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Post by stuartB on Jan 13, 2013 23:02:03 GMT
No this is NOT politically motivated!! I am researching mine and my wife's family tree and spent several hours sat with my mother in law today looking at censuses from 1911. We were actually looking at the wrong street to start with, all 111 houses  What I found particularly interesting was that a street in Maerdy (Mardy) in Rhondda, in 1911 had 3 Italian families, some originating from Naples. around that time there were 60+ pits between the 2 Rhonddas and all sorts were pouring into the area. This was a farming area until they found coal and then every man and his dog came here. My wife's family came from West Wales but I have found people coming from Cornwall (probably tin miners) and people from Fulham who were engineers. It just got me thinking that there have been people coming from everywhere for a long time and I'm sure we have gone over there too. I wonder what the attitude was towards them back then, perhaps our historians and learned folk can find me some news print on the subject |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2013 9:52:37 GMT
If it helps at all, Stuart, my friend Emrys and his two sisters Bronwen and Gwyneth are, as you can imagine, of South Wales stock. Their dad was from Tredegar and mum from Ebbw Vale, but their surname is Westacott which is as Devon as you can get, I believe. The family must have migrated to the Welsh coalfields, probably around the same time as my own moved to North Derbyshire pit country from Ireland and Lincolnshire.
I expect you will have read some of the novels of Alexander Cordell. There must be some references in those to incomers, I should think.
Many moons ago when I was a student we did a course which included studying hostility towards the Chinese community in Liverpool in the early years of the 20th century, which would be useful if I could still remember anything about it. Fair to say that immigrants to England and Wales have probably never been welcomed with open arms.
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Post by stuartB on Jan 14, 2013 10:56:16 GMT
It's a great shame that people cannot see beyond their own inherent bias, to see what benefits different people bring to an area and culture.
As you well know, I'm no liberal, but find it fascinating the variety of peoples from all around the UK, Europe and World that move and for what reasons.
The Italians seem to have been welcomed to the Valleys and their descendants are still here.
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Post by lambethgull on Jan 14, 2013 13:47:01 GMT
An interesting topic for sure, Stuart. I read a little book about a group of French Huguenots who settled in Wales. I believe they settled around Fleur de Lys (hence the name) in the 17th century. Mining communities have a fascinating history and association with immigration. It's why Australian and American areas, for example, still claim a Cornish identity. And it's why you will be able to pick up a pasty if you ever find yourself in or around Mineral del Monte in Mexico  |
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Post by dogthebountyhunter on Mar 17, 2013 0:35:50 GMT
Italian cafes began springing up throughout Wales from the 1820s onwards as people from Italy’s less prosperous south flocked to Welsh coal mines, steel mills and tin works.
As numbers grew, Italian entrepreneurs, sometimes travelling the whole journey across Europe on foot, came to Wales to serve the growing demand for Italian food and delicacies like ice cream.
Many early Italian immigrants lived in very overcrowded conditions but still managed to make their prized ice cream and pasta dishes in their tiny kitchens and backyards.
Soon, ice cream was being wheeled to their doorsteps on carts or barrows to save them the trouble. And cafes sprung up where the Italians could eat as if they were at home.
The ice cream and exotic Italian dishes were a big hit with the Welsh and by the 1920s there was scarcely a village that did not have its own Italian cafe. Many still exist to this day but hundreds have closed due to competition from chains.
The cafes became as much a part of the community as the chapel, pub or colliery.
Among the first migrants to Wales were cousins Angelo and Giacomo Bracchi, pioneers of the ice cream and confectionery shops in South Wales and founders of the famous Bracchi Brothers chain.
Many Italian cafes in Wales became known as “Bracchis”.
Various members of the Rabaiotti families also had cafes and ice-cream carts on the streets well before 1907.
Other pioneers, like the Sidolis, recruited Italians to help their expanding businesses. Families named Pelosi, Greco, Valerio, Cresci, Cascarini, Polderi and Fulgoni, followed.
Luigi Cascarini travelled to Wales from Italy and in 1922 his son Joe established one of Swansea’s most successful and popular businesses – Joe’s Ice Cream Parlour chain.
Many Italian cafes and ice cream parlours across Wales are still run by descendants of the original owners. Last year, Emma Rabaiotti, the fifth generation of the Italian cafe-owning family, opened Cafe R in Cardiff’s Newport Road.
Emma’s great-great-grandfather Antonio came to Wales in the 1880s opened his first cafe soon after.
His son Bert opened his own enterprise in St Mary Street, Cardiff, in 1927.
Leno Conti, 75, whose family runs Conti’s cafe in Lampeter, said, “My parents moved to Wales from Italy before the First World War to escape from poverty.
“In time, my father opened cafes in Ystradgynlais, Clydach, Ystalyfera, Builth and Lampeter, with another three cafes in Newport, three in Carmarthen and others.”
Conti’s in Lampeter is now the last remaining cafe.
(Taken from Wales Online)
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Post by Ditmar van Nostrilboy on Mar 17, 2013 23:26:02 GMT
I havnt seen it for a while so it's probably gone, but there used to be a Pelosi here in the bay. Lovely ice creams...
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Post by valgull on Mar 18, 2013 9:29:25 GMT
I havnt seen it for a while so it's probably gone, but there used to be a Pelosi here in the bay. Lovely ice creams... Pelosi's and Mario's were both in Torbay Road in Paignton where I spent many evenings drinking coffee in the 60's. My late aunt told me that one-I forget which- had a mobile ice- cream cart in the summer and chips in the winter, guessing in the 20's? |
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Post by chelstongull on Mar 18, 2013 14:29:50 GMT
I havnt seen it for a while so it's probably gone, but there used to be a Pelosi here in the bay. Lovely ice creams... Pelosi's and Mario's were both in Torbay Road in Paignton where I spent many evenings drinking coffee in the 60's. My late aunt told me that one-I forget which- had a mobile ice- cream cart in the summer and chips in the winter, guessing in the 20's? Ah Pelosi's in Torbay Road (a fine road full of character), worked for them in the Summer of 75. |
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