Carriers of this type were once a familiar sight on domestic doorsteps. Clean empty bottles were replaced with full by the morning milkman. Variations in the order were signalled by the hanging tags. Payment was made weekly or monthly in arrears at the dairy's office or on the doorstep.

This is a carrier for six milk bottles. It is a steel wire frame with an overhead handle, all coated with plastic. There is a small tag with numbered cards attached to one edge by a wire ring. In the carrier are five glass milk bottles with embossed text, a COOP logo and PLEASE RINSE AND RETURN.

Cheap glass bottles revolutionised the delivery of milk. In the years after World War II 'the milkman' with his cheery whistle and rattling bottles was a universally recognised icon, the public face of an industry capable of moving millions of gallons of pasteurised, tuberculosis free milk from farm to doorstep every morning.