History

The Dairy herd at Woodlands dates back to 1928 when the Finch family first started milking cows in Chedworth and door to door milk deliveries began for the first time. Milk was delivered by pony and trap and then by 3 wheeled vans. During the Second World War converted motor cars or anything readily available, quite often horse and cart and even a pedal cycle and sidecar was used. As the milk was not pasteurised, milk quality being of vital importance, the Woodlands herd was one of the first in Gloucestershire to become Tuberculin Tested.

Originally the cows were all hand milked, the milk cooled by water and surface cooler, and delivered in churns and buckets measured by hand with pint and half pint measures into customers jugs, bowls or dishes. All in the open, frequently in the rain. In those days there were no refrigerators, milk was delivered daily 365 days a year from cows milked the same morning. Hand milking continued throughout the war as labour, in the form of prisoners, was plentiful 6 of us would sit down to milk 15 cows each. Throughout this period surplus milk was delivered to the late Gloucestershire Dairy and Creamery in both Cheltenham and Cirencester.

From 1947 onwards machines began to replace men, staff numbers fell from 25 to the present 8 full time, including our two working directors. With the advent of bulk collection retail milk sales ceased in the early fifties for a period, until national over production brought the need for better marketing, we then established a new direct door to door business in Cheltenham with the milk pasteurised and packed in plastic sachets. Business has increased steadily and improvements made in both quality and quantity of products. 40 years ago we could not give skimmed milk away today 80% of sales are fat reduced. We now produce our own brand "Nothing But" Yogurt which as the name implies contains nothing but milk and live bacteria.

Looking to the future we will not use milk boosting hormones as the Americans do. Our cows are Brucellosis, TB and B.S.E free, and fertilizer use has been reduced by some 30%. We guarantee not to use GM feed to any of our animals. Whilst we do not claim organic milk status our farming policy is as close to it as economically possible. With our customers help we face the future as a family business with confidence.