HELLIFIELD man Ronnie Swinbank, who delivered milk for almost 72 years, has died.
Ronnie, 91, passed away peacefully at the Craven Nursing Home, Skipton.
Born in 1923 at Beck House Farm, Hellifield, he was the youngest of six children, attended school in Hellifield and at the age of nine joined his father on the milk round.
In those days, cows were milked by hand and milk was delivered on a horse and float in churns twice a day. Ronnie took over from his father when he was 17 and continued to live on the farm until he and his wife, Eveline, moved into the village in the late eighties.
It wasn’t until he was 81 that he decided to retire from the milk round when he said that he was very reluctant to stop, but age was catching up with him and it was getting a bit much. He didn’t want to get to the point where he couldn’t get up one morning because then he would be letting people down.
Ronnie is survived by his wife Eveline, daughters Janet and Carol and four grandchildren.
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