...pushed along unmade roads to local fetes where fizzy drinks and ice cream would be sold.
This elegant soda stall was purchased by William Grenham in 1929 for £106 12s 6d for use at Grenham’s Tearooms in Aldershot Rd, Church Crookham, Hampshire. It was bought from Wilson’s Soda Fountains (1921) Ltd in Accrington and was supplied with a freezer and a 14 lb tube of CO2 gas.
It consists of a wooden cabinet mounted on four small wheels with a brass bar mounted on the top edge to push it along. There is a marble topped box soda machine with four soda flavour dispensers (orange, raspberry, lemon, cream soda), two nozzles for adding the CO2 gas to make up the soda and a freezer for storing ice cream.
The stall was used by Mr Grenham’s wife Clara who ran the Tearooms. It would often be pushed along unmade roads to local fetes where fizzy drinks and ice cream would be sold. One such location was the field beside the village hall opposite the Wyvern Inn in Church Crookham. The ice cream would probably have been shaped in a mould and placed between two wafer biscuits as the traditional ‘pennylicks’ had been banned in 1926.
In the 19th century if you bought ice cream from a street trader it would probably have been served in a small glass dish and cost a penny. This was called ‘penny lick. They were very unhygienic because often the glasses were only given a quick wipe before another customer used them and were eventually banned in 1926.
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