North Devon’s Hocking’s ice cream is a way of life, owner says

The owner of a long-established ice cream company in Devon says the business is “not a job, it’s a way of life”.

Hocking’s Dairy Cream Ices continues to serve ice cream to people across north Devon after it was founded by Dave Hocking in the 1930s.

Mr Hocking’s grandsons, Neil and Geoff, currently run the company after they joined the family business about 50 years ago.

Neil said: “I’ve been here since I was 18 years old and now I’m 63. It’s great meeting people everyday, everybody is so happy meeting you.”

Geoff said he had only planned to join the business for about 12 months.

“When my dad asked me to join the family firm I didn’t really want to work weekends or bank holidays,” he told BBC Radio Devon.

“But somehow I got drawn in and here I am now still working.”

He said the ice cream they made now was “almost identical” to the recipe his grandfather used when the business was founded.

Neil said the ice cream company never used to offer flavours other than vanilla but it decided to make a change following feedback from customers across north Devon.

“We were getting large families coming up and asking for flavours, which we didn’t do, and they were literally just walking off,” he said.

“I seized the moment and started about creating flavours. Initially we only did coffee, chocolate and strawberry. Now we do eight flavours.”

Employee Fabian has been selling ice cream from the company’s vans for about 10 years.

The ice cream seller said he visited various locations including Torrington, Bideford and Westward Ho!.

“I was born and raised here and its [Hockings] is a local institution,” he said.

“Sunday is always the busiest day of the week.

“Once it starts, it’s busy, you can have a 10m queue for about three or four hours.

“It doesn’t matter how fast you work, it never goes away.”