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The Ice Cream Man

Hello. Don`t know if you`ll be able to help. I`m looking for an ice cream man who used to sell round the great barr area in the 1970`s. Name was david. Believe he was married with children. Possibly in his 60`s-70`s now. Thanks
 
Another photo from our family album - early 1940s/1950s Ice Cream van in Cavandale Avenue, looks almost DIY, can't make out the full name on the van, but he's just made a sale. I don't know what make van it is but a nice opening windscreen and modified to allow standing in the back.

Ice_Cream_Van_1950.jpg
 
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Tonibell ice creams - he used to come into the road with Booby Shaftoe playing and was the best ice-cream round!!!
Used to love the nougat wafers and oyster shells too, had one on holiday in Rhyl in the summer and I am sure they are about a third of the size they used to be.
And the platic footballs filled with ice cream with a lid in them and spoon inside, can't remember what they were called, you tried to collect the different colours of them.
As a treat on holiday at Sandy Bay in Exmouth, we used to have a banana split - I can taste it now - but not the same today!
Sue
 
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When I was a child we had a corner shop, we sold Walls icream. But what did I crave? The ice-cream cones that were sold from an Italian man who came around once a week in his van. My mum flatly refused to give me the coppers for the delicious cornet, she used to say no I am not paying for icecream when we already sell it! So I would sneek out when she wasn't looking and buy one! Heaven in a cornet
 
Not sure when but either the late 40s or early 50s around Warstock the ice cream man in a van was called Mc.Nabs, was fantastic ice cream to us kids.
 
An Italian man used to cycle around Aston before the war, he had a box on the front with the ice cream in it. We used to run after him singing, 'Oh no Antonio he's gone away, left me on my ownio, all on my onio, I'd like to meet him with his new sweatheart, and up would go Antonio with his ice cream cart.' Regards, David
 
Bliss used to be on a Saturday (after skating at the Embassy Roller rink) an ice-cream floater sold in a shop a few doors away from the rink made with Dandelion and Burdoch and topped with ice-cream.......Heaven in a glass.
 
On Sunday my Grandson asked if I remembered penny-licks, they were before my time but Mum told me about them years ago. They didn't seem very hygienic as they didn't wash them apparently!
I've always wanted one of those Knickerbocker Glories that they show on old American movies!! The one I had recently was just ice-cream and strawberry sauce.
 
I remember the Tonibell ice cream van that came around Alum Rock in the 1970's, I won a Blue Peter annual in a colouring competition once by handing in some leaflet to 'Uncle Steve' !! I seem to remember the Tonibell vans being blue and then at some stage changing to pink...I'm sure I'm not imagining that, if someone could confirm this for me please !!
 
I remember the Tonibell ice cream van that came around Alum Rock in the 1970's, I won a Blue Peter annual in a colouring competition once by handing in some leaflet to 'Uncle Steve' !! I seem to remember the Tonibell vans being blue and then at some stage changing to pink...I'm sure I'm not imagining that, if someone could confirm this for me please !!

There are millions of pink Tonibell vans featured on Google but apart from the model toy variety there doesn't seem to be any of the earlier blue vehicles at all. That's the point of re-branding though: the old has to get vapourised in order to favour the new.

Here's a comprehensive feature on the ice cream vans of old, including how "Tonibell" got its name
https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/icecreamvans.htm




 
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For those who may remember the area of Birmingham at the time, here's Palmer Street (?) in the mid 1960's with a topical scene.
 
When we heard the ice cream man's chimes, our dad used to say the chimes meant he had run out of ice cream!!!
 
i liked mr whippy.he come on a sat night in phillips st aston.
 
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hello.ernie. i know the stuff you are on about.i buy the mint flavor.and rum and raisin .sorry mate i can not spell the word
 
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The ice cream man on the caravan site in Prestatyn had the best whippy ice cream I have tasted in a long time!! Mom especially liked the fizzy sherbert dip he put on them, along with the juice and sprinkles lol.
Sue
 
Just to revive this lovely thread, most Friday evenings in the summer early 60s Dad would treat me and my two sisters, and sometimes himself and Mum to ice cream when the chimes of Mr Whippys pink and cream van was heard.
Ahh happy days.
 
...I seem to remember the Tonibell vans being blue and then at some stage changing to pink...I'm sure I'm not imagining that, if someone could confirm this for me please !!


There are millions of pink Tonibell vans featured on Google but apart from the model toy variety there doesn't seem to be any of the earlier blue vehicles at all. That's the point of re-branding though: the old has to get vapourised in order to favour the new...



I don't think either of the above are currently active on the forum, but for those interested here's a blue Tonibell van from 1963...


tb20.jpg



tb19.jpg



A brief history of Tonibell, taken from this site...

http://www.basildon.com/history/industry/tonibell.html


"From the late 1950s a familiar sight and sound around the streets of Basildon was a Tonibell ice cream van. The company, known as Tonibell Manufacturing Co. Ltd, was founded as Tonis in 1937 by Italian born Toni Pignatelli and his wife.

Originally operating from a shop in Burnt Oak, Middlesex, their first vehicle did not take to the streets until 1951 by which time they were joined by their son Ronald. During the fifties the business grew and Basildon, with its new town status offering fresh custom, was seen as the ideal place to expand operations.

Their first depot, a yard adjacent to the Laindon Service Station on the Southend bound carriageway of the A127 before the Fortune-of-War roundabout, opened sometime in the late 1950s. They continued here, having become Tonibell following a change of name in 1960, before relocating during 1962 to No.1 Bowlers Croft off Honywood Road on the No.1 Nevendon Industrial Estate, where they were able to manufacture ice-cream in-house.

Their vehicles were custom variations of among others; Morris vans and the Bedford CA series with Picador bodies. Early vehicles were finished in a blue livery with some featuring a scaled down cow astride the front roof. Later models also included the cow and a memorable colour change to pink, which was probably how people best remember them. A feature of the livery was the company's lettering, all in lower case. They also had a specially written chime.

In addition to the street operations there were several ice cream parlours and snack bars in Basildon town centre. These were branded Tonis and situated at 5 South Gunnels, and from around 1963, 11 Market Pavement. The Market Pavement shop lasted until the 1980s before being bought by Tony Dow of Martins Mobile Sales of Durham Road, Laindon, who then re-opened for a time as Diamonds Resturant.

In April 1966, and now operating as Tonibell (Essex) Limited, they relocated again to larger premises at Bentalls on Industrial Estate No.2 at Pipps Hill. At this time the Basildon concern was operating 24 vans which cost around £1,800 each when new or about £500 if second hand and up to the company's standard. In November 1967 as the business continued to expand they were advertising for Driver/Salesman aged 25 to 40 with potential earnings of between £20 to £40 a week. The successful applicants would also get to use the 'mobile shop' to and from home. It was at Bentalls around the turn of the 1970s that the livery change from blue to pink occured.

Tonibell remained at Bentalls until the early 1990s when the depot closed.

Tonibell is still seen around locally as Gary Levine of Canvey Island operates several vans in their livery and the chimes can still be heard on many T.V. programmes that feature the sound of an ice cream van on the background soundtrack.

For anyone wanting to learn more about the history of tonibell, Steve Tillyer has written a book called The tonibell Story".
 
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