Yeovil and the St Ivel Brand

For centuries Yeovil has been the centre of some of the finest dairy land in England, and in the 1890s, the town was the junction of two railway companies with lines converging from five different quarters; it was a natural step to make it commercially, as well as geographically, a centre of the dairy industry.

in 1893 Mr Shortland Aplin and his partner Mr H W Barrett, began to expand their wholesale dairy businesses into one, which in a few years under the name of Alpin and Barrett Ltd - St Ivel, would become one of the largest producers of fine dairy products in the country. During the first half of the century, the company's head office, creamery and factory for making many of the St Ivel products, covered nearly two acres of land at Newton Road, Yeovil. Messrs Aplin and Barrett's dairy products were many and varied and included such popular brands as Golden Meadow Butter, St Ivel Cream, many varieties of cheese and the uniquely flavoured product St Ivel Lactic Cheese, together with sausages, potted pastes and a variety of milk based foods.

With the economic necessities of competition in the mid-twentieth century and the resulting formation of larger and larger groups of companies, Messrs Aplin and Barrett were absorbed into the Unigate Group. The Newton Road offices and production facilities were closed down and thus ended Yeovil's major association with the dairy industry. The name St Ivel lives on, however, with Diary Crest's St Ivel Gold.

The success of Mr Aplin and Mr Barrett, from lowly beginnings, is proof that the spirit of enterprise was, and is still, alive in Yeovil and its people.

Jack Sweet January 2008