Wigan Album

Not sure if I've tasted DeRoma's Ice-Cream, Ozy, though I know the name well, and probably have. I remember Cassinelli's, Lewis's, Feretti's and Sivori's, followed by Mr. Whippy playing "Greensleeves" as his van meandered through the streets. I like Frederick's now, from their ice-cream parlour in Chorley, also sold in Wigan Park Cafe. Apparently, my Dad once sold ice-cream from a bicycle with a box-affair fixed onto the front, possibly around the same time as DeRoma's horse-and-cart!

They had a sizeable operation just off chapel lane back in the 70s Irene . They’d sell you a fair old bag full of mis-shapes for a quid back then .
Dunno what went wrong but the place closed down practically overnight , or so it seemed .

They opened up again however some time later at premises in Great George st . , close to Ledson’s .

They only appeared to employ two or three staff , if that , and they didn’t have a retail counter as such , they seemed to be focussed on producing just for restaurants and the like , although if you knocked on the side door , a bloke dressed in white , sometimes Anthony himself , would open up and sell you a tub of whatever it was you wanted .

It was good stuff an’ all , and it wasn’t overly expensive either …plus it saved the trouble of traipsing all the way up to Frederick’s on the A6 at Chorley .

Anthony de Roma was a crackin’ gent , but he sadly passed away a few years ago , and his son Antonio doesn’t appear to be displaying any inclination to keep the business going . Not as yet anyway .

So it looks as if it’s goodnight Viennese as far as the De Roma name in Wiggin is concerned .

Pity really , and I genuinely hope that I’m proven wrong .

Been long time away.

Fredricks was always my favourite (Bryn/Ashton) I had intended to try the Chorley outlet on my visits back, but it never happened.

I have never found an ice cream with a 'mouthfeel' as good as Fredericks.

I remember when the soft/whipped ice creams, such as Mr Whippy and others came in. Folk must have liked it, as many deserted the older producers. It is only so soft because it has a lot of air entrained, so you are getting less for your money. You are buying air, still I suppose all our whipped egg products are also of the same nature.

I once saw a TV programme about the team at Lyons researching how much air they could incorporate into ice cream. It said on the programme that Margaret Hilda Roberts, who is now better known to us by her married name of Thatcher was part of this team. However, politics being politics, the orthodoxy is that this is denied!

(online searches now tell you the polar opposite of what they told you late last century.)

Antony and Raymond went to my school. The last shop they had was a Butty, Ice Cream, and Pizza cafe in Billinge, but I think it's under a different name now.
I was told they got a contract supplying supermarkets and went big, but then the supermarket dropped them.
I think Paul the Platt Bridge Bike mender used to drive one of their lorries.

I was in in Scotland last year and had an ice in a place called Inverrary and it was the best ice cream that I've ever tasted, like what's being said all the I've cream sold around here is a load of muck and full of air and in ben and jerry full of dough balls.

I remember an horse & cart selling ice cream in Holland Moor, around the late 1940s , not sure if it was De Roma but we used to sing a ditty....
'' I like ice creamio
Made by De Romio ''
....sung to the tune from the opera.
Wonder if it would have been the same people ?

I still retain a vivid memory of Tony Frederick going around Ashton in his three wheeled Isetta ice cream cart .

Tony was a bonny lad to say the least , and how he managed to squeeze himself into that thing will always remain one of life’s great mysteries to me .

Every now and then , he would go back to his home town in Italy to visit relatives , then come back with a suitcase full of spare parts for the thing .

Jeez … Tony Frederick , Jimmy Gillet , Johnny Moggie , Bill Ryder … where have all the characters gone ?

Edit to my previous post …

On reflection , Tony’s ice cream truck was probably a Piaggio , not an Isetta .

Ozy, even I remember Johnny Moggie from when I worked in Ashton as a young girl. What a character! We had a lot of "characters" in Ince, where I lived, too.....names that have gone down in history. The thing is, many of those lovely but slightly eccentric or troubled people would have lived at home with their families when you and I were young, but today they tend to be in sheltered homes. We were privileged to have known them.

My favourite ice cream is the one made in Jersey with cream from the famous Jersey cows. It’s the only time I would have an ice cream when I go there. It’s expensive but absolutely gorgeous. I don’t think you can buy it over here.
I know you can buy Jersey cream and butter and milk but not ice cream. The milk is very expensive but it’s a delicious unique taste…

Trouble is these Ince characters you talkabout have had kids and grandkids. And it's them who are spoiling Wigan

I remember, one summer night, long ago, when Mr Softee appeared in my street in Pemberton. It was the Friday night just before the start of the Wakes fortnight. As I recall, it was going on for 10PM when the ice cream van turned the corner and stopped in the middle of the street.

Everyone came out to investigate, and soon the queue was stretched a good fifty yards down the street. The ice cream was very white and soft, but you got loads with a dash of raspberry vinegar.

I think it was nearly dark when he finally upped and left. And yes, it was 'Greensleeves' that was playing well into the early night.

The bloke that comes round my area plays the tune from ‘ Match of the Day ‘ .

I can’t pinpoint when these recorded tunes first became fashionable but going back 60 odd years or more , the ice cream seller that came down our street used to hang out of his Bob-hole and ring one of those handbells .

I wish this bloody IPad would occasion print something that closely corresponds to the letters that I press , instead of some weird language known only to a dozen inhabitants of some remote village in the Brazilian rain forest .

Anyone want a second hand iPad before it goes in the bin ?

There was an ice cream seller from Pemberton whom in the mid 1960s had his daughter sitting on the counter and also serving, she would be wearing extremely short, tight miniskirts and more than likely to attract young lads to buy ice cream, they would always drive around the streets of Pemberton and Newtown on late evenings, though if it was Mr Curly Top, Mr Softee or Mr Whippy I couldn't say.
Though it could have been Mr Softy Top:
https://youtu.be/Ag-bAy36yXc?feature=shared

Ozy, I haven't heard the expression "bob-hole" since I was a child in Ince, and you took me straight back there, despite Ince's apparently dubious associations about its current inhabitants "spoiling Wigan"! (I'm afraid I completely failed to understand the logic behind that one and can see no rhyme or reason for it!....can YOU? ). The "window" in the doctor's surgery in Ince, where you arranged an appointment with the receptionist, or collected a bottle of the doctor's prescribed medicine, (mixed on the premises), was known as "the bob-hole" , as was the little counter in the pub that served as an off-licence, where old ladies used to take a jug to be filled with beer. What a lovely, old-fashioned term! Thankyou!

Eddie we had a good cornet with a flake today close to the Midland Hotel in Morecambe it was delicious then carried on our 27+ miles cycling around that area today.

It’s the first time I’ve, heard ‘ bob-hole’ for many years. There was one in Dr Johnson’s Surgery in Greenough St. The only problem with that was everybody could hear in-the waiting room what was wrong with you when you were telling the ‘spare doctor’ in there. You only went to him if it wasn’t serious or you wanted a ‘ sick note’. Old fashioned folk with old fashioned ways back then. If only you could just walk-in a surgery these days without facing the ‘Rottweilers’ on duty.

Ps my iPad tells its own story it doesn’t matter which letter is tapped other letters come up. I wonder if it’s something to do with AI? ( Artificial Intelligence) in other words it tells lies! If I’m not careful I could land up in jail…

Veronica I remember Dr Johnson’s on greenough street from 1967 on the right hand side going down and that Bob-hole.

Just remember to stay clear of Sunderland point when the tide’s on the turn John …
Now there’s a good bit of advice from a bloke with experience .

Oh and Peter Kay’s probably the funniest comedian that’s appeared on the scene in years to my mind .

Shame about his mate McGuinness though …
He’s about as funny as a bout of shingles .

‘m typng ths wtht sng vwls jst t cnfs ths dmn cntrptn .
Mght s wll lv th vwls t myslf s rly n ths bldy thng t d t fr m .

I agree I can’t stand Paddy McGuiness but he was a mate at school with Peter Kay and that’s how he’s got on. Nowhere near as talented as PK. He’s doing tv adverts now.

Ozy how can I forget about the tide at Sunderland Point when you nearly got us both washed out to sea bikes an all.

Jonnie Toohey was the ice cream mon in Hindley,worked for Lewis’s.We still have an ice cream van comes round plays The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

I wasn’t entirely to blame John . In my defence , I was momentarily distracted by yon bloke stood on the foreshore with his underpants around his ankles … remember ?
He shouted something , but I failed to hear it .

He was probably trying to warn us that the tide was coming in , but I wasn’t prepared to turn around at that stage and confront a bloke with his apparatus hanging out just to ask him to repeat it .
Who knows ? I might have suffered a fate worse than drowning .

That made me chuckle PW. I am imagining a gunslinger approaching the van for a cornet and saying “gimme a cornet and be quick about it”.. whilst twirling his six shooter! And not paying for it..!

I’d forgotten about that Ozy mind you being surrounded by the tide with the water covering the road and a ditch either side we had more important matters to deal with.

De Roma's ice cream wasn't established in Wigan in 1922.

Slippery Mick must be in a hurry he’s slipping ‘one liners’ everywhere he goes..

I remember as a kid the DeRoma factory was on Chapel Lane where Food Pro and JJ’s Auto repair garage is now located. As another person has said, there was a shop open to the public at DeRoma’s where you could buy damaged stock which was slightly cheaper than the supermarket prices.

As children, me and my brother used to eat the DeRoma chock blocks that came in a paper wrapper. I vaguely remember going on holiday to Spain as a child and on the plane - they were serving DeRoma ice cream with the Wigan address on the wrapper!!!!

The DeRoma family lived for many years (they probably still do) on the main road at Standish Lower Ground in one of the big detached houses on the way out to Shevington. I seem to remember a newspaper article about some building work taking place at the back the property which resulted in a JCB crane being submerged in the ground due to flooding and there was a hue and cry with other residents about the work they were having done.

The DeRoma factory closed on Chapel Lane rather swiftly and moved to another site off Great George Street. Does anyone know if the business is still there? I haven’t seen or come across the DeRoma brand for a long time. A few months ago, I had a coffee in the cafe in Mesnes Park and they still sell ice cream in there all year round but it is all Frederick’s produce.

CJ