Express Dairy Pogs with Titus Barham Slammers!

Titus Barham, a local industrialist, left Barham Park and the buildings on it to the custodianship of the local community (some of which is currently in contention as the council is trying to use some of the park land for new development). Barham made his name as the man who brought industrialised milk to London, connecting dairies with the train lines. Sudbury Farm, which sat within a mile or so of Barham Park and was the largest dairy farm in the area, is also the site of the source of the Wembley Brook. The milk produced there was bottled at the Express Dairy plant in Cricklewood. The plant was situated five minutes walk from where I grew up. The waters of the Wembley Brook fed the production of milk that my mother had in the house. It shut down the year I was born, but I remember the stories of neighbours who worked there, and a particular story my mother told me of a sweltering day where she stopped at the dairy, with my then baby sisters, to ask for water and they gave her bottles of ice cold milk.
I was just the right age to get really into POGs at school, originally a game made from milk caps. I like to think that Titus Barham would have enjoyed his own set of POGs.

Express Dairy Pogs with Titus Barham Slammers! was exhibited at ACAVA Barham Park (26-30 March) as part of the culmination of Nick Murray’s six month artist residency. The exhibition booklet can be read here.