There were many stages of mobile ice cream vending in the UK up until the soft ice cream vans appeared on our streets, from hand carts to horse drawn carts, trailers & trikes. Then in the early 1900's the motorised hard ice cream vehicles appeared, there are documented stories, drawings & photographs of the early mobile ice cream vendors who were trading in the 1850's with horse drawn carts around the old the cobbled streets of the UK. The horse drawn carts sold ices & flavoured ice cream, they were the early mobile ice cream vendor of their time. There are photo's of horse drawn carts in 1906 which worked the streets of Brighouse & Rastrick, the hand drawn ice cream carts were also mobile ice cream vendors & both announced their presence with a large hand bell.
The first edible cone was invented in 1888 by Mrs Agnes B. Marshall, this was documented in Mrs Marshall's Cookery Book The edible cone which was titled Cornets with cream ice creams were also wrapped in wax paper & sold by the name of Hokey Pokey. Prior to the cone ice creams were served in to a re-usable glass called a penny lick which was latter to be banned by Government after a law was introduced in 1926 due to hygiene & health reasons.
The first motorised ice cream street vendors had emerged around the first quarter of the 19th Century. Whitby Morrison of Crew are a very highly respected company & are at the top of their field for mobile conversions they are widely accepted as being the worlds leading manufacturer of ice cream vehicles & are noted to have restored many classic mobiles including a 1928 Morris Cowley. In 1923 Walls introduced an ice cream trike which was an insulated box with their logo Stop Me and Buy One displayed. Then in 1924 Walls went on to order fifty more trikes which proved to be very successful & up until the second world war the ice cream trikes had become a very familiar sight, they were operating from more then one hundred depots across the UK.
(Anyone able to help Steve Tillyer with research into History on ice cream vans call 01780 450328)
Walls owned the worlds largest ice cream factory which was based in Gloucester, around the 1950's Walls moved on to supplying ice cream freezers to shops throughout the UK. The continuous process freezer was invented in 1926 by a Clarence Vogt, this had potentially made it possible to make ice cream available to all but it would be a good few decades before they would become a common item in the home place. The middle class could afford to purchase one but the the general public could not afford to purchase them for decades to come. The hey day of the mobile ice cream vendors was actually around the 1950's & 1960's as the freezers were not yet acquired by the bulk of the general public.
The first ice cream van with soft whip ice cream had emerged in 1956 around the streets of West Philadelphia on St. Patrick's Day. They were two Irish brothers William & James Conway, they took the first Mister Softee van out on St. Patrick's Day & gave all their customers free soft whipped green ice cream. This is the present day website for Mister Softee in the USA mistersoftee.com This was the first American soft ice cream truck with a soft ice cream freezer powered by a very large electric generator at the rear of the Chevrolet panel truck, prior to this soft ice cream was only available in shops. The company was called Mister Softee & within a few years they had become a very well known brand accross America.
In 1957 the director of Smith's delivery vehicles that would (supply ice cream vans to Lyons) returned from a business visit to America where he saw the potential of importing the Mr Whippy soft serve ice cream franchise to his factory in Gateshead. Smith's & Lyons were soon to start a partnership with Smith's with the majority of a 61% share. Three vans were built & were at the Earls Court 1958 Commercial Motor Show.
Unofficially around the latter part of 1958 a couple of the new Mister Softee ice cream were selling soft ice cream in the streets of London prior to the official start of vending date in early April 1959. The first Mister Softee vans to start trading in the UK as a franchise operation was in early April 1959 around South West London & Kent borders they were Known as ice cream vans & ice cream factories in the UK rather then ice cream trucks in the United States. The first soft ice cream vans were £3,200 this was around six or seven times more then the hard Lyons Maid vans & at the time you could purchase a house for less. In 1961 Mister Softee had established 34 locations in England & 1 in Wales, Lyons saw the success of the venture & made a generous offer to Smith's Delivery Vehicles & went on to be the sole proprietor of the Mister Softee brand. Mr Softee was latter to become a flag ship house hold brand within Lyons. Walls were head to head on the introduction of the first soft serve ice cream van to the UK & a few weeks latter their brand was introduced under the name of Mister Whippy.
The introduction of soft ice cream vans in the UK was in 1958 when Mister Softee was introduced from America, however there was a need to find an alternative source of power to drive the soft ice cream machines as the large generator that were secured at the rear of the ice cream vehicles were very costly and extremely heavy hence requiring a heavier duty chassis to cope with the weight.
This is where Bryan Whitby had looked at different alternatives and found a system that would use the engines power via an additional double pulley off the crank then two drive belts would align on to a double pully clutch system, this technique is still being used today "The Direct Drive System".
* Horse Drawn Carts .
* Wall's "Stop Me & Buy One" Tricycles
* Hand Carts
* Jtype - Austin - Bedford CA - Bedford CF - Ford - Mercedes.
* Introduction of Soft Ice Cream Vans
* Mr Whippy & Mister Softee.
* Expansion of Ice Cream Vans.
* Robin Hood - Morrison............* Whitby Engineering..............* Whitby Morrison.............* Cummins
* P & G Engineers................* Simoncini Conversions....* Jack Gibson & Sons...............*
* Celtic Conversions....* D & D Coachbuilders.................* PG & AR Engineering....* Evo Composites LTD
* C.S. Conversions......* Yorkshire Specialist vehicles....................*
Honours Ice Cream .
Honours Ice Cream . p>
Honours Ice Cream.
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