Family has a secret recipe for success
ANDY KEEBLE explores the tradition that is Hocking’s ice cream
IT’S a hot sunny day in South Wales and a woman approaches an ice cream van for a scoop or two of the local gold medal-winning favourite.
“It’s not bad,” she tells the ice cream seller, “but it’s not as good as my local ice cream.
“Well, where are you from?” he replies in his thick, yet slightly dejected Welsh accent.
“Bideford,” replies the woman.
“Oh, blooming Hocking’s!” he sighs. “I get fed up of hearing that!”
It’s quite literally the cream of North Devon — a tantalising taste tradition that so many have grown up with during the last 70 years. The clocks go forward and Devonshire hills and hedgerows begin to spring with colour — but it is sightings of the familiar burgundy and cream Hocking’s Dairy Ice Cream vans that really signal summer’s on the way!
“People often say to us: ‘we know summer’s coming when you’re about’,” laughs Geoff Hocking, grandson of original founder, Dave.
“We have a bit of a holiday in the winter, but from March to October, we’re out every day selling ice cream.
“It’s nice to think that our ice cream has become somewhat of a North Devon tradition, a part of people’s lives, almost.
“This is one of the reasons myself and my brother Neil still go out in the vans and sell ice cream today.
“It would be very easy for us to employ more sales staff and spend more time making ice cream, but we love the people contact — sending customers home happy today, so that they come back tomorrow.”
Geoff Hocking has been working on ice cream vans since he was a little boy of 12 or 13. Although training as an electrician after leaving school, he helped out the family business one summer after his father found he was short of an ice cream seller.
Every summer, he said it would be his last but it very quickly became a real way of life for the young Appledore lad — a “lifestyle”.
The business started life in a house in Richmond Road, Appledore, in 1936 after the Hocking family’s bus company was nationalised, forcing “granfer” Dave Hocking to look for other work.
“My granfer was friendly with a chap who sold ice cream from a barrow in Lynton,” explains Geoff. “He bought an old 1928 Morris Cowley and had it converted to sell ice cream.
“The old vehicle is still in the family today — but only just!
“In the 1960s my father Dave (senior) was always trying to get my granfer to get rid of the Morris and buy himself a ‘nice new Bedford’,” chuckles Geoff.
“But he always said: ‘no, I’m going to hang onto this one. It’s always sold ice cream and it will still sell ice cream’.”
And granfer Hocking was right. Over time, the distinctive old Morris became a familiar feature at Westward Ho! and Appledore, and continued to sell ice cream up until he died in 1980.
Last year, to mark the company’s 70th anniversary, the van was beautifully restored and will now sell ice cream at special events for many more years to come.
“The chap who renovated the Morris was a former Rolls-Royce engineer who came out of retirement to work on the van,” says Geoff. “He really took the project to heart and although it was falling apart by the time he got it, he rebuilt it in exactly the same manner an old coach would have been back then.
“The last we saw of it for 12 months, it was in pieces in a workshop. I nearly cried when I saw it restored for the first time. The family were thrilled to bits to have granfer’s original van back.
“It had a working life of more than 45 years and was used every day up until the 1980s. So many people say they love it and remember it and we are so pleased to be able to bring it out on special occasions.”
This winter, the oldest van in the 13-strong fleet has been joined by the youngest member — a brand new £35,000 Mercedes Sprinter.
In the 1960s, the Hockings had five vans and continued growth forced the business to move to bigger purpose-built premises 50 yards up the road in Kingsley Avenue.
Today, it is run by grandsons Geoff and Neil, with great grandson Andrew.
“Dad passed away in 2000 and as happens in most family businesses, we took over as a natural progression,” says Geoff.
“I suppose it is rarer to see nowadays, but not so long ago, that was the way things were always done.
“Family businesses are great because things are done in the traditional way and seem to run so efficiently.”
It is this sense of history that is every bit as rich as the company’s creamy dairy vanilla ice cream. But what is it about the award-winning taste that keeps so many people — locals and holidaymakers alike — coming back for more?
“The recipe is a closely guarded family secret and has hardly changed at all in all these years,” Geoff said.
“In fact, there are only three people alive who know how to make Hocking’s ice cream — myself, Neil and Andrew.
“We use a lot of butter and clotted cream — the best local ingredients we can.
“You only get out what you put in and because we manufacture and sell the ice cream ourselves, there is no middleman —something that puts us at a real advantage.
“Many people have approached us and said ‘we’d like to buy the recipe to make your ice cream’, but it’s not for sale.”
Last year, Hocking’s Dairy Vanilla ice cream won a bronze medal in an annual Ice Cream Alliance competition to find the best of the best.
“It was great to win the award ahead of hundreds and hundreds of other ice creams in time for our 70th anniversary,” says Geoff.
“Although we do other flavours, we tend to specialise in Dairy Vanilla and to be absolutely honest, vanilla is so popular we hardly have room left for much else in the vans.”
Each batch of ice cream takes two days to make — from pasteurisation, to a 24-hour “ageing” process in a storage vat, to freezing.
It’s a worthwhile wait. A regular feature on Bideford Quay, Appledore Quay, Torrington Commons, Westward Ho!, Ilfracombe, as well as Sainsbury’s in Barnstaple, and Instow in the evenings, people come from far and wide to buy a scoop.
“People depend on us being in a particular location and you can’t let them down,” says Geoff.
“There is nothing worse than making a special trip somewhere only to find that we’re not there. Only the other day, a couple at Torrington Common said: ‘thank goodness you’re here. We came all the way from Okehampton!’.
“You don’t sell ice cream if you’re not out selling it and that’s why we do it, regardless of the weather.
“We are so lucky that we are so well-liked but there is no magic formula to selling ice cream. If it’s warm and sunny, you’ll sell ice cream; if it’s warm and rainy you’ll sell ice cream; if it’s cold and rainy, you’ll sell ice cream — maybe just not as much!”
“I’m a big fan of ice cream myself and whenever I go anywhere new, I always try the local variety,” adds Geoff.
“There are a lot of good ones about, but I have to say, I prefer the rich, creamy Westcountry version. There’s nothing quite like it and Devon, Cornwall and Somerset do the best in my opinion.
“They’re actually very good in Wales too,” he laughs.
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