EMMA HARRIS
1855-1933
MILK TRAIN DAIRY FARMER
The Roser family dairy farm was in Dry Hill, Tonbridge. It was run by Thomas and his third wife Hester.
Daughter Emma was born in 1855, one of four surviving children. When Thomas died in the 1870s Hester,
now in her 60s, took on the farm herself – which in the 1880s totalled 70 acres, employing two men and
three boys. They were living at 15 Shipbourne Road, Tonbridge (beside the George & Dragon pub). A
solicitor’s clerk called Ernest Harris – the son of a grocer on Tonbridge High Street – was lodging just a few
doors away from the Rosers at No 4, and he and Emma were married. When Hester died in 1885, the farm’s
value was to be divided equally between the children, so Emma and Ernest bought it themselves (which was
contested in court!) By 1901 they had six children, who seem to have been given the middle name Roser.
The sons became bank clerks and the youngest, daughter Ruby assisted her mother on the farm. In the 1920s
milk from Emma’s dairy herds over in Ashurst were being transported on morning trains to Tonbridge, 17
gallons (136 pints) of it daily, and distributed by motor van. According to one source 282 million gallons of
milk was moved by rail in 1923, and this was gradually shifting to road.
Ernest died in 1924. Emma in 1933.
LINKS
History of Milk Freight Operations
https://web.archive.org/web/20130101222919/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/7-fops/fo-milk.htm
