Carmarthenshire collection of milk stands
This collection seeks to capture the fascinating story of Carmarthenshire's milk stands, and to preserve images, locations and related stories before they are lost to living memory. The collection is the result of a project in 2024 and 2025 designed to help preserve a crucial part of our heritage in rural Carmarthenshire for future generations. They may well wonder what those piles of stones on the roadside were used for! They are in fact our very own pyramids or Angkor Wat; built by our ancestors, and now overgrown and in decay.
Between early 1930's and the late 1970s, lorries from the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) travelled the roads of Carmarthenshire collecting filled milk churns from milk stands every morning, depositing empty churns in their place. The milk stands were usually situated at the end of farm lanes. In 1974, there were around 1,700 dairy farms in Carmarthenshire, with most, we can assume, using milk stands, some were shared. Today, there are less than 500 dairy farms in the county and no need for milk stands as milk is collected in bulk tankers. Therefore, these stands have lain idle and many of them have been removed. Those that remain are often unloved, decaying and overgrown. However, they are reminders of a rich agricultural past, and surely worth recording before it's too late.
Many of the images are of milk stands buried in hedges, with not too much to see - these were only located due to local people remembering where they were. They are captured here so that their locations can be recorded.
This project was run by Anthony Rees with the help of many individuals across the county, some of the Young Farmers Clubs in Carmarthenshire and other community groups,
We are sure that there are more to be discovered and so will continue to add to the collection.
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