• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

The Ice Cream Man

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frantic
  • Start date Start date
Williamstreeter said:
Carolina dear Verrecchia probably the first ice cream maker to have an ice cream parlour 1953/55 just before the hill going up Dudley Rd from Spring Hill . May have been the first ice cream vans with fluorescent lights early 60's Tony Verrecchia used to cover quite a lot of Birmingham, I remember him in Winson Green area while visiting my sister RIP in Harding St. Tony carried the business on from his Father then Tony died some years ago
Click to expand...
Severo verrecchia was an early italian icecream trader in bham. Factory and shop on Dudley rd. also vans. Started up in 1935, not 1953/1955. Verrecchia's still trade in bham today, run by my nephew dean who is Tony's son. Verrecchia's in Cambridge is owned by Ivo Verrecchia, a cousin to Severo. Severo was my father.
 
The best ice cream that I was aware of, around the 1950 area, was obtainable in Henley-in-Arden.
It was well worth a ten mile, or so, cycle ride to get it. The trip was combined with train spotting, canal towpath cycling and usually a pleasant young persons kind of day out. :)
 
As a youngster the history of Henley-in-Arden ice cream was of little interest, just its availability. I had believed it to be a post WW2 product - well lollipops, ice creams and sweets were in very short supply up until the late 1940's - but I notice its history goes back to 1934. I guess it was the West Country milk that made it especial at the time I lived near there. I did visit the tea rooms in 1980 when on a visit to the Midlands, but of course I was never in there as a youngster - food was always 'on the hoof' when cycling around. ;) Fast food is not as new as some would have you believe. After all, who invented fish and chips? Good to see that the place is now a family affair and not a conglomerate one.

History | Henley Ice Cream

henleyicecream.co.uk henleyicecream.co.uk
 
Radiorails said:
The best ice cream that I was aware of, around the 1950 area, was obtainable in Henley-in-Arden.
It was well worth a ten mile, or so, cycle ride to get it. The trip was combined with train spotting, canal towpath cycling and usually a pleasant young persons kind of day out. :)
Click to expand...
well said. sitting on the station platform. watching the trains go past. eating ice cream.and drinking arden mineral water. "POP"
 
Edifi said:
Radiorails wonder if the kids of today would at it in the same vain.
Click to expand...
I don't know, many areas of the country do not have railway lines to sit by and those that do it is generally high speed. Probably some do on the numerous heritage type lines. But, it was a different age, we never cried for the moon - we knew we wouldn't get it! Our expectations and needs were tempered by the times.
 
Last edited:
As you say it's a different age and world.We would sit for hours at Bromford Bridge train spotting,Today it's an I Pad or phone for many of them.
 
Probably those youngsters of yesteryear radiorails are now the oldies today, still doing it at the steam heritage sites.
Very few of todays youngsters seem to interested in the old methods of transport, aircraft, trains or cars.
I got my interest in aircraft from spotting aircraft at Elmdon and other airfields as a schoolboy in the early 60s.
You never see schoolboys doing that these days.
 
Most volunteers on heritage lines - and other leisure places - are older because they are retired. These are platform,ticket office and collectors, guards and light maintenance workers. However the larger, more progressive lines have many employees who are younger and some volunteers also who are younger as the work on railways can be quite heavy and arduous. Providing youngsters are welcomed then they soon settle in from what I see.
And to bring the thread back on topic many get involved in cafeterias - plus selling books and ice creams. ;)
 
As a child quite a few of our holidays in the 1950s were spent in and around Weymouth. My mom always insisted on going to Rossi's ice cream parlour to taste what she described as "The best Ice cream in the world!" I have to admit it did seem tastier than the ones we occasionally had back home but was it because we were on holiday? I don't know, when you're a kid all ice cream tastes great. A couple of years ago I was in Weymouth again just for the day and lo and behold Rossi's still had an ice cream shop on the promenade and yes the ice cream did taste wonderful and just as I remember it 60 or so years ago.
 
jmadone said:
As a child quite a few of our holidays in the 1950s were spent in and around Weymouth. My mom always insisted on going to Rossi's ice cream parlour to taste what she described as "The best Ice cream in the world!" I have to admit it did seem tastier than the ones we occasionally had back home but was it because we were on holiday? I don't know, when you're a kid all ice cream tastes great. A couple of years ago I was in Weymouth again just for the day and lo and behold Rossi's still had an ice cream shop on the promenade and yes the ice cream did taste wonderful and just as I remember it 60 or so years ago.
Click to expand...

how lovely jim....still there after all those years.. :)

lyn
 
I guess most of the traditional seaside resorts had their ice cream parlours - usually with Italian names. Torbay had a couple, Pelosi and Dimeo. Of course they were usually in prominent positions so others had to rely on Walls (who seemed to have a monopoly with the shop style refrigerators) and mobile van sellers. There were regional manufacturers names as well.
 
Lindaquinlan said:
Severo verrecchia was an early italian icecream trader in bham. Factory and shop on Dudley rd. also vans. Started up in 1935, not 1953/1955. Verrecchia's still trade in bham today, run by my nephew dean who is Tony's son. Verrecchia's in Cambridge is owned by Ivo Verrecchia, a cousin to Severo. Severo was my father.
Click to expand...

Linda my dates quoted were when I first observed the parlour not when the business started, I was well aware of Tony and the vans, and used to look forward to his chimes as a kid
 
I remember the Ice Cream Man used to come down Hall Road to the corner of Ask Road. Every night at 8.45 on the dot. He sold the soft ice cream, the only place I think you could get it was the ice cream man. (I know now that it is nothing like real ice cream). By the way the name 99 comes from 99% ice cream and 1% chocolate. Well that's what I have been told. Verrecchia ice cream is still here in Cambridge. In fact their mobile vendors seem to be everywhere in the city. The very best ice cream though has to be Italian, especially that available here at the Italian ice cream parlours.
 
suemalings said:
I remember the Ice Cream Man used to come down Hall Road to the corner of Ask Road. Every night at 8.45 on the dot. He sold the soft ice cream, the only place I think you could get it was the ice cream man. (I know now that it is nothing like real ice cream). By the way the name 99 comes from 99% ice cream and 1% chocolate. Well that's what I have been told. Verrecchia ice cream is still here in Cambridge. In fact their mobile vendors seem to be everywhere in the city. The very best ice cream though has to be Italian, especially that available here at the Italian ice cream parlours.
Click to expand...
we all have different tastes. i never liked, Verrecchia ice cream . mr wippy was ok...
 
Sue,

Even in this north eastern part of Crete, the best ice cream by far is Italian. By sheer coincidence, the Greek guy that owns the shop in Aghios Nikolaos lives in our village, so I always get a chunky discount whenever he's on duty himself. :)

Maurice :cool:
 
I seem to remember (could be mistaken) going for ice soft cream at Lewisis after my mom finished shopping. That was my incentive to behave :-(
 
Radiorails said:
The best ice cream that I was aware of, around the 1950 area, was obtainable in Henley-in-Arden.
It was well worth a ten mile, or so, cycle ride to get it. The trip was combined with train spotting, canal towpath cycling and usually a pleasant young persons kind of day out. :)
Click to expand...
Back in the 50s another place, famed for its ice cream, was Portway, not far from Henley. My kid brother & I went there once, with our parents for an ice cream and we thought it was great. Next day all four of us were struck with diarrhoea & vomiting. Four of us sharing one toilet - we cursed that ice cream !
 
One of the problems with fast food, take away or any food on the hoof, is that it often eaten with unclean hands. We went into a KFC a couple of times, some while ago, and my wife commented that few people went into the washroom to wash their hands before eating. We have never been back since. Occasionally, after a buying trip in a supermarket, we buy a chocolate bar or snack but we do keep in the car an antiseptic hand gel for use of those occasions. I am not suggesting those places are unhygienic, but if you buy uncooked chickens, meats and similar products there is a good chance of contamination.
 
Last edited:
Alan,

An old friend would never let me take him out to dinner, however posh, when I visited Bournemouth from Crete. Even in the hotel restaurant. He always insisted that I went to his home. Yet, he used to go on cruises with his wife, admittedly under pressure, and what better place to catch salmonella or whatever than on a cruise ship! I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
Radiorails said:
One of the problems with fast food, take away or any food on the hoof, is that it often eaten with unclean hands. We went into a KFC a couple of times, some while ago, and my wife commented that few people went into the washroom to wash their hands before eating. We have never been back since. Occasionally, after a buying trip in a supermarket, we buy a chocolate bar or snack but we do keep in the car an antiseptic hand gel for use of those occasions. I am not suggesting those paces are unhygienic, but if you buy uncooked chickens, meats and similar products there is a good chance of contamination.
Click to expand...
alan.i walked out of a macdoodals last week, while waiting for my nosebag,the girl serving started picking her face. yuk:mad:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top