AN ANNIVERSARY lunch has celebrated 90 years of dairy students across Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire.

The Gloucestershire Dairy Students Association was founded in 1927 to encourage dairy family families to make butter, cream and Gloucester cheese with their surplus mike produced on farms in the Severn Valley.

After the Second World War, the clubs amalgamated and held monthly suppers at members’ homes, which would include a talk.

The lunch at the Anchor Inn in Oldbury on Severn was enjoyed by the members in attendance, with a new AGM being elected.

The group’s prized piece of memorabilia, a decorative shield which is stored at the Gloucester Folk Museum, was also on show at the event.

Over the years, the GDSA members have promoted the dairy industry and associated activities done by farmers’ wives, despite many wives and daughters now working away from the farm.

The association’s chairman, June Lyons said that while the group meet monthly and hold events like the lunch, and an annual skittles match at Christmas, all of the shows and competitions “are now just memories of the past”.

She said: “On the whole, dairy farming is on the decline, especially in South Gloucestershire.

When I first came to the area, there were 41 working farms. Now there are less than 10.

The industry has suffered in the last 10 years, but helping to keep it going to an extent is as much a privilege as it is a challenge and we look forward to the GDSA enjoying another 90 years.