Provisions, pop and ice-cream

Harry Page in his demob suit
From the private collection of Vernon Page

In the 1960s, when I was a boy, I would spend weekends with my grandmother at her home, 26 Twineham Road. The photo here is of my father, Harry Page, in his demob suit at the front door of the house.

Tradesmen came thick and fast in those days. There was Mr. Cracknell, who sold eggs and other provisions; Hooper Struve came around with their lorry bearing bottles of pop such as cream soda and cherryade and there was a bakery delivery too. There was also the choice of two dairy companies with their floats in distinctive liveries, the Co-op Dairy and Holes and Davigdor Dairy.

I even remember the tune of the ice cream van that called round daily in the summer months. It was Lily Marlene.

Comments about this page

  • Mr Cracknell had a horse and cart and did greengrocery, when I recall.

    By Jerry (15/01/2008)
  • For a short while, I had a Saturday job with Mr Cracknell the greengrocer. After finishing the round, I was allowed to go back to the stable to bed the horse down for the night.
    The stable was on farmland behind Wiston Road  (entrance off of Wilson Avenue) now built on by self build houses.
    This brings back so many good memories of 30 years of life in Whitehawk.

    By Peter Pryer (31/03/2009)
  • Mr Cracknell’s horse was called Phillip it was grey coloured. I believe the one prior was brown.

    By David (Chris) Christie (02/03/2010)
  • Do any of you remember the Whitehawk winkle man with his barrow and buckets of winkles from which he would scoop you out a pint for 3d? That must have been around 1944. At about the same time the bread was delivered by horse and cart; the neighbours would race to shovel up the horse droppings for the vegetable garden. Our Holes and Davigdor milk was delivered on an electric milk float. About 60 years ahead of its time!

    By Dennis Grier (20/03/2010)
  • I remember the winkle man. Although I only remember him in the 1950s. But my dad always used to get a pint of winkles on a Saturday.

    By Susan Pendergast (Crittenden) (07/05/2010)
  • I remember the winkle man in the 1950’s – he used to sell winkles, whelks, shrimps and occassionly scallops. My mother Nellie Anscombe knew him as Shamrock - we think it was his first name but maybe wrong. We used to live up Hervey Road which has now gone.

    By Margaret Anscombe (30/06/2010)
  • Winkles were our Sunday teatime treat. I remember making them into sandwiches. Yuk – I think they would make me sick now! I’d take the cap off (with the pin) and place it on my cheek and pretend to be Margaret Lockwood! Hello again Dennis. I’ve been trying to find your recent messages, intending to reply more fully. Came across this thread instead, but as before, it’s quite late and I can hardly keep my eyes open. Oh, I mentioned you to Brian Pearce (Form 4A, Whitehawk 1952) and he would like to get in touch with you. Perhaps you can email me off board at? (Hope we’re allowed to give addresses).

    By Brian Hatley (07/06/2011)
  • Fabulous photo of my uncle Harry. We lived at 26 Twineham Road until it was demolished in the early 1980s.

    By Liz Page (31/12/2014)
  • My Aunty and Uncle were the Cracknells and I worked in their greengrocer shop when I was a boy up until 1956.  I think my cousin and her husband took over the shop in the 60s. I used to live in Winston Close before moving to Australia in 1958.

    By Tony Cook (22/06/2018)
  • I just discovered this website and find it interesting. My aunt Pat (married to my mother’s brother, David Reitman) was Gertrude P. Cracknell.  If anyone has any information or photos of Pat, please contact me, palekaiko@gmail.com.

    Michael Diamant, Hawaii

    By Michael Diamant (01/07/2018)
  • I was A child during WWll and recall going shopping in the Old London Road, Patcham where there was a parade of six or seven shops with the Coop store opposite. My Mum’s share number at the Coop was 43038 and she used to pic up her “Divi” money somewhere round the back once a month if I remember correctly. In the row of shops opposite was Salmons newS agents with a Gents barber next door. if you carried on past a few more shops, there was a footpath (twitten) that climbed up the steep chalky slope to Highview Avenue North where you crossed over and picked up another twitten leading down to Windfield Road which you could cross and pick up yet another twitten leading up the side of the playing field and coming out near the top of Warden Rd. You could cross that road and pick up a final twitten that brought you to Carden Avenue where there was a further chalky track next to the Newsagent (Walkers?) at the LH end of Wilmington Parade. Quite a trek, but when it snowed I would take my sledge all the way to Highview Way N, then toboggan down the steep slope into the “Ups & Downs” which were evidently the excavations for the footings of a proposed cinema.

    By John Snelling (14/10/2020)

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