Milk churns like this one would have been a very familiar sight in Eynsham and all around the country. They were invented by George Barnham (1836–1913), the son of a dairy farmer and a campaigner for cleaner milk.
Milk churns were used to transport milk from farms. Today, you can sometimes still see old stone or concrete milk stands on roadsides, where the milk churns would be placed, ready for collection and transportation. These, along with the milk churns themselves, stopped being used in the 1970s, when the use of milk tankers became the norm.
Before milk bottle deliveries and the advent of supermarkets, the milkman would visit your house and give out milk from the milk churn into your jug. Ladles, such as the copper ladles above, would be used for this purpose. They came in different sizes: quarter of a pint, half a pint and one pint.