SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

On the Parade on the Kirkdales', and by the Kirkdales' chippy, were vending machines. They were for chewing gum, and cigs. A chromed Players' machine dispensed cigs, to adults and kids alike. This was very useful for junior smokers, and Sunday smokers,baccy back in the Sixties. A choice from light-weight to Senior Service; Navy Cut and untipped. Gum included K.P and Beech-Nut. A Wrigleys'machine offered more choice. A Sunday treat for me in '66, from LS12, a trip to Yeadon Tarn. My Dad had fish in mind. For me it would be the playground, with sandpit highlight. A brick-built kiosk could provide pots of tea for the family, and ice-creams;66' and 99. Before we got there in Dad's Ford Pop, we might stop at a closed shop, uphill on Harrogate Road. There was a vending machine of childhood dreams. It was huge to me, pastel blue and buttercream, From its mouth it gave blocks of ice-cream, this seems unbelievable now. I think it cost two bob, a lot of money then. This is a memory- monster curvy vending machine, spewing posh ice-cream from its jaws. I'm sure it was real,and this is not a tonsillitis hallucination flashback. Somewhere on the left between Quakers' and Batter Lane.

Are you sure it was ice cream and not Pepsi?

Hi Pong e Beck.Going back further (at least to the 1950s) there used to be vending machines that issued packs of chewing gum (Wrigley's ?) that for every fourth pack there would be another one free. The catchy advertising jingle was (or something like) "With the fourth you get one more an extra packet free". As a child you knew when it was coming, as the handle to release the packet had a mark on it that you knew when the next free one would come. I don't know when those machines ended.

[quotenick="liits"]Are you sure it was ice cream and not Pepsi?In the late 1960s early 70s there was an ice cream vending machine on Stonegate RoadEdit : that should have read late 1950s early 60s

Outside a newsagent's on Kirk Lane, Yeadon,just round the corner from my Grandparents house there was a "choc ice" vending machine, a large red cabinet. We were never allowed one, they were "too dear" and Grandma didn't reckon much to "muckment out of a machine".

I certainly remember in the 1960/70s, there being Caramac & Cadbury's Dairy Milk small bars available in vending machines. Is Caramac (not sure it is spelt right) still available?

I remember Frys chocolate vending machines. The chocolate bars had young boys faces on them.

headingleylad wrote: I certainly remember in the 1960/70s, there being Caramac & Cadbury's Dairy Milk small bars available in vending machines. Is Caramac (not sure it is spelt right) still available? Caramac bars are still very much available.I can remember the 'Nestlé Dairy Crunch' vending machines on most station platforms as a kid. It was a milk chocolate bar with rice crispies in and came in a quite chunky almost square bar. There was also a white chocalate version, imaginatively called Nestlé Dairy Crunch White.It's now apparently just called "Nestlé Crunch", and is a much more slender bar.... Cadbury's Dairy Milk has become a decidedly inferior product since Kraft took over, IMHO.

raveydavey wrote: headingleylad wrote: I certainly remember in the 1960/70s, there being Caramac & Cadbury's Dairy Milk small bars available in vending machines. Is Caramac (not sure it is spelt right) still available? Caramac bars are still very much available.I can remember the 'Nestlé Dairy Crunch' vending machines on most station platforms as a kid. It was a milk chocolate bar with rice crispies in and came in a quite chunky almost square bar. There was also a white chocalate version, imaginatively called Nestlé Dairy Crunch White.It's now apparently just called "Nestlé Crunch", and is a much more slender bar.... Cadbury's Dairy Milk has become a decidedly inferior product since Kraft took over, IMHO. Yes I can remember the Nestle machines that dispensed the blocky chocolate bars. There would be a choice of the classic Nestle Crunch bars, some rotten dark chocolate thing, something with raisins and nuts in and a plain milk chocolate bar. You had to yank a metal drawer out that had your choice of bar inside, quite often the drawer would jam. Some of the machines on the station platforms seemed to have been there for decades I remember. I last saw one at the NRM in York a couple of years ago and it took me right back.

As a kid,I learnt the delicate operation of pulling out the bottom dispensing drawer in the chocolate vending machines sufficiently just to trigger the release mechanism before doing the same repeatedly for several bars of the stuff,all for the same coin inserted.The odd bar became trapped or mangled up a bit but it was worth it ! One of the many failings of secondary school or ..............?