The collapse of the salt industry was bitter sweet… with the last remaining factory being turned into Droitwich’s answer to Ben & Jerry’s.

In the 19th century, the Vines Park and Covercroft areas of Droitwich were covered in brine factories, where large pans of brine were boiled so that the salt could crystallise and be scooped into wooden containers to dry.

But by the middle of the century the industry had started moving to Stoke Prior. Following the introduction of refrigeration the salt industry went into decline and the last factories closed following the First World War.

The last shed standing, at the Vines Lane / Union Lane junction, became an ice cream factory and frozen foods business, owned by Alan York-Jones.

Doing battle with national brands such as Walls and Lyons Maid, ‘Yorkies’ was one of the first in the UK to sell ‘whippies’, which were kept in a special ‘soft ice cream’ freezer.

For the sweet-toothed, it was akin to having Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory on the doorstep. Eileen O’Flaherty, writing on the Facebook page Pictorial Droitwich Spa, recalled: ”I worked there with my mum in the holidays. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven – wonderful memories.”

This writer remembers it well; it was on my route to and from school – lucky me!  There was a huge fleet of ice cream vans outside (on cold, rainy days at least) and in the early 1980s, my father owned three of them – lucky me, again!

A housing developer was granted permission to destroy the buildings after and the council’s bid to get them listed failed.