Aniseed balls and acid drops: Sheffield's real sweet shop - VIDEO
THERE'S no sound quite like it.
The delicious plink-clunk of boiled sweets being poured from a jar to be weighed.
A lost memory for many but the old scales bowl still rattles at Granelli's as it has every day for more than 100 years.
Black Bullets, Rhubarb and Custard, Acid Drops, Yorkshire Mixture and Sour Apples clatter into quarter and two-ounce bags.
Aniseed Balls, Rainbow Crystals, Kopp Kopps, Fish, Fudge and Chewy Lips line the shelves and wait, as evocative as forgotten holiday snaps, to be rediscovered.
Started by a family of Italian immigrants to Sheffield from Genova, the Granellis began selling home-made ice cream from their Scotland Street parlour in 'Little Italy' in 1874 – and they've been at it ever since.
Rosita Granelli (married name Hunt) – the great grandaughter of Luigi Granelli the founding father of the Sheffield dynasty – took over the running of the business when her brother Peter died, and still lives on the premises with her retired sister Irene.
"It's not by design but there are not many shops like this left any more," said Rosita, who guards her age as closely she does the family's ice-cream recipe.
"Others like us have gone and people are willing to travel to come to us now.
"We had a couple over from Manchester yesterday and we get quite a few who come with their children who have been to swimming competitions at Ponds Forge. They often take quite a bit back with them because they don't know when they'll be back.
"There's a lot of oohing and aahing when they come in and try to remember all the sweets from their childhood."
Generations of Sheffield kids have stood with farthings, tanners and 50ps for their sweet treats to be weighed, bagged and handed through the counter hatch.
But the Granelli's started with a handcart selling ice cream made the old fashioned way behind the shop in Scotland Street, then moved to a horse and cart and eventually to the ice cream vans that still travel the city today.
"Before me, my brother and my sister it was my uncle and my father – the 'Granelli Brothers' and their parents and grandparents before them. The old Italians used to go back to Italy in the winter when the demand for ice cream fell away," said Rosita. "We don't go back so often now but we still have family over there."
Rosita and her family have spent their lives at the shop on Broad Street underneath the Supertram bridge and overlooking Park Square and she can remember the days before the huge roundabout.
"There was a pub, The Lord Nelson, which joined on to us on the other side of the archway. Then there was a garage and a horse trough in the middle of the road. There was The Samson pub on the corner of Broad Street and Duke Street.
"Violet May's record shop and Hilton's the barber's was on the corner. There was a milliner's and Boots the Chemist.
"Corker's fruit shop, the Post Office on the left, Park Pictures cinema was on South Street, a carpet shop and Benson's the furniture shop. You can't imagine it now.
"Further down, Granelli's had two more sweet shops. We had three altogether and a stall on The Moor and the original sweet shop in Castle Market.
"We used to have a shop in Chapel Walk until about 15 years ago – that was where we used to sell all the finest nougats and fudges and liqueurs, Turkish delight and trays of toffee. It was a lovely shop.
"I also remember the flats being built at Hyde Park. We were the first to go on there with ice cream. There were some salt-of-the-earth people on there at first. People who had waited years for a decent home, people who had not had a bathroom or central heating before. They were good people. It went downhill at the end and that was a shame."
Thousands of Sheffielders will remember 90 years of Granelli's vans in Millhouses Park – where they still stand today in the summer months – and Granelli's still run 10 ice cream vans.
"When my brother Peter died it left a terrible void but I carry on. I have done this all my life and I live on the premises as well. My sister, Irene, is retired now."
The sweet life goes on for the Granelli's but it's not always easy to find companies who still make the old fashioned spice.
"When some of the older family businesses sell-up the new owners don't always keep all the old-fashioned lines going.
"It's harder to find traditional stuff sometimes, but we still do all right."
For video footage of Granelli's and an interview with Rosita see www.thestar.co.uk/video
Everyone likes a good bag of spice
THERE have been thousands of wide-eyed visitors to Granelli's over the decades - some more recognisable than others.
Former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock used to take his children there when the family lived in Sheffield and ex-labour MP Joe Ashton has been a visitor.
Artist Joe Scarborough - who lives just the other side of the Parkway on Victoria Quays - is a regular visitor and the shop has appeared in his paintings of the city.
Fellow Sheffield artist Pete McKee is also thinking of using the shop in his work.
"We get all sorts of people in here," said Rosita.
"We had Naseem Hamed in here too with his kids but they've moved away since.
"A lot of the students who live in this area now will come in and say they've not been in a place like this since their grandmas took them as children.
"We get a lot of people saying that their grandparents brought them in 25 years ago.
"It's nice to see people with their kids when they used to come in themselves.
"A lot of the young ones have never seen a place like this before.
"They are fascinated by all the jars."
...but how long will it continue?
STILL going strong after 135 years of ice cream and sweets - at least for now.
The Granelli dynasty has been in the city since Victorian times but the family line is wearing thin.
"My husband and I both came from big families but we have only one son, Julian, who is 27," said Rosita, the last of the Sheffield Granellis - they have relations and fellow ice cream makers in Macclesfield.
"We don't know what will happen in the future. It's a changing world for the younger generation. This job is seven days a week and you live with it but all Julian's friends only work five days and that's the way it is now.
"It would be a great shame to lose it after all these years and I have no plans to retire, at the moment.
"We were of the generation where what your parents did, you did. A lot of older people have retired now and a lot of their children have gone on to university and not carried on in the same tradition.
"The only people left now are me and my son, Julian.
"I'm sort of semi-retired now and not as hands-on.
"I'm not sure if Julian will carry on."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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