At one site, Bridge Farm, an 18th-century stone building in the shadow of the motorway, I meet Carol Laslett, a former librarian and philosophy graduate who has been involved in Streetgoat almost since it started, seven years ago. Laslett and another member lead the farm’s two milking goats, Betty and Lillian, down from their hay-cushioned shelter on the hill, through their acre of bramble-studded scrubland, and into a stone-flagged milking parlour.
Yield varies according to the season. In spring, when the vegetation is growing fast, a goat will produce two to four litres a day, says Laslett. “In the winter it can drop to below a litre. Milkers fill their own containers to take home. Averaged across the year, the milk costs around £1 a litre, which compares well to what you’d pay in a supermarket.”
“Luckily those are the goats’ favourite foods! After they moved in, footfall increased as parents took their children to see them, so the goats had other benefits too.”