A BRADLEY milkman says he has seen a surge in new customers wanting to return to the traditional glass ‘pinta’.

Spurred on by growing fears about the impact of plastic on the environment, an ever increasing number of people see buying their milk in bottles as an easy and effective way to make a difference.

Peter Braime, a fifth generation milkman, said he decided to test the water after a woman rang asking if he delivered milk in glass bottles.

“It got me started, so I put something out on Facebook, and within a week, I had picked up 20 or so new customers, “ he said.

Peter, whose round takes in Skipton as well as Bradley, has also received inquiries from people outside his patch, who he has put on to other milkmen he knows.

He now delivers to more than 500 homes - not far off what the round was more than ten years ago -  and is receiving more inquires all the time.

“I am amazed to be honest, I am managing to fit all the new customers in to what I am doing at the moment, but I might have to review it, if I get any more,” he said.

Peter still sells milk in plastic containers, but it is the glass bottles - silver top for full fat, red-top for semi-skimmed, and blue top for skimmed, that are getting all the new business.

“It makes so much sense, milk bottles can easily be recycled, they’re just rinsed out and I take them back, and a glass bottle will last two or three years, unlike the plastic ones that just go straight into landfill,” he said.

Of course, blue tits will still attack the foil bottle tops to get at the milk, but he says his customers have learnt to cover the tops with yoghurt pots.

He says there are currently five milkmen in Skipton - but back in the 1980s, when everyone got their milk delivered in glass bottles, there were around 20 all operating their own rounds.

Peter gets up six days a week at 3am to do his deliveries, and is usually finished by early afternoon, which he says is nice in the summer, but not in the winter months when its dark for so much longer.

Although he still lives on the family farm on Lidget Road, Bradley, they stopped farming cattle in 1999, and Peter now gets his supplies of milk from Westby Dairy in Gisburn.

In 2006, the Braime family celebrated 100 years of delivering milk. The round was started by Calvert Thompson, whose predecessors had moved from Grassington to Bradley in the 1800s.

He began milking cows at Croft Farm in the village in 1906 and dropped the produce off in jugs to his neighbours.

His son, Arthur, took over and then Arthur’s daughter, Freda Braime, stepped in after her husband died while she was pregnant with their son, Robbie. Robbie took on the business at the age of 21, having been involved since he was strong enough to carry a milk can, before handing over the reins to his son, Peter.