Gill Greatorex

When we moved to Devon we found we could have milk delivered. This was a treat and novelty indeed. In the city where we used to live, milk left on the doorstep would be nicked if you were out working all day. Tony Dobson, our milkman of many years, helped everyone in small but essential ways and always cheerfully. A real village treasure, he delivered milk in Bishopsteignton for 25 years before retiring to Teignmouth.

Milk bottle tops look like treasure trove coins and doubloons when piled together in a tin. They are lovely twinkly circles. There are probably many folk collecting them, and rightly so as they will be a collectors' item soon. Milk deliveries will probably die out as more folk rush headlong to the supermarkets to get their white stuff. This is sad as the bottles are returnable and reusable rather than the throw away or even recyclable carton or plastic container versions. It is also a disappearing community contact resource in a similar way to post offices.

When companies delivering milk started, it was originally only with 'Gold Top' and ordinary milk but over the years they have diversified into semi-skimmed, skimmed, organic and even flavoured milks, juices and other products to keep the rounds going but for how long is up to us.

Materials
A screen of four panels with threaded milk bottle tops collected over the last 16 years, old and broken pearl necklaces, fishing wire, and a four paneled abandoned old wooden screen, stripped and painted. Thanks to members of BOAG who helped thread - a long process! by Gill Greatorex