Ron Levett's childhood memories, from the early 1930's, when he lived in the small village of Alfriston in Sussex.

Mum was doing part time work at the local dairy, which belonged to a Mr. Humphrey. I also worked there when I had the time, washing bottles in a large open vat, with very hot water containing sterilising powder. This powder was very hard on the hands. After rinsing, the bottles were left to drain.

The milk arrived in ten-gallon churns, collected from Berwick Station by Mr. Humphrey in his van. We then had the job of filling all the different size bottles. There were one-third pint bottles, about thirty of them, for the school milk, then one pint and one quart bottles for the customers in the village.

I delivered a lot of them on a bicycle, some of them to places that the van could not reach. A lot of the roads in the village were still dirt tracks at this time.

We soon had troops stationed in Alfriston and my mother, who by this time had lost all her normal trade as a small hotel, decided to open the dining room to them and serve eggs and chips. She did a roaring trade.

When rationing started, my mother was given a catering establishment book of ration forms. She filled in the first page for 28lbs of lard, presented it at Mr.Wilde's shop, who duly filled her order

The following week the remainder of the paperwork arrived. The amount was supposed to be based on the number of meals supplied. When this was worked out my mother's allowance of lard should have been 14 ounces! By then of course, all the lard had been used. Mum was serving some 60-70 meals every evening.

Ron Levett, 2001