You are here:
Droitwich
Droitwich maps
Historic maps of Droitwich and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Droitwich maps
Droitwich area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Droitwich and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Droitwich
Displaying a selection of personal
memories of Droitwich.
There are 14 shared memories to read.
Add your memory of Droitwich
or of a photo of Droitwich.
My Home During School Holidays
York Jones is the correct spelling i.e. no 'e' on York! In 1955, I was ten years old and would work here during school holidays. My Great Uncle (my Grandmother's brother), was Frank York-Jones, the Managing Director. His son, Alan York-Jones, ran the factory with my father, Dick Sinfield, who was the Finance Director. In this picture, you can see the two brine tanks against the back wall in the background. The brine was cold and would freeze the ice-lolly liquid in the metal moulds. This is where I would stand for ages putting the sticks in the lollies, before they froze completely. Later on we had all this automated. On the right are two large tanks where the ice cream would be 'cooked'. This was my Uncle Alan York-Jones' job. Once cooked, it would be pumped through to the machine on the left of the picture (there were two of these). The ice cream would be like Mr Whippy's ice cream as it came out, slightly cold but soft... Read more
Originally it Was A Salt Factory, Owned by John Corbett.
This photo shows the back of the York Jones Ice Creamery. The factory was originally used by John Corbett, who built the Chateau Impney, to mine and package salt. The salt was pumped up from the well, just to the bottom left of the photo. This photo shows one of the York-Jones delivery vans which would supply ice cream to all the shops around the Midlands, but mostly Birmingham. The left hand side of the building would be for storage. The right hand side was used to house the steam room for cleaning all the equipment. The chimney shown in between the two buildings was above the furnace which supplied heat for cooking the ice cream and steam for cleaning.
York-Jones. Front Section/Choc Ice Machine Area
In this photo, you can see two machines for chopping ice cream into blocks. Some blocks were small for choc ices and wafer ices. Some were larger for making 'bricks'. In the background, on the left, is my father's (Dick Sinfield) office. On the right, the large door behind the two machines is the door to the large freezer, the 'locker', where the ice creams and lollies would be stored. On top of the freezer are several cardboard boxes containing ice cream packaging such as cups, rolls of paper for wrapping the choc ices, flat packed boxes for the bricks and for multiple plain ice creams or choc ices. Just off to the right, out of shot, would be the choc-ice line.
York-Jones. Ice Cream 'pasteurising' Machinery.
Here we have two holding tanks where the liquid ice cream would be pumped after being cooked in the vats down below. This is an area in the roof space where the liquid would be pumped over the hot sterilising pipes, seen here in the middle of the picture, hanging down from the roof.
Alans Factory
I used to work here when I was at school, in Droitwich - I used to scrub out the ice-cream tins. Then I used to work in the lido cafe making candy floss, Alan Jones owned the cafe. I would love to hear from anyone who worked there or remembers me, my name is Derek Haydon. I used to live at Packington Crossing. Alan Jones spent time drinking in the Worcestershire Vaults, also known as 'the tap', at the side of the Worcestershire Hotel. He used to drink with my mother May Haydon and my dad Jock Haydon, who looked after Droitwich Railway Station. The good old days...ah well, they have gone now.
York-Jones Ice Creamery. From Vines Lane. Main Entrance.
This is the York-Jones Ice Creamery viewed from Vines Lane. It shows the main entrance for personnel and vans.
York-Jones. Rear of The Factory From by The Salwarpe River.
This is another rear view of the York-Jones Ice Creamery. It looks as if it was taken from the bridge over the Salwarpe River/Stream. The Stream ran by the back of the Factory.
York-Jones Ice Creamery. Front Entrance.
This shows the main entrance to the factory. The machines in the foreground were used to cut the large blocks of ice cream into smaller blocks for processing on the choc ice machine or the wafer ice machine.
