There was a time, not too long ago, when virtually every village in the Forest had at least one dairy, but that’s all changed now. Most commoners would have kept a ‘house cow’, because you could keep a cow for less than it cost to buy milk, although there was a lot of work in it.
Just getting your cows in and out twice a day for milking could be hard work if they’d taken to wandering off in the Forest. Often it was a job for the kids to find the cows and bring them back. Tom Penny can remember hearing the Lyndhurst clock strike 4 in the morning as he searched for his father’s cows in the woods!
No Milk In Fritham
Fred Winter
Although Fritham is a tiny hamlet, it had several dairy farms at one time. Fred Winter recalls how it has all changed.
