Ice cream sales soar as big freeze continues

Graham and Chris Daniels opened Archer's Jersey Ice Cream just days before Arctic conditions hit the North-East with several feet of snow and temperatures dipping to a bone-chilling minus 15.

They experienced some of the country's worst blizzards and feared that the last food people would buy in the sub-zero conditions would be ice cream.

58-year-old Graham has seen dozens of families in the parlour and believes ice cream offers a cheap option as people make cutbacks.

He has even seen hungry children grabbing cones and taking them and sampling them while hurtling down ice-covered hills on sledges.

‘It's great to see the kids enjoying themselves with our ice creams. Lots of children have a sweet tooth and that doesn't go away even when it's so cold,’ said Graham.

‘Now they are on their holidays they have been coming in for an ice cream fix with their sledges and it's marvellous, the cold doesn't seem to bother them at all.’