Pint-Sized Dairy King
When you added that splash of milk into your tea this morning you had probably bought the carton from a supermarket. It wasn't so long ago that it came from the back of a milk float and was placed with a satisfying chink on your doorstep by a friendly milkman.
Why am I mentioning milk? Well, it is because of the sign pictured below that adorns the side of a newsagents in the St. John's Quarter. Things like this don't normally survive and we found out today that it is because it is protected, in fact the entire front of the newsagent's is protected, and because of that I decided to delve into its history.
It is this dairy mentioned on the side of the wall, that your milkman would've come from not so long ago. That dairy was owned at one stage by a fascinating man called John Brown (pictured top right).
John Brown (1845-1934) was small in stature, large in business acumen and a bit of a taskmaster. He started his dairy in 1870 from the back of Sion House with the delivery men in bowler hats carrying the milk in yoke and pails over their shoulders, or if they had to go further afield, on the back of horse-drawn carts.
It wasn't long before he'd gained lots of customers and had moved to larger premises on the corner of Berkeley Road, which is still there today although now contains an office. Next time you're sitting outside the Compasses or picking up your fish and chips from the Downtown Fish Bar have a look, the horses were parked in where the side door is now.
The sign says "rebuilt 1878" because the dairy was gutted by fire.
His business thrived and kept on expanding, by 1888 he'd built a larger dairy on the Mount Sion site and purchased other local dairies and even farms, he eventually controlled dairies in Vale Road, Camden Road, The Pantiles and St. John's Road, and farms in Great Culverden, Ramslye, Mount Ephraim and Frant. All these farms and dairies supplied fresh milk to the Mount Sion site where it was prepared and put into churns for delivery up to twice a day to local homes, actually to most homes in the area. It was said that if you ran out of milk, John Brown's Dairies could get you a fresh pint within ten minutes of milking the cow, not even Ocado can promise that.
Some of the lovely details adorning the old dairy building.
Mr Brown was doing rather well by this point, he had purchased the Neville bakery and restaurant, picked up the South Eastern Hotel and in 1898 had sold the milk business. With all this wealth he decided to run for Council, and just like everything else he turned his hand to he was very successful, standing unopposed from 1906 until 1912, he also managed to find time to be a director of the Opera House.
Of course you can still get your pinta milk delivered by a milkman, and it will come just 100yds from where this old sign stands today, an old sign that is one of the last reminders of one of the biggest small names in Tunbridge Wells history.
Tomorrow when you are picking up your newspaper, walk a little further and into the St. John's Quarter and take a look at the details of the window, or if you can't manage that have a look below instead.
