WHEN we asked about Blackburn's first ice cream man recently, pensioner Edward Astley came up with this n-ice story.

For he believes that accolade should go to his late wife's great grandfather, Francis Bogganio, who came to England from Genoa way back in 1863.

Indeed, Edward, who lives in Stanhill, reckons Francis was the first Italian to live and make ice cream in Blackburn and that the name Bogganio's, carried on by his family will be remembe-red by many.

Derek Peel, of Feniscliffe, certainly recalls the business.

He told Looking Back that when he was a boy in the 50s, Bogganio's sold ice cream from a horse and cart which used to clatter round the streets of Griffin where he was brought up.

"He used to have an old wooden rattle which he used to swing and kids would jump on the back of his cart to buy an ice cream.

"He even carried his own bucket and shovel to clean up after the horse, as not many people had gardens then!

"Happy days, I wonder if any other readers remember him?"

Edward recalls that Francis first worked for Foster, Yates and Thom, before starting to make ice cream, a business he amalgamated with property buying and keeping lodging houses.

Said Edward: "He used the cellars of his properties for storing blocks of ice which he bought from Norway and sold in the summer to butchers and fish merchants as there were no fridges or freezers at that time."

Francis married locally and had 20 children, including eight sets of twins and one of his daughters Angelina married Guissepe Joe' Rossi, who was also an ice cream man, as well as the licensee of Wards Hotel in Syke Street.

Ivy's father Francis Rossi continued the family ice cream tradition, but diversified, too, into fairground rides and hot roasted potatoes.

Ivy is best remembered for selling potatoes during the war on Blackburn boulevard, as Edward did until 1951.

These photographs show the family through the generations: Francis Bogganio in the 1800s, Joe Rossi, taken around 1890 and Francis Rossi, pictured in 1920.