Pasquale, he was… an ice cream maker and he opened a shop
Interviewer
Are you from the family who were ice cream makers?
Irene
Yes, they were, yes. Came over in 1879. Our great-great-grandfather, Antonio, he was actually a one-man band and to make the money to open the shops, he made money selling, making ice cream, selling ice cream. And he used to have a monkey on his organ and he used to play, he was like a proper one man band and everything, because he was a proper musician. Eventually our great grandfather, Pasquale, he was a confectioner, he was obviously an ice cream maker and he opened a shop and he had a lot of people who actually worked for him and he owned the building. Because they lived either upstairs and then moved from there to a big house in Sand Street, which is gone now. Everything’s gone from Sand Street, hasn’t it?
Kathlene
He was a herbalist because he used to make sarsaparilla.
Irene
He used to make sarsaparilla for all the drunken men!
Kathleen
The wives used to send the kids round for a can.
Irene
But my grandad actually did take Italians in to work for him as well, in his shop down at High Street. He had quite a few, didn’t he?
Kathleen
According to our mother, he owned half the sea front didn’t he?
Irene
He started off, I think, did it start off with a hut on the beach, because we’ve got a photograph of it. And it’s Franciosi and it’s a hut on the beach. And I don’t know if it was an off shot of the shop or not. But he did have it, and it’s the turn of the century, the photograph.
This memory is part of the Bishopwearmouth Townscape Heritage Scheme collection.