Nostalgia as the last remaining Danny Oates horse drawn cart is traced
to a farm in Doncaster
Cornets 1p a lick
was the
special treat to the men, women and children of Brierley on August 25
2002 when I managed to trace the last of the Danny Oates’ horse drawn
ice cream carts to Dave Pritchard, a farmer from Hatfield near
Doncaster.
It all evolved from a photograph, in the Baipip archives, of the cart
following its restoration in the 1970’s. Whilst actually in the process
of producing this photograph I was visited by Elijah Harrison, a friend
of mine who resided in South Kirkby. He required several reprints of
photographs depicting the horse drawn dray he had provided for the
Jubilee celebrations which had taken place on the third of June 2002 in
Brierley. Elijah immediately recognised the restored cart and informed
me of the name of the present owner. As a result I was able to contact
Dave in Hatfield Doncaster. He revealed that the cart was used for
events that were staged for raising money for charity. After a great
deal of discussion it was agreed to return the cart to its former home
in Brierley for one day. Any monies raised from this event would be
donated to cancer research. With the help of volunteers from the
Hillside Tara management committee we dressed ourselves, along with the
village children, in period costumes and toured the village with the
cart selling ice cream cornets for 1p.
Nostalgia embraced the village! Elderly residents emerged from their
homes in droves to witness what had once been a daily ritual in their
lives. Herbert Vamplew who now lives on the Grange estate recalled his
weekly treat of a halfpenny cornet adding “It was lovely ice cream, the
best there was.” Betty Ogley who now lives on Hillside Mount remembers
running out with a cup or saucer before cornets and wafers were
introduced.
Gay Woodward who lives on Chestnut
Avenue provided an old “Penny Lick” glass in which the ice cream used to
be served and then returned to the hawker who used to clean it in
readiness for the next customer. Gay’s late husband, Dave, was the last
to manufacture the ice cream in the 1990s from its original recipe under
the name of “Its Danny’s”
(the sister company to Oates’s.) The recipe
is, and always was, a closely guarded family secret.
The last
port of call was the Coppins Nursing home where the residents stared
misty eyed at this wonderful event and resident Tony Evans talked about
his time spent in his “younger days" as a Hawker for Danny Oates.
The event
was so popular that Dave didn’t manage to visit the whole of the village
and unfortunately residents from the Park estate and Norwood Drive did
not have the opportunity to partake in this magnificent day. Thanks to
the generosity of the Brierley people over £200 was raised for cancer
research.
As
the cart slowly disappeared over Pudding Hill on its his way back to
Hatfield, I couldn’t help but reflect on what a wonderful day everyone
had enjoyed, and I also felt overjoyed that Dave had brought back so
many memories to the elderly residents of Brierley.
