THE ice-cream cornet has reached a major milestone.

The cornet is first thought to have been sold 100 years ago - and is still going strong.

The milestone came as something of a surprise to Huddersfield ice-cream makers Dixon's, which sells more than 4,000 cones from its parlour on Swan Lane, Lockwood in a hot, sunny week.

Co-owner Charles Cartwright said: "A customer first mentioned this cornet birthday last week.

"I had a rough idea cornets had been around for a long, long time, but it's something you don't think about."

He said the traditional small cornet is still the parlour's best seller, though large waffle cones from Germany are getting more and more popular.

But people who think they get more ice-cream in the bigger cones are fooling themselves.

"We sell it by the scoop," he said. "Not the cone size."

Small cones sell for 45p and the Swan Lane parlour is open seven days a week from 8am to 10pm - and always busy.

The ice-cream is made from fresh full-cream milk. It is not suitable for home freezing as it would lose its taste and texture.

Mr Cartwright reckons there are four ways to eat a cone.

The traditional way is to polish off all the ice-cream and then tackle the cone.

The second is to bite off the bottom of the cone and suck the ice-cream out.

The third is to eat some of the ice-cream, then break the tip off the bottom of the cone and use that to make a tiny second cone.

And the fourth is to cheat and eat the ice-cream from the cone using a spoon.

But what about ice- cream wafers?

Well, they seem to have had their day.

"We still sell them," said Mr Cartwright. "But it tends to be to the older generation."

* The first cone is said to have been a makeshift affair, sold at an exposition in St Louis, Missouri, in the summer of 1904.

Apparently, an ice-cream man was selling his fare in dishes, but it was so hot he quickly ran out of dishes.

So he called across to the next stallholder for help.

This man was selling a Middle East treat called zalabia, a crisp, wafer-like pastry sold with syrup. He rolled a zalabia up, the ice-cream was scooped on top - and the first cornet was sold.