy. However it is one of many such bottles the donor excavated from a former brick clay pit, later used as a rubbish tip, upon which his property was built.

 Donated by Mr. Thorne

3 Comments

  1. Brian Joyce on 25th October 2019 at 03:02

    I knew those bottles so well. I worked for Cris Peak when I left school in 1958.
    I worked mainly on the farm and occasionally in the milk bottling plant.
    When the milk rounds business was sold I worked putting land drains in at various fields on the farm.
    Thousands of those bottles were used in place of gravel on top of the clay pipes Cris Peak told me the bottles cost six old pence each when they were new.
    I worked for Cris for three years and I enjoyed every minute of it. I learned so much from him.

    • Muriel Morley on 2nd May 2021 at 21:24

      I was luck, (well my son was) to find one of these bottles today over The Manor In Havering.
      And what a fine specimen we think it is.

  2. Tony Jackson on 12th November 2021 at 14:29

    I worked on milk round in Harold Hill for Peaks Dairy (can’t remember Milkman’s name), I was only about 7 when I started until it was sold to United Dairys, great memories going up to greyhound kennels in Grange Road.

Leave a Comment