Granelli's of Macclesfield

Angelo Granelli came to Macclesfield in June 1890, with his uncle and aunt Fortunato Granelli and Angela Oliva.  They came from a small Italian village called Santa Maria Del Taro in the Ligurian mountains near the Port of Genoa,  opening a confectionary shop in 33 Church Street (Church Wallgate).

 

Angelo brought with him the knowledge of making ice cream which he learned in the mountain villages, a tradition of the region. Every year Santa Maria Del Taro still celebrate this with a 'Festa Del Gelato'.  The original way to make ice cream was to use the ice from the mountains to freeze the milk and the cream from the family farm.

 

Angelo put his talents to use making Macclesfield’s very first ice cream available for sale to the public.  Ice was bought from the Bosley Ice Works and milk and cream from the Gleave's Dairy.  The other ingredients, vanilla and sugar were readily available from the sweet making at the shop.  Angelo opened a stall at the cattle market on Waters Green.  Hand carts were purchased from Stanway's, which enabled the selling of ice cream around the streets of Macclesfield.

 

The ice cream was kept frozen by packing wooden tubs with ice and salt around a zinc cylindrical container full of the freshly made ice cream, which was churned by hand in a French pot ice cream freezer, packed with ice and salt.

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