Deliveries

John A Walker, ‘Deliveries’ (10/2016) oil on linen, 76 x 50 cm
In 1940s and ’50s, working class families benefited from home deliveries such as coal, newspapers, groceries, milk and post. Three such deliveries are depicted in this townscape. As a result of social, technological and economic changes, coal deliveries have now virtually ceased and milkmen and women are fast disappearing. Postal workers continue and they are supplemented by van drivers delivering items bought via internet shopping. Serendipitously, on the very day I started this painting with a milkman as the central figure a book celebrating the milkman as a British folk hero was published, namely, Andrew Ward’s No Milk Today: The Vanishing World of the Milkman, (Robinson, 2016).