This picture shows the delivery cart for Helm’s Dairy in Levenshulme. In the Victorian city before 1850 milk was often diseased, particularly if supplied from the insanitary dairy farms located actually in the cities, and adulterated with substances such as chalk or watered down to make the milk go further. Milk was also expensive and thus seldom drunk by the poor. As well as the dairies in cities, individuals might keep a cow in the backyard of their house and sell milk at the front door or window. Manchester was an unusual city in that it had very few dairies. In 1795 there were only six cows in the whole city. Instead, Manchester was supplied by the surrounding countryside

This exhibition was held in Belle Vue though the date of the photograph is not known.

Food adulteration, to improve profit margins, has gone on for centuries and flour did not escape this under-hand treatment. In the nineteenth century flour might be adulterated with alum or sulphate of lime.

G

A good grocer did not simply sell goods. He also had skills in processing, sorting and blending. The term 'grocer' shifted in the nineteenth century from purely a purveyor of dry goods to someone who dealt with better-off customers than the mere shopkeeper.