MILKMAN James Ridsdale had an extra special delivery to make - his newborn baby.
James was on his milk round when he got an urgent call from his partner Michelle - their baby was on the way.
"I had to break from delivering the milk to deliver Michelle to hospital to have the baby," said James, who runs Scampston Dairy near Malton.
Not wanting to let customers down, once baby Romee was safely born, James returned home and finished his milk round!
Such dedication deserves recognition. Several readers contacted us to nominate James as our Trader of the Week - and we can't think of a more worthy candidate this week!
If you would like to nominate a local business going over and above for their customers click here to tell our news room.
James and Michelle's drama happened at about 4.30am on Monday, October 19, when James was more than two hours into his round which covers many rural communities across Ryedale.
James set up the business during the first lockdown having previously been a car mechanic.
He said: "We openly communicate with our customers and made them aware that our baby’s arrival was imminent.
"I set off in the morning around 2am and received a call from Michelle at around 4.30am saying: ‘I’m really sorry but you need to come back as we need to go to hospital’.
"We were supposed to go to York but were told it was closed due to being full to capacity and so we headed to Scarborough and arrived at 5.40am.
"I had to drop Michelle off and sit in the car park receiving updates about the progression of labour by text due to Covid-19 restrictions.
"I got a message at 8.50am telling me to ‘come in now’ and Romee was born by emergency c-section at 9.27am.
"I wasn’t allowed to stay once the girls got moved to a ward so I left and set off to finish the milk round at 2pm that afternoon.
"Our customers were extremely understanding and supportive and the half that received their milk in the morning managed to get word across to most of the others who hadn’t received it. I was greeted with a warm welcome and lots of well wishes as I was completing the final half of the round."
Several readers contacted The Press to nominate James as Trader of the Week.
Lisa Francis, of Leppington, said: "In June, during the pandemic James set up the business which helped rural villages get milk and not have to leave their homes.
"It has been a lifesaver for lots of local villages not wanting to join the massive queues at supermarkets.
"James never misses a delivery even when his wife was giving birth. He went to the hospital mid round and finished it off after the birth. He is known as the dairy fairy because you never see or hear him. He won’t disturb you during his early morning deliveries."
Nicola Stibbards, of Malton, said: "James started his business during lockdown, he started from scratch. With his family he has grown his round. I moved house into a different area and he still delivers to me."
James delivers milk as well as milkshakes, eggs, cheese and yoghurts, working through the night to meet customers' orders.
For a new business, it is doing well. He began with just two customers but now has 300 customers across Malton, Slingsby, Kirkbymoorside, Birdsall and Burythorpe.
He said: "During the first lockdown, I was working as a mechanic, as I have done for over 20 years, but as the world stopped so did the work coming in.
"With a family to feed - including a baby on the way - and a house to pay for it was a worrying time and it was totally alien to me to be sat around doing nothing as I am usually so busy and take great pride in my work.
"To suddenly have your livelihood pretty much taken away within a few weeks is scary - especially with a baby on the way and a young family.
"As a family we use a lot of milk and had started using a milkman to reduce our use of single-use plastic.
"During one of my chats to him about how I used to deliver milk with my father when I was younger he mentioned that he had some people asking to be added to his round from villages that he was too busy to take on and would I like to do it.
"I decided to take his offer and started to arrange deliveries to those villages. This is really where The Scampston Dairy was born!
"It was an ideal business for my partner and I as we both love milk and have both always discussed ways in which we can take measures to reduce the use of single-use plastic - so to be able to help others do the same was quite rewarding.
"Once we started in those villages we kept receiving more calls for people to join the round and people were so pleased that the service was being provided.
"As word spread, we gradually added more and more villages and towns to the round and it grew to the point where The Scampston Dairy became my job full time."
Find out more on Facebook at facebook.com/TSDMilkDeliveryService/
And you can email James at jamesrids@yahoo.co.uk
And don't forget to click here to nominate your Trader of the Week!
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