Carmarthen County Councillor Tyssul Evans in conversation with Anthony Rees. Tyssul is a retired dairy farmer and recalls his childhood and working life on Carmarthenshire mixed / dairy farms ( Penllywnteg in Mynyddygarreg and Felin-y-Glyn Kidwelly) and reminisces on the dairy farming practices and shares anecdotes. 

Here is a detailed summary of the oral history interview conducted with the dairy farmer Tyssul Evans from the Mynydd y Garreg area, Carmarthenshire. The interview was held at County Hall, Carmarthen, by Anthony Rees as part of the Carmarthenshire Milk Stands project (recording 2025).

At the beginning of the interview, we are given some of Tyssul Evans’s background. Tyssul was brought up on Penllwynteg / Penllwyn Teg farm between Mynydd y Garreg and Four Roads. He was born in 1948 and attended Carmarthen Grammar School. In 1963 he left school and began farming with the family – his dream. In 1963 they had 20 cows on the farm and a small couple of sheep, and 7 “churns” (large cans to hold milk) to place on the milk stand. By 1998 there were 87 cows on the farm.

Tyssul goes on in the interview to speak in detail about the history of milk stands on the family farm. The first milk stand at Penllwyn Teg was built in the 1950s; it was a wooden and stone frame stand. At the end of the 1950s, the milk stand was rebuilt using concrete, stones and second-hand bricks from the Trimsaran red brick works. The stones used for the stand were collected every spring from the farm fields. The stand had a metal frame capable of holding 12 churns. At the time of the interview, the stand was still standing. In 1965 the family bought the neighbouring farm, Melin y Glyn, but by now the milk stand there has collapsed. By the late 1960s to early 1970s Tyssul remembers the milk stands reaching the end of their life, and farmers in the area installing parlours and milk tanks. Farmers were ordered to send their churns back to the factory, but Tyssul to this day regrets doing so, as they went as scrap! Anthony, the interviewer, mentions a photograph from 1979 from the Hendy Gwyn area noting “the last churn collection.”

Tyssul mentioned that the farm’s milk went to several milk factories – Whitland, Johnstown, Pensarn Carmarthen, Pontarddulais and Llangadog. He had a story about a strike in the mid-1960s when the farmers themselves had to deliver the milk churns to the factory. That milk was thrown into the river, although the farmers were paid. Tyssul remembers the River Tywi being white. The strike lasted 2–3 days. It was a challenge to take the churns to the factory.

According to Tyssul and his father, the best thing that happened to farmers was the establishment of the Milk Marketing Board, as farmers received their money regularly. Previously, Tyssul’s father sold his milk from home.

The shape, size and manufacture of churns were discussed during the conversation, and Tyssul mentioned that his father used to take the churns to Pontnewydd railway station where the milk was transported to Swansea. Anthony and Tyssul discuss the difference in weight between different churns. Reference is made to the “Cardi Bach” train (the railway from Whitland to Cardigan) which carried large churns.

Tyssul also refers to the men who drove the milk lorry, and proceeds to name various drivers, telling remarkable and interesting stories about them. Among the individuals were Doug Hicks (from the Llanpumsaint area), Glan Morris (nickname “Sooty” from the Llangyndeyrn area), John Hesford (from the Tre Ioan area), Titus Lewis (from the Llanfynydd area) and Lloyd Jones (from the Llanpumsaint area). According to Tyssul, some lorry drivers were willing to wait for the milk if the churns had not been brought to the stand in time, and many were very helpful. Others, however, would leave, and the farmer would have to follow the lorry to the next farms!

Tyssul also refers to the great snow of 1963 (around March), and mentions the engineering company MLM clearing the local roads. Although Tyssul was only 15 at the time, he was responsible for collecting milk churns from several farms for a period of about two weeks, including Cae Gwyllt, Goitre Uchaf, Penllwynteg, Melin y Glyn, Penrallt, Glyn Bach, Cwm Bach, Tyn y Coed, Llwyn Bach, finishing at Cwm Eynon etc. He collected around 30 churns and went to meet the lorry at Four Roads. He also mentions difficulties transferring milk during the snow of 1983.

The conversation goes on to discuss different types of cows and their characteristics. Tyssul speaks frankly about the impact of the arrival of the Holstein in the mid-1990s on the dairy industry – the worst thing to happen in his opinion – as they did not produce good meat at the end of their life.

Tyssul refers to the old mart in Carmarthen and remembers going there during his lunch hour at Grammar School to see the state of trading in the industry. He notes that moving the mart out of town was the worst thing to happen to Carmarthen. He remembers his father going to the mart (on Wednesdays) and returning home with four slices of hake. Four slices cost £1 at that time. The fish were sold across from the market (there were at least four shops selling fish in Carmarthen at that time) and the family loved the meal – everyone with his own slice.

While discussing the course of the dairy industry, Tyssul says he remembers seeing his grandmother skimming the cream from the top of the milk and using it to make butter, and Anthony remembers his mother also skimming the cream from the top of the churns and using it on Sundays, to serve with tinned peaches, as she did not believe the fat would be tested on Sundays! Tyssul again shares memories of doing something similar on Christmas Day.

Tyssul also had memories of some farmers denting the churns so that less milk would go into them. Anthony says that he has heard of a nosey farmer’s wife climbing onto the back of a lorry to examine how much milk different farmers were producing, by looking at the churn labels. To put a stop to her, on one occasion the lorry driver drove off from the stand while she was on the back of the vehicle!

Tyssul also remembers one farm using the hole in the centre of the milk stand to light a fire, placing a cauldron in the hole to boil the water needed to kill a pig. Tyssul remembers the screams of the pigs as they were killed. The pigs would be used to make faggots and so on, and Tyssul remembers pigs hanging in the living room during his childhood.

Tyssul also mentions miners helping on the farm at hay harvest time. As a sign of thanks, the miners would receive a meal – bacon, potatoes and cabbage usually – and receive a gift of a row of potatoes.

Throughout, the interview is rich in the dialect of the countryside of south-west Wales.