York ice cream business Graham’s Ices is celebrating a major milestone this year – as they mark 50 years of trading.
The family-run business has been providing the city of York with ice cream and childhood nostalgia since 1974.
YorkMix spoke with Graham and Maggie Rush, co-owners of Graham’s Ices, to find out more about the past 50 years, their achievements, and what comes next.
For Graham, from York, it’s been nearly a whole lifetime being involved with ice cream. He first started selling ice cream when he was 12, helping out in a local ice cream van on the weekends and school holidays.
After leaving school at 15 and working at a boatyard for a couple years, Graham knew that his passion was with ice cream and he tried to persuade his parents that’s what he wanted to do.
In the end, Graham’s mother agreed to let him buy a van and trade from their house – they altered the driveway to accommodate an ice cream van “and that’s how it all started,” Graham said.
Graham built up his business from there, buying a house in Bishopthorpe at 19 with the plans of extending the business, and accumulated a small fleet of ice cream vans. In the beginning it was mainly street work, which then grew into event work alongside it.
Maggie met Graham in 1985, and at the time she was working as a full time nurse. “The idea of somebody working in ice cream had absolutely fascinated me – within a couple of weeks I was driving an ice cream van!”
Around that time, Graham had a kiosk in York Museum Gardens and one afternoon taught Maggie how to scoop ice cream – “I think I earned more in that one afternoon than I did in a week as a nurse!”
After that, things went from “strength to strength” and after a few years became a partnership – and married in 1991. Maggie got involved with the bookkeeping, admin and inquiry side of the business.
They moved into their house on Beckfield Lane in 1996 – where they still live and the business operates from today – and had built up their ice cream fleet to four or five vans.
Now celebrating their 50th year milestone, Graham is serving the third generation of families and enjoys the job just as much as in the beginning.
“I’ve always enjoyed the business, and you tend to meet regular customers in a lot of the areas I cover. I’m on the third generation of families coming up to me after 50 years of trading which is something that you enjoy.
“It’s a job you have to be married to 24/7 because it’s not a 9 to 5 job – we’re out driving around the streets on the weekend, school holidays and evenings.”
Maggie and Graham have three children together, and Graham has another daughter.
“When our children were young, it was great fun for them – there was ice cream there whenever they wanted it!” Though their children, now grown up, aren’t in the family trade they have all worked in previously it and will continue to help out when an extra pair of hands is needed.
The pandemic impacted the business, as it used to be a cash business “now it’s probably 60% card sales, which I never thought would come about,” Graham said.
When lockdown happened in March 2020, they were – like many businesses – instructed by the council that they couldn’t trade. “The trading license was suspended – initially nobody knew for how long.
“Part of our issue was they couldn’t decide whether we were a shop or a takeaway, or what we were. But in the end, they said that we could start up again on the 1 June 2020.”
They had to introduce safety limitations like a screen on the window and passing the ice creams through the hatch, and they had a bucket of bleach inside to wash all the coins, and used a tub to pass the money back and forth, with card payments increasing significantly.
But it was a busy time for them as people would walk past their pitch on Marygate – which they’ve had since 1988 – for their daily walk, and being able to get an ice cream would provide joy to passersby.
Some of the highlights over the past 50 years have included some of the events they’ve been able to serve – such as when Pope John Paul II visited the Knavesmire, York in 1982.
Though the Pope didn’t get an ice cream himself, Graham had “never seen so many people. I completely sold out.”
Other highlights include when Maggie served Emma Willis and AJ Odudu at a wedding, which was being filmed for TV! Another highlight for Maggie was when she was asked to take an ice cream concert to the Knavesmire in 2019 for a Rod Stewart concert.
They also won Gold two years in a row (2022 and 2023) at the National Ice Cream Competition for Best Soft Serve ice cream.
Graham’s Ices have also been at many high-profile events in York such as the York 10k, the Yorkshire Marathon at University of York last year, and the Dragon Boat Race every year.
They also have a great relationship with the local primary schools and are often at school fairs, and are also regularly hired for weddings – even a couple of funerals.
As for celebrating their incredible 50 years of trading milestone, they haven’t decided yet exactly how they want to commemorate it. “It’s just a massive achievement.”
Graham and Maggie expect that they will slow down in the next five years and are currently in the process of looking to find someone to take over the business. “We’ve achieved everything we set out to do – and we’ve got a granddaughter now, which changes your way of thinking about work.”
Graham’s Ices is an independent York business worth treasuring – especially as traditional vans are on the decline – and has delighted generations of families and residents of York for five decades.
To find out more about Graham’s Ices, visit their website here. You will be able to find them out and about again in York when the season starts again in March – when you see them, make sure to wish them happy birthday!
Look back at some memories below…
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