Red brick milk stand, with step.

Tyssul Evans' memories of the milk stand at Penllwynteg. 11 Feb 2024

A bit of history here: it was built sometime between 1957 and 1960 following a deterioration in the condition of the original wooden and stone milk stand on the other side of the country road at the entrance to Penllwynteg.
I remember helping my father to build the one in the photo mainly from old second-hand bricks and loose stones from the fields in the middle, (these were collected when carrying out of the annual ritual of 'gathering stones' after ploughing), with a strip of steel on the surface so that the heavy metal churns didn’t damage the surface of the milk stand too much. A type of steel fence was also placed around both sides of the stand to ensure that the full churns couldn’t fall into the woods below.
When I left school in June 1963 my parents had 20 dairy cows (Shorthorn and Friesian and some cattle crossed between the two breeds and also one Jersey cow to keep the butterfat as high as possible) and the first day I went with the churns to the relatively new milk stand we had 7 churns (68) gallons. 'I think there's enough space on the stand to hold a dozen churns. I remember the names of some of the milk lorry drivers: Doug Hicks from Carmarthen (formerly from the Llanddarog/Porthyrhyd area, Glan Morris (Sooty) from Llangyndeyrn, Lloyd Jones from Llanpumsaint and ???? Hesford from the Johnstown/Llangain area.
I remember very well one winter morning, 'my father was in the Infirmary hospital in Carmarthen suffering badly from the flu and the tractor International B250 (model 1956) refused to start, I saw the milk lorry coming up the hill past Bryngwenyn so I set off to meet the milk lorry at the top of the hill, luckily Doug Hicks was the driver that day and he didn't hesitate before reversing the lorry 200 hundred yards back to Penllwynteg farmyard and between us and Mum's help we managed to lift the churns from the floor of the cooler house to the lorry. As far as I know that was the only time a milk lorry was on the farmyard.
When I finished selling milk about a quarter of a century ago, the herd had risen to 87 Friesian cows but I can't remember how many litres of milk were sold that day, it's a shame I didn’t keep the daily ticket I got from the printer on the tanker truck.
If I remember correctly this milk stand was used until 1967 before going for a modern stainless steel milk tank.