Paul shows bottle with 44 years in milk industry

When Paul Nicholls asked his dad for some pocket money, his father suggested instead that he should get a job. So he did – as a milkman. Although, as he was only six years old, he was more of a milkboy.

Nevertheless it was the start of a long and happy career in the milk industry for Paul, who is celebrating his 50th birthday today.

"My dad used to wake me about 4.30am," said Paul, of Victoria Road, Shifnal. "I always did the milk before I went to school. You wouldn't get away with it today."

He made his last doorstep delivery in 1990. Now, an HGV tanker driver for Robert Wiseman Dairies, he no longer delivers milk – he collects it from farms instead.

Of his milkman days, he said: "It's not everybody's cup of tea, but it was my cup of tea because I grew up with it. It was hard in the winter. I started very young in Shifnal, in 1968, when I was six. I was getting under my dad's feet one Saturday morning. I asked him for some pocket money. He said: 'Go and find a job.'

"I walked up the street and a milkman was coming up the road. He told me to jump in. He was John Powell, who was the Shifnal milkman for Midland Counties Dairy, which was based at the time in Station Road, Madeley, Telford."

Paul has also worked at Whitecroft Dairy in Newport and Unigate.

This week's snow evoked memories of his own experiences battling the weather.

"In the bad winter at the end of 1982 and early 1983 I was on a round in Bridgnorth," he said. "I delivered to the Welleamdow Estate and dropped my last pint that Sunday at 9pm." He broke down at Newton Bank on the way back to Halesfield. Fourteen roundmen were stranded in deep snow that night.

* Paul would be interested to hear from any old colleagues. He is on 07789 904156.