PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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Messrs THREE TOWNS DAIRY Ltd The Plymouth business house of Messrs Three Towns Dairy Ltd was located at 52 Union Street and 8 Westwell Street, Plymouth, before the Second World War. The Westwell Street premises were destroyed during the War but the company opened up additional depots and cafes at 105 Tavistock Road and 47 Mutley Plain.
He had evidently spotted the opportunity that presented itself with the large explosion in the population of the Three Towns of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport, and in 1880 formed the Three Towns Dairy Company [3]. He was greatly proud of the fact that his herd of dairy cows was completely free of tuberculosis and used this to promote the distribution of his milk around the three towns [4]. Mr William Coryton married Miss Evelyn Annie Parker, the second daughter of Admiral George Parker, of Delamore, at Cornwood Parish Church in 1887. [4] He inherited his uncle's estates when he died on September 7th 1891 [5]. His most noteworthy achievement was the reclamation, started in 1899, of Viverdon Downs, an area of boggy, acid land covered with gorse and rank vegetation. So bad was the land that teams of six horses were used for ploughing. But he successfully drained and cultivated it and thus brought into practical use some 600 acres of previously useless land. [4] Mr William Coryton died at Pentillie Castle, in the parish of St Mellion, Cornwall, on August 27th 1919. In addition to his agricultural work, he was a justice of the peace for Cornwall and master of the Dartmoor Hunt. He was succeeded to the estates, and presumably to the Three Towns Dairy Company, by his eldest son, Mr John Tillie Coryton, a retired army captain, who was 31 years of age just three days before his father's death. It is not known if either of the other two sons, Mr Edward George Coryton and Mr William Alexander Coryton, became involved with the running of the business. [4] Mr T H Malpass was the managing director of the business after the Second World War. The headquarters was at 51/52 Union Street, Plymouth, and there were branch depots at 105 Tavistock Road (part of the building that is currently The Roundabout Public House) and 47 Mutley Plain. [6]
As from Monday April 5th 1954 The Three Towns Dairy Company Ltd was amalgamated with Messrs Trafalgar Dairies Ltd and was taken over by Messrs Cow and Gate Ltd, who ran the new operation as Messrs Plymouth Dairies Ltd. [9] Production at that time was 6,187 gallons a day. Mr P W L Waldron became manager of the depot in Union Street until he left the Company in 1957. [8] Mr John Tillie Coryton died at Pentillie on November 30th 1965, aged 77 but there is no indication in his obituary that he had anything to do with the Company. [10] Sources:
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