Since it is (at the time of writing this piece) the summer holidays, I thought we’d take a look at the delectable subject of ice cream in Bath. The Bath Chronicle reports about ice cream vendors are generally of three types: causing obstruction with the cart, fighting, and food poisoning.
Causing obstruction: On 20 June 1907, for example, John Cicoretti was fined 2s 6d (12.5p) for causing obstruction with his ice cream barrow in Southgate Street. There are numerous incidents like this, sometimes involving the clash of several carts or barrows belonging to different vendors. Another report states that a man caused nuisance by ringing his ‘stop me and buy one’ bell too loud and too frequently!
Fighting: A surprising amount of fighting goes on between rival vendors (and, sometimes, rival vendors’ wives), and one man attacked a policeman. But Bath was very sedate compared with Sheffield, London and Glasgow, where shootings and murders were reported.
Food poisoning: In 1898, the Public Health Inspector for Bath visited a number of premises used for manufacturing ice cream and found that some left a lot to be desired. Of the seven he visited, six vendors sold from handcarts in the street and the other one sold at village fetes. Five had premises that were acceptable and clean, but two were unfit – one man used the stall of a horse stable to store his utensils and barrow, “he also freezes his cream in the stall.” The other “manufactures his ice cream in the same room where he lives and sleeps … the room was dirty.” The Inspector recommended that the same regulations applying to dairymen and milkmen (including regular inspection) should also apply to those making ice cream. The City Councillors hearing the report did some hand-wringing and wished they could “put a stop to this sort of thing at once” – but did nothing and moved on to the next item on the agenda.
Not long afterwards in 1900 in Sheffield, 50 people suffered from food poisoning after eating ice cream, and some of these cases were fatal. And in Bath in August 1927, a similar epidemic occurred, with the Bath Chronicle reporting the death of Olive Watts aged five. The report takes up almost a whole page (p26, 13 August 1927 – pictured) and it was established that the cause of death was a strain of Salmonella. Reports like this don’t appear in the 1930s, indicating improved hygiene and greater regulation.
Italian ice-cream vendors in Bath
A look through the Bath Directories reveals several Italian men and their families working in the city between the 1880s and 1930s. Of these, only the Tianis had a shop premises, the rest were selling from barrows.
Joseph Tosiano (or Toseano) is in the Bath Directories in 1880 and 1884 as an Ice Cream Maker at 9 Milk Street.
Domino Policelli (or Policello), Ice Vendor, is at 66 Avon Street in the 1900 Bath Directory, but by 1901 had moved to Plymouth to live with other family members – all are recorded as Ice Cream Vendors. However, at 1 Trinity Street (corner of Kingsmead Square) in 1901 is Francisco Policella, Hawker, Ice Cream Vendor – this must be the same extended family. Francisco’s wife Carolina is an Organ Grinder as is their eldest daughter Loretta, and there are five younger children.
Cesino Cicoritti, his wife Angela and four children seem to have come from Italy around 1900. In the 1901 census they too live at 66 Avon Street where Cesino is a Travelling Musician – probably wheeling a barrel organ on a cart. His daughter Antonetta married Cresenzo Tiani. A Jesse Chicoretti (no doubt the same family) appears in the Chronicle 30 May 1907 when a drunken man hassles him in Stall Street; this may be the same John Cicoretti whose barrow caused obstruction a few weeks later in June 1907.
Antonetta and Cresenzo Tiani were initially living with her parents at 66 Avon Street in 1911; Cresenzo was also an Ice Cream Vendor. By the time of the 1939 Register they had a shop at 16 Westgate Street (now BetFred) listed as “Green Grocer & Fruiterer, Ice Cream & Milk Bar shop owner”. Antonetta’s widowed mother Angela Cicoritti lived with them.
Mariano Mancini and his wife Emilia are in the 1921 census at – yet again – 66 Avon Street. Mariano is an Ice Cream Vendor (no fixed place) – meaning he operates a barrow or cart. The Mancinis had first settled in London around 1900, where all their seven children were born, and it looks as if they came to Bath just after the end of WW1. In the 1939 Register, Mariano is a fruit vendor at 6 Kingsmead Square.
Caetano (or Gaetano) Panicci (or Paniccia) is in the 1911 census at 6 Milk Street, Ice Cream Vendor (which he spells ‘venter’ on the form), and also in the 1916 and 1921 Bath Directories at the same address.
So it appears that 66 Avon Street, a lodging house – long disappeared – was known as a place where new-comers to Bath from Italy could find a room and a welcome from those already settled in Bath. And, with nearby Milk Street, this was the centre of the Italian community.
Ann Cullis
Trustee & Friend July 2025
Ice cream recipes page, ‘Cookery in Colour’ (1960) Marguerite Patten