THIS outing for a group of school children was strictly educational.

They were visiting Job’s Dairy at Didcot to learn all about milk production.

The children were from Sandhills Primary School in Headington, Oxford.

The picture, sent in by reader Chris Payne, was taken in about 1950.

He writes: “The teachers were Mr Penney, later to become headmaster of North Kidlington Primary School, and Arthur Ledger who, I think, became headmaster of Northfield (later Peers School) at Littlemore.

“Many of the pupils are still in the Oxford area. Others are scattered wider in France and the United States and sadly, some are no longer with us.

“From this group, there arose hoteliers, publicans, RAF personnel, Navy personnel, school photographers, guitar makers, police officers, Headington United FC directors, lorry drivers, boat makers, printers, shop owners, fruit machine engineers, football referees and builders.”

For Mr Payne, who is in the back row, there was an additional bonus. He went on to marry one of the party – his wife, then Norma Morris, is in the front row, on the right.

As we have recalled, the dairy’s roots can be traced back to 1819, when William Porter started a business at Teddington, Middlesex.

Under Louisa Roberts and her son, Henry, the firm expanded into one of the biggest in the South East.

The dairy was named after Louisa’s second husband, Handel Alfred Job, although he figures very little in the firm’s history.

The Didcot dairy opened in the mid-1930s and supplied milk and dairy products over a wide area.

It was sold to Express Dairy in 1970 and the rest of the business, based at Hanwell, in Middlesex, was taken over by Unigate in 1987.

Mr Payne, of Turnpike Road, Bicester, recalls that Job’s delivered ice cream as well as milk and that its choc ices were the best available in the area.

At the time of the visit to the dairy, the school organised a handwriting competition, the prize for the winner being a family-sized block of Job’s ice cream.