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A 90-year-old Abbots resident received star treatment last month after appearing on Channel 4’s Paul O’Grady Show. Joan Parker, of The Crescent, is a former Milkmaid and went on the show to share her experiences with the Scouse chat show host of her time working at the Ovaltine Dairy Farm during the 1930’s. Attending with her friend Doreen Cooper, who also worked at the farm during the 1950’s, Joan said she was treated like the Queen Mother. She was given her own dressing room with her name on the door, and was made to feel very welcome by the cheeky chat show host. Joan grew up on her father’s farm in Wiltshire before moving to Hertfordshire in the early 1920’s. She began work at the Ovaltine Farm in 1933 after leaving the Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture. Her time at the farm involved very long days, starting at 6am to milk the cows, before making butter twice a day, cleaning the dairy, and welcoming guests to the farm. Joan carried out the work of three women, and never received a half day off until five years into the job, when a union was established for farm workers insisting that they receive one half day off a week. Joan left her post at the farm in 1941 when she married Cyril Parker at St Lawrence Church, Abbots Langley. Cyril was in charge of the cows at Blackbirds Farm in Aldenham, which Ovaltine leased from the council. The couple stayed in Aldenham until 1953 when the farm was sold, and sadly for Cyril, he was forced to give up farming due to a bad case of arthritis. The couple moved to Abbots Road, with Cyril joining the civil service, and Joan working on a small chicken farm. Cyril passed away in 1984, but Joan has become a well known figure in the village due to her 45 year association with the Women’s institute. The now TV star spoke to My Abbots about her experience on the show, telling us: “I had great fun and it really was a pleasant day.”The former milkmaid has met many celebrities in her lifetime, and puts meeting actor Sir John Mills at the top of her list. So how does Joan look so well for her age? She told My Abbots: “By eating sensibly, not smoking, and years of tasting ‘good old’ Jersey Milk!!” Joan made such an impression on Paul O’Grady, he has invited her back in the future for more of her stories.

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