Coal for Condensed Milk

Working the Waterways: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2016

Chris M. Jones examines photographs that record coal-carrying to the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company in Aylesbury by the Buckler family of Nuneaton.

One of the largest coal consumers in the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury was the Nestlé & Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, which had a factory in Park Street. It was situated alongside the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Junction Canal, below Park Street Lock No 16. The company, which was the product of a 1905 merger between two separate Swiss businesses, had three factories in England: at Chippenham in Wiltshire, Middlewich in Cheshire and Aylesbury. The latter two sites were previously owned by the English Condensed Milk Company before being taken over by AngloSwiss in the 1870s. From around this time coal carriage to Aylesbury was mainly carried out by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) and was supplied by several local merchants. However, both rail and canal transport were used for other traffic described as ‘cased goods’ such as hay, corn, sugar etc. Waterborne goods traffic was initially undertaken by the Grand Junction Canal Carrying Departmen…