This looks a bit ethereal, as I’ve tried to pull the detail out a bit. Looks like a happy chap – and no doubt familiar to generations of local urchins… Image kindly supplied by Bill Mayo via David ‘two scoops’ Evans.
Rightho – it’s Sunday, it’s summer (just about; the rain is getting warmer so it must be), so what could be more appropriate than an ice cream from the travelling ice cream man?
David Evans wipes his chin on his hanky, and writes:
Hi Bob,
This is an interesting old photo which may bring back a few memories.
The Stop me and Buy One cycling independent ice cream salesmen of yesterday, indeed. This is a Mr Pinchers, of Walsall Wood, on his rounds, believed to be the early 1930s but might very well be even earlier
Apologies for the poor quality of the image, (taken from a very faded original) but a big thank your to Bill Mayo for this super summertime treat. We might be able to identify where the photo was taken, perhaps!
kind regards
David
Hearing of this fine discovery, Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler put down his Mivvi and searched the newspaper archives, and found this gem:
A Wall’s newspaper advert in common use in 1931. Spot the similarity – I also note daft marketing names are not a new phenomena – ‘Snofrute’ – I ask you! Image spotted by Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler.
This is, of course, not the first local ice cream history we’ve found: there’s the footage posted on YouTube by Desmond Burton. The clip, recorded in 1958, shows the Burton family and pals, including Sandy the dog, enjoying ice cream from Selwyn Smith. Selwyn was one of the two noted ice cream purveyors in Brownhills, the other being the Pelari family. The van is parked up outside Wordsley House, Stonnall.
Thanks to all the gentlemen involved – and if you have any memories of local ice cream, please do comment or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.