Gloster
Established Member
FWIW I came across an online map this week which indicated the rail link to the Aplin & Barrett Bunford Lane creamery was actually closed in 1937. Up to 1935 the building had actually been a flax works, so I suspect it never received milk by rail.
The main Aplin & Barrett plant was on Newton Road, Yeovil - and closed by Unigate in 1976. It was adjacent to Yeovil Town station, but that seemed to be more related to distributing it's cheeses and potted meats by rail rather than milk. Certainly it would have been able to receive churns from the nearby goods yard, but there was no direct rail access for milk tanks. After the station closed, the rationale for the factory location would have disappeared.
So all you can take from this is locally road tank transport of milk was probably in use by 1937.
Looking at Cooke and Pryer’s diagrams the Bunford Flax Mill had a private siding off the Langport line just beyond Westlands’ siding from 1920: the agreement with Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries was dated 5 July 1919. No change of name is given before termination of the agreement in 1937; the siding was lifted the following year