LOCAL NEWS From Brierley Danny Oates Penn Lick Day

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From Brierley

Baipip 2002

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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.