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From my earliest memories I have lived with the legend of Giuseppe Del Greco and the family run business of Greco Bros Ices, an Ice-cream business that prospered during 1930's and 40's in my home town of Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
There is a great deal of mystery that seems to shroud the history of the business and therefore dates and events need to be clarified. What is to follow, however, is a very brief outline of what I know of the Greco family history,the ice cream business and how it all came to be in what must be one of the smallest Cathederal Cities in Britain-Wakefield.
Mark Greco
Although Giuseppe was an ice-cream maker in Italy, he started his life in Britain training as a Barber working for an Uncle in Edinburgh. This was atypical of how many Italians came to this country - through a process of chain migration. Giuseppe's uncle was established well enough in Britain to act as a Padrone of sorts and offered work to relatives who were still struggling "back home" in the depressed areas of Italy.These new immigrants, like Giuseppe, would work for a time for the padrone but many became financially independant enough to establish their own businesses.
While working for his uncle, Giuseppe met and married Gerarda Ambrose, a woman who was from the same region as himself.They returned to Cervaro for a while but within a few years came back to Britain and settled there.
The journey from the small village of Cervaro to Wakefield was not direct. Edinburgh was the first stop and after spending some time there the family moved on to Southport. It was here in Fernley Road, amongst a small Italian community, that Giuseppe Domonic Del Greco, my father, was born.
The Greco Family's travels far from ended here. On a bid for more economic security they travelled on to Jarrow (a depressed area at the time) then Harrogate and than finally Wakefield, a small but economically sound city in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Like many Italian Families the Famiglia Del Greco was not small. Eight children were to be born which consisted of six girls, two boys and as a result of trips that my Grand-mother made back home to Italy were born in both Italy and Britain. Mary and Benny were the first (born in Italy), then Winnie (she can be seen serving ice-cream on the barrow 'photo) then Lucy (born in Italy) then Katrina, then Netta (born in Italy) then Joseph, then finally Annie (born in Italy).
At present I have no real dates of when the Grecos moved to Wakefield but through the initial research that has been done understand that from 1936 (at the latest) Guiseppe Del Greco rented a flat and shop (a confectioners) at No.69 Northgate,Wakefield. The shop which also served as a cafe serving coffee and other hot drinks along with a kiosk in the Springs, a horse and cart and a barrow, was one of the ice-cream outlets. This shop had previously been rented by another confectioner, R.T. Martin in 1927 and previous to that in 1922 G.H. & F. Hill who had been a tobacconist. Unfortunately I have not yet found any photographic record of the shop and it has since been demolished. A Joshua Tetley pub known as The Jockey (which is mostly frequented by the hippies, rockers and bikers of Wakefield) now stands in its place.
Mark Greco