Hawkeye28

The Eltham Express Dairy Bottling Plant was located in Eltham diagonally opposite Eltham church. The front was a restaurant, facing onto the High Street and the site ran ran for a substantial distance behind the shops of Court Yard. Indeed vechile access was to and from Court Yard. After lying derelict for some time, a new Post Office sorting depot for SE9 was built on the site, with a new Post Office "shop" in the last shop of the Parade. Mottingham, by the War Memorial and Porcupine PH, was a domestic milk distribution depot with electric floats et al. I agree with: Further digging re Eltham itself has revealed that there was an Eltham Dairy at 82 High Street Eltham, adjacent to The Greyhound PH. The Francis Frith website ( https://www.francisfrith.com/eltham/long-gone_memory-438721 ) contains the following memory of a Eltham resident :- "My dad worked at the Express Dairy bottling depot opposite side of the road to the church. I often went to watch and be treated to a drink in their canteen, as a child I found it fascinating watching the bottles being cleaned and refilled with milk. Unfortunately, it was closed and moved to Morden in Surrey so Dad had to travel there everyday on his motorbike!" Yes there was still a bottling plant around the back !!! How do I know? From Aug 1952 to Aug 1959 I was a pupil at Greenacres school on the Coldharbour Estate. One day our class were taken on a trip to see the milk bottling plant at Eltham. We walked in "crocodile" to Mottingham Station and took the 161 bus to Eltham. ( surely we split into small groups for the bus?) We were so well behaved that we were treated to afternoon tea upstairs in the Express Dairy Restaurant. I would suggest that if defintive proof is required, then contact John Kennett, historian to the Eltham Society regards Roger H