The History of Lakenham Creamery
Aldous Ice Cream
Lakenham Creamery (formerly known as Aldous Ices) was established circa.1921 by Mr Christmas Aldous.
Our Aldous Ice Cream was originally made in a wooden tub packed with ice which had to be spun by hand as the ice cream mix was poured in. The ice cream quickly developed a reputation for its high quality and the business began to expand.
In 1938, Mr Aldous began gradually utilising more modern methods with electric driven machinery, as proudly advertised on the sidecar in the photograph of the founder.
The Aldous Family introduced a fleet of ice cream vans which would drive in and around Norwich serving our delicious Aldous Ice Creams to generations of families. We often hear people’s wonderful memories, which included enjoying a scoop of ice cream from one of the vans.
Alongside the fleet of ice cream vans, the Aldous family also introduced two trailers on the Norwich Market. The trailers would serve just Vanilla and Strawberry Aldous Ice Cream - this was commonly referred to as ‘White’ for Vanilla and ‘Pink’ for Strawberry. On a Saturday, the ladies on the trailer would scoop over 3,000 ice creams. The trailers were situated on the top right hand side of the market, and the bottom left. To this present day, we still have a stall on the bottom left of the Norwich Market - opposite the Royal Arcade, beside CJ’s Fruit & Veg Stall, scooping our Award Winning Aldous and Norfolk County Ice Cream.
Mr. Aldous passed the family-run business down to his two sons - Ronnie and Chris Aldous.
Norfolk County Ice Cream
In the mid 1980’s, the business was purchased by Michael Harrold and his brother in law Richard Bevan who retained the services of Chris Aldous as a consultant. The then new owners introduced the Norfolk County Range made with fresh cream, sugar, eggs and natural flavourings. This was based on the principle of how you would make ice cream at home, but on a bigger scale.
The idea came from Richard Bevan, who had seen artisan businesses in the USA producing fresh cream ice cream and creating an adult ice cream with a dense, rich, creamy taste. The launch of the Norfolk County brand in 1986 preceded the appearance of Hagen Dazs which arrived in the UK 3 years later, and was then followed by Ben & Jerrys.
By contrast, Lakenham Creamery has continued as a family business, owned since 1992 by the current owner Mr. Chris Coughlan who has overseen the development of the business over the last 30 years to it’s current place in the market as the foremost producer of proper fresh cream ice cream in the UK. Winners of 40 Great Taste Gold Awards testifies to the quality of this ice cream.
In 2019, Chris made the decision to hand over the day to day running of the business to Damian, the General Manager to retire and enjoy life! You will find Chris riding around Norfolk on his motorbikes, wandering around Norwich city, or working on exciting new ideas.
Lakenham Creamery’s continued success has strongly been down to it’s passionate and loyal work force. The team consists of 5 hard-working members, who are passionate about their jobs and the ice cream we produce. To meet the team, and for a ‘Behind for Scenes’ on a normal day at the Creamery, head over to the ‘Our Story’ section.
Alongside our dedicated team, it is also down to our customers, old and new, who continue to support our business.
For this we would like to say a huge THANK YOU!
