Handling blocks of ice at Dark's Ice Works, 1936.
Confessions of an ice dealer
RAY Kime used to be one of the biggest ice dealers in the Wallsend area. He’d buy from his supplier in Newcastle and break down the pure ice into smaller quantities for his many customers who simply couldn’t get by without it. That was before electric refrigerators, of course, when most people used iceboxes to keep their foodstuffs cold. “When fridges came in, well that was the beginning of the end for the ice home delivery business,” Ray told me. He still has his ice pick, his ice tongs and various bits and pieces of paperwork…