Tickled pink in Morecambe

8:20pm Saturday 12th July 2008

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As chill factors go, Sunset Ices must be off the scale. It’s even been listed in a national newspaper’s top ten places to eat by the sea! “I seem to have been making the headlines of late,” smiled Kate, whose ice cream van is all the more remarkable because it is a beautifully restored classic Bedford CF, which boasts the legend ‘everyday is like sundae’.

“That’s a nod and a wink to the Morrissey song written about Morecambe,” added Kate who sells only traditional, locally-made ice creams from her pitch, which neighbours the magnificently restored Midland Hotel.

It’s the perfect spot for Kate to indulge her love of all matters vintage – she has a thing about faded seaside glamour – and to pursue her other passion, art and design, which she does via her own business ‘Tickled Pink’.

Kate was only four when the family departed Blackpool for southern England but she returned to central Lancashire when she was a teenager.

It was the art teacher at Chorley’s Parklands high school, and her aunt in Glasgow (a “strong woman” who used to let her niece roam the city’s vibrant West End) who together inspired Kate to apply for a place at the renowned Glasgow School of Art.

On completion of her degree, Kate combined waiting on tables with commercial art work while she made up her mind how best to get paid for being creative.

Then a friend recommended she do an MA – but that meant moving to London.

Kate wrinkled her nose at the memory. It was the price she had to pay for a stepping stone on to the capital’s design network.

“I ended up doing stuff for interactive media. At the time it was quite new,” said Kate, who worked for a small agency before going freelance. (The BBC is among her clients).

And then she took a day-trip to Brighton and that determined Kate to head for the seaside once again.

“There was such a lot going on there,” she explained. “It was busy, and I wanted to be by the sea.”

The other plus about the move was that Kate’s best friend, the photographer Sonja Campbell, also decided to head to Brighton with her family (Kate is godmother to Sonja’s son Lincoln). Things couldn’t have been more perfect … until Sonja and her partner relocated to Morecambe.

“We had both always rented but Sonja wanted a house,” explained Kate … and Morecambe was affordable (then!).

However, Kate “really missed” her friends, so much so that she would trek from Brighton to Morecambe once a month. And that, in turn, led to Kate’s decision two-and-a-half years ago to move back north.

“I really liked Morecambe,” she said. “And moving didn’t affect my work. I still get commissions from down south.”

(Check out Tickled Pink, Kate’s design and illustration agency, at www.tickled-pink.org) Morecambe was also the ideal venue for another idea Kate had up her very clever sleeve.

“When I worked in London, at Shoreditch, I used to go and sit in this square and have my lunch. It was really trendy, and full of people. I thought that you could really make lots of money selling food to people just around the square itself.”

And so Kate – who loves old things, anything with a history – began her search for the perfect vintage vehicle, and set about writing a business plan.

The project stayed on the backburner until just before her move to Morecambe when she found her van.

Mechanics and auto-electricians became Kate’s new best friends. She found a place to garage the van, and she tracked down some real ice cream to sell, made by Wallings of Cockerham.

Last year, Kate’s pitch was near Regent Road; this year she bagged pole position by the Midland Hotel.

“I think I won the tender for the pitch because Lancaster City Council thought my van contributed something a bit different, and because I am selling locally-made ice cream.”

Wallings uses milk from its own cows and cream is bought in from two local dairy suppliers.

“Also, I only sell traditional ices – 99s, wafers, ‘oysters’ with a bit of marshmallow inside, waffle cones, chocolate and raspberry sauce, nuts, hundreds and thousands and chocolate sprinkles.”

Thanks to Wallings, Kate is also able to offer a vanilla soya ice cream for people who are dairy-intolerant.

Sunset Ices are available on the prom Wednesdays to Sundays (unless torrential rain stops play) and Monday and Tuesday too, if the sun is shining.

The beauty of the van is that it is also a studio on wheels.

“I obviously work from home when I’m there, but in between selling ice creams I can carry on drawing in the van,” said Kate, who also hires out her special transport for weddings and birthdays.

Now a hard-working member of the Morecambe community, Kate is a ‘friend’ of the Midland Hotel, and was responsible for its eye-catching website. She is also sponsoring the forthcoming children’s sandcastle competition on August 10, and has lent her support with branding, logo, poster, and programme designs for Morecambe’s second 1950s seaside festival ‘Tutti Frutti’ on July 25 and 26 – right up Kate’s street!.

You might also see her in action at this weekend’s kite festival (Sunday, July 13).

Reflecting on the journey which brought her to Morecambe, Kate sometimes can’t quite believe her good fortune. To have Sunset Ices on Morecambe’s prom too, right next to the Midland, is the icing on Kate’s cake.

I guess you could say Ms Drummond is ‘tickled pink’!