Trillo's of Whitby Ice Cream Van
Trillo's of Whitby 1968 Land Rover Series II 109 ice cream van, MBT 984F: a tall cream coachbuilt body on the Series II chassis with a sign peak reading Trillo Brothers, big sliding serving windows and a blue waist stripe, run for decades on the sands below Whitby pier and still at work when photographed in 2014 and 2017.
History
Trillo's, an Italian-Yorkshire family ice cream business established in 1912, has served Whitby's beach for generations. Its beach van is a 1968 Land Rover Series II 109-inch, registered MBT 984F, carrying a purpose-built cream body whose sign peak over the windscreen advertises Trillo Brothers, Lemon Top Cone and free Dracula Blood sauce, with Whitby Ice Cream Co along the roof sides; the Land Rover's four-wheel drive lets it work on the sand below the pier where a conventional ice cream van could not. It was photographed for Wikimedia Commons at work in 2014 and again in 2017, and is a well-known fixture of the town. Its coachbuilder is not recorded in the sources.
The registry's model keeps the Series II 109's front and chassis, with the bonnet spare removed, and adds the coachbuilt body, raked screen and sign peak, serving windows, waist stripe, maroon bumper, pale blue radiator panel, plates and lettering from the photograph.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Series II 109 chassis); ice cream body by an unrecorded coachbuilder
- Manufactured
- 1968 Series II 109, in service into the 2010s
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Unrecorded coachbuilder (ice cream van body)
- Engine type
- Rover 2.25 L four-cylinder petrol
- Production run
- 1
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- in service
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series II
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 109″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- 1968 Land Rover Series II 109" 4 Cylinder Ice Cream Truck Front — Wikimedia Commons ↗ — Wikimedia Commons (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Trillo's ice cream Land Rover at Whitby (skillsbus, Flickr) ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-11)
- Trillo's of Whitby Ice Cream — Wanderlog ↗ — Wanderlog (accessed 2026-09-11)
Catalogue references
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1968_Land_Rover_Series_II_109%22_4_Cylinder_Ice_Cream_Truck_Front.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1968_Land_Rover_Series_II_109%22_4_Cylinder_Ice_Cream_Truck_Front.jpg ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-11T10:22:08.264Z · status: researched