Do You Remember These Lyons Maid Iced Lollies from the 1970s?

Although Lyons Maid launched in 1925, the British ice cream company didn't reach the peak of its success until the 1970s. Thanks partly to the popularity of the corner shop, ice cream vans, and long hot summers, it was thriving back then, producing a vast range of ice lollies in the UK. Some of these were based on popular TV shows and films of the day.

For this post, we're going to take a look at those long-forgotten Lyons Maid ice lollies. A couple have stood the test of time and are still being made today; how many of these do you remember? 

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Bionic Lolly

This lemonade and spearmint-flavoured lolly was based on The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, which starred Lee Majors as Colonel Steve Austin, the "bionic" man. The wrapper was red to match his iconic tracksuit, but the lolly was eventually discontinued when the TV series ended in 1978.

Captain Rainbow 

A lemonade, banana and strawberry ice lolly with a chocolate flavoured coating. A comic strip featured on the rear of the wrapper. However, the character was not based on a TV or movie superhero and was purely the invention of Lyons Maid. 

Cider Barrel and Cider Quench

Lyons Maid produced two separate cider-flavoured lollies in the 1970s. Neither contained cider or alcohol, although they somehow passed the Trade Description Act! They were flavoured with apple juice and caramelised sugar syrup.  

Cola Rola and Cola Quench

We've all heard of Rola Cola, thanks to Peter Kay's stand-up routines. However, in the 1970s, Lyons Maid produced an unrelated Cola Rola iced lolly. The alternative was Cola Quench, which was marketed as "the drink on a stick." However, we're unsure why Lyons Maid produced two cola lollies.

Dairy Maid

Priced at around 7p, Dairy Maid was a white dairy vanilla and milk flavoured iced lolly which featured a picture of a blonde-haired milk maid on the front carrying wooden pales of milk. It was deliciously creamy.

Fab

This iconic lolly with brown, white, and red segments was launched in 1967 (price 6d) and is based on the TV series Thunderbirds. It was marketed towards girls - Lady Penelope's Rolls Royce number plate is FAB 1. 

Its flavour is strawberry and vanilla, and Nestle still sells Fab today. The top segment features a chocolate-flavoured coating, which is covered in multi-coloured sugar strands (better known as hundreds and thousands). The middle segment was white in the 1970s but is now pink.

Goal!

During the golden era of football, Lyons Maid produced a football-themed ice lolly called Goal! It featured an illustration of three football players on the front and was flavoured with cream soda, pineapple, and strawberry. The lolly came on a white plastic stick with a footballer on the top which could be painted to look like a football star of the day. There were ten different sticks to collect.

Haunted House

Horror themes were popular in the 1970s, and you may also remember Haunted House spaghetti by Heinz, which was completely unconnected to the iced lolly. The white iced lolly was launched in 1973 with an RRP of 4p. It was unique in that a spooky picture made from edible ink was printed onto each lolly, and there were eight different designs. What made the lolly exciting to children was the surprise element of not knowing what picture the lolly contained. 

The flavour was vanilla and two different wrapper designs were produced, one of which features Frankenstein's monster and a skeleton head. I remember a Haunted House fairground ride at our local annual fun fair in the 1970s.

King Stick

This majestic lolly included dairy ice cream with a toffee flavour centre and a chocolate flavour coating with biscuit crumbs. It was very much like a crunchy choc ice on a stick but with the additional bonus of gooey toffee in its centre. It was part of the King ice cream range which included King Cornet, King Sundae and King Crunch.

Lolly Gobble Choc Bomb

This quirky lolly included strawberry flavoured ice wrapped around a chocolate-flavoured bar with the top segment covered in sugar balls. The stick included a quiz, with the rear of the wrapper containing a brain-teaser puzzle.

Mivvi

The Mivvi range contained a delicious combination of vanilla ice cream centre with an iced fruit-flavoured shell and included Strawberry, Cornish Strawberry, Pineapple and Raspberry. The Mivvi range is no longer being made but you can buy similar own brand Fruit Splits from most British supermarkets.

Orange Maid

This was a particular favourite of mine as it contained frozen orange juice and quenched the thirst. It was ideal for the long, hot summers of the era, such as 1976. Its biggest rival was Walls Orange Fruitie. Lyons Maid also produced an Orange Juice Bar lolly.

Real Apple

This Lyons Maid classic included the juice from real apples, providing a very tasty, thirst-quenching ice lolly. The cream and green wrapper is from 1980. Cider Quench and Cider Barrel and also provided an apple taste, but there were subtle differences between each one.

Rock around the Choc

This one is not as well-remembered but was very popular in the 1970s. It contained strawberry-flavoured ice wrapped around a chocolate-flavoured centre, and the top section was sprinkled with multi-coloured sugar balls. 

Space 1999

These often came with a free picture card and were based on the British sci-fi series Space 1999, which initially aired from 1975 to 1977. It was the last TV production by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The lolly was discontinued after the TV series ended.

Zoom

The classic tri-coloured rocket lolly was hugely popular in the 1960s and 70s. Its flavours were strawberry, banana and raspberry. A limited edition Zoom was produced in 2019 by its new owner, Froneri, which was available to buy in a six-pack from Morrisons. These days, most supermarkets sell alternative own-brand rocket lollies.

Whatever Happened to Lyons Maid?

Lyons Maid was sold to Nestlé in 1992, and the three dancing children logo was dropped in 1998 and replaced by Nestlé branding. 

Lyons Maid is currently owned by Froneri, an ice cream manufacturer based in Yorkshire, England, which is owned by Nestlé and PAI Partners - each company owns a 50% share. 

The French equity firm PAI Partners bought R&R ice cream in 2013, which was originally Richmond Ice Cream (established in 1985). They merged with Nestlé in 2016 to become Froneri.

The Lyons Maid branding was revived in 2008 for a range of ice cream products including vanilla ice cream blocks, ice cream roll choc ices and several flavours of ice cream tubs including vanilla, raspberry, raspberry pavlova, caramel and triple choc, chocolate sundae and unicorn ice cream. Stockists include IceCreamSupply.co.uk, Trolley Mate and Continental Food Store websites. However, the FAB ice lolly still retains the Nestlé branding.

We hope you enjoyed reading about these popular Lyons Maid iced lollies from the 1970s, and taking a brief trip back to the company's golden age.