A BENTHAM milkman has completed his last delivery round after a 43-year career during which he took just one week’s holiday.

Sid Hogg, 61, has gone to bed at 7pm and woken up at 1am for more than four decades to complete his round through Bentham and Burton-in-Lonsdale.

In that time he has delivered an estimated 10,424,400 pints of milk.

Come rain, snow or shine, Mr Hogg was out in all seasons 365 days a year for the majority of his career, and took his last time off more than 21 years ago.

After starting out as a farm hand at Ellergill Farm, Bentham, in 1966 he inherited the farm’s delivery round when the previous milkman retired.

“I had it thrown at me really. I’d never really thought about becoming a milkman, but once I’d done it, I loved it,” he said.

Mr Hogg said he was looking forward to seeing his family more now he shares the same waking hours as they do, and despite having had a 1am-9am day job, said he hadn’t found it hard to adjust.

“I seem to have just switched off from it very easily, and got used to the new routine,” he said Over the years his unsociable hours meant he missed out on few things taken for granted by everyone else.

“When I was working, people would talk about all these TV programmes they liked, and I wouldn’t know what the heck they were talking about. I can catch up with all that now,” he said.

Mr Hogg said he would miss meeting people on his round, but not the harsh North Yorkshire winters.

“I always watched the weather forecasts and I was notorious for having a few smashes when it snowed. The last one was in December. I went skidding down a hill into a wall. ” he said.

Mr Hogg said the milk business had seen a lot of changes over the years.

“Things were a lot easier when people just had one type of milk and I’ve noticed business drop off because of competition from supermarkets,” he said.

“I’m currently enjoying doing nothing. Me and my family are getting used to being normal at last,” he said.