Processing Department - Hanworth Plant

The Processing Plant at Hanworth circa 1968

Although Job's as a business could not have functioned without it's many individual departments, the hub of the company were the Processing Departments at both Didcot and Hanworth.

In order to streamline the company Didcot was sold in 1970 but Hanworth Plant continued to flourish for a further 17 years until the company was sold to Unigate. In addition to bottled milk, in the latter years the Processing Department was responsible for supplying plastic bottles and cartons to all the major supermarkets.

Raw milk arrives from the farms at the Reception Bank at Hanworth

As soon as raw milk arrived from the farms samples were taken to the laboratory for testing. If the quality of the milk reached Job's high standards the milk was pumped from the tankers to the storage silos. From there the milk was piped to the processing area situated on the first floor of the plant where it went through the pasteurisation process. The milk was heated to temperatures just below boiling then rapidly cooled to ensure the removal of any spoilage bacteria.

Pasteurisation took place on the first floor

The freshly pasteurised milk was then piped down to the filling room on the ground floor. The two fillers were supplied by Dawson Brothers Limited and in the 1960's were capable of filling 400 bottles per minute each.

The Filling Room at Hanworth Plant - filling 800 bottles a minute in 1966

Overseeing production to ensure the highest quality

Filled and capped bottles on their way to be crated and stacked

Once the bottles were filled, capped, crated and stacked they traveled along a conveyor through to Despatch. They were originally loaded onto vehicles by hand but this was eventually replaced by the introduction of mechanical handling. Milk was taken from automated hydraulic "marshalling tables" by fork lifts.

Fresh milk emerges from Despatch Bank to be loaded onto trailers

The Cream Room was close to the filling room near the front of the main building

A new filler arrives for installation at Hanworth in 1966

The Engineers Department at Hanworth was responsible for the smooth running and upkeep of the plant machinery. Routine maintenance was carried out on a nightly basis when the daily bottling run had finished.

Bottle washers, fillers and conveyors all needed to be replaced from time to time which usually meant output was reduced by 50% as the remaining production line took on the extra load. At times like these everyone pulled together no matter how many extra hours were involved. This was typical of the dedication of Job's employees and ensured the customer always received their daily pinta, no matter what the problem or however severe the disruption.

E-mail us your photos and stories about the Hanworth Processing Department