Ice cream seller Frankie Fortuna

Graham, a former Bagshot baby has written from Canada, and among other matters said:

We had a very nice Ice-cream man who came from Bagshot. His name was Mr. Fortuna. If anyone has any information, I would appreciate an e-mail.

Wendy wrote:

Fortina's Ice Cream was just down from where I lived (in the cottages nearly opposite Laurel Cottage). Fortina's was on the corner of Church Road - all hand made daily (closed on Thursdays). The family continued in business until the early seventies.

The buildings where Wendy described Fortuna's Ice Cream shop were near-derelict when I moved to Bagshot in 1973. If I recall correctly, one of them had been a cafe. They were demolished soon after and a pair of houses built in their place.

Kenneth Wells writes from British Columbia, Canada:

Ah yes Fortuna's ice cream, I grew up at Central House on the High Street, so crossing the A30 we would go over and eat Mr Fortuna's Italian ice cream. I remember going in to get a cone and can see his distictive face, he looked like the man in the moon. That was good ice cream. It would melt quickly so you had to eat it fast. They also had a pretty daughter who sang in the choir, this was all between 1953/62 231.+407

Dave writes from Sussex

We had ice cream from Mr Fortuna who used to bring his van up to us in Bagshot Park. A big event!

Michael writes from the USA

I was born in Woking in 1944. We lived in Bagshot until 1951. We moved to New York City in December of 1951. I remember Fortuna's ice cream shop very well. My wife and I vacationed in England in 2000. We visited Bagshot; my how the place had changed.

Alan Gosden writes:

I remember Frankie Fortuna vividly, plus other old Bagshot characters. I played in Bagshot Band in 60s. Would like old friends to contact me.

Mark also remembers Fortuna's Ice Cream

Yes I remember Mr Fortuna and the delicious ice cream with lumps of ice in it. As I lived in College Ride between 1965-1970 and went to school at the secondary modern, it was my halfway stop on the way home. They were still in business in January 1971.

From Colin

Fortuna's Ice cream was wideley recognised as the the finest in this country and everybody waited for the van to come round. Forget about Mr softee and Walls! To my knowledge the recipe is still held by only one person, who, for some reason has decided not to capitlise on it.
It is safe to say that anyone over the age of fortyish remembers it for the taste and texture. The cafe was indeeed at the bottom of Church Road and ceased operation in the late sixties upon the demise of Frankie. The Fortuna family are closely related to the Dinallo family, both of which I believe came over to this country during the war. If Mark would care to contact me I am sure that we would know each other as we were both at school at the same time!

Another reader writes:

Fortina's Ice Cream, no one who tasted it will ever have forgotten it.
I recall going to the shop with my brother with a silver thrupenny bit held tightly in my hand to buy a cornet.
When I was a little older, as a special treat, the icecream cornet could be dipped into melted chocolate and if you were really quick the first taste would combine the still soft chocolate with their delicious icecream. I believe this extravigance cost 6d.

Ron Frost tells us:

I remember Frankie Fortuna. In the 1940's his shop at the juntion of Church Road and the A30 sold wafers and cornets 3 and 6 old pence. The ice cream was delicious, like Cornish. He would cycle around with a tricycle "Stop me and buy one". Fetes were held in a field behind the "Kings Arms" pub in Bagshot square and also a field behind the old Bagshot school, in School Lane off the A30. Fortuna's were always in attendance. Jan06

Teresa agrees : Fortunas ice cream ? Simply the best!, and I remember sitting in their cafe with gorgeous milk shakes!. 7021.307

From Derrick Papworth

Frankie sold Italian ice-cream, being an Italian national, with an Italian family. He was befriended by several Bagshot businessmen in the years before the war, and always gave extra value when serving their families with ice-cream. As a small boy in the mid 1930's, I was occasionally sent up the road to Fortuna's shop with a white pudding basin and a sixpence, and made my way back home with it brimming over with delicious ice-cream. As the outbreak of the Second World War grew closer, it became clear that if Britain and Italy went to war against each other, Frankie and his family would be in trouble. In the event it was Britain and Germany who went to war in September 1939, but when France collapsed in June 1940, Mussolini took the opportunity to join the war on Germany's side. Frankie Fortuna was served with an Internment Order, and appealed to his Bagshot friends for help. It was my father (A.T.W.Papworth, electrical business and High Street Garage) who led the attempt to keep the Fortuna's out of the Internment Camp, handing in a petition signed by many Bagshot notables. Perhaps one of your readers can complete the story... I went to school with one of Frankie's grand-daughters, Joyce Fortune, the name by then having been Anglicised. Mar06

From Allen D 661

I lived in Yorktown, and remember always looking forward to Fortuna's van coming down the road once a week. Like other's I have a vivid recollection of the unequalled quality, taste and texture of his icec cream. I know he visited Camberley from 1952, and on until at least 1959. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered he had a cafe in Bagshot, curiously enough aftere a visit to Rapley Lake! Mar06
I recall there being a full-page feature on Fortuna in the Camberley News some time in the 50's or early '60s. I imagine you could get hold of that via their archives. Dec07

Diane Draper (nee Wilson) writes:

I can remember Fortuna's Cafe very well indeed. My very dear friend Teresa was Mr Fortuna's Grandaughter. We watched the delicious ice cream being made out the back in the out house. Such happy days.
Teresa's auntie Mary ran the Cafe for many years. Teresa and her Mum Rose, my Mum and I spent many a happy time at Fortuna's. Teresa always said that if she had been older when the lovely old building was pulled down, she would have bought it and kept it going. I think I am right in saying that the recipe for the lovely Italian Ice cream died with Pop Fortuna. Truly the best ice cream I have ever tasted. Mar06

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From Robert Allen July 06

I'm sure every body who attended Bagshot junior and secondary school remembers Fortunas ice cream. On our annual sports day Mr Fortuna was always there with his ice cream truck. Mr Fortunas slogan it read "often licked but never beaten". The days we could not afford ice cream Mrs Fortuna used to sell us for one penny a bag of broken wafers and cornets yum yum.

and Roy Draper Sep06

I was born at the Avenue, Lightwater, and I can remember Frankie Fortuna coming up our road with his ice cream. His first van was a real old one, I can't remember what make it was but it had a big long bonnet to it, then he went all modern and got a Morris Comercial when they first came on the market, but the one we all liked best was the three wheel icecream cart. I think the man who rode this was a relation of Frankie's, he may have been a Delano.

Ann Roberson (nee Kircher) : Mr Fortuna, the ice cream man, used to come up Bagshot Green on a bicycle with the ice cream in a large carrier on the front of the bike, his icecream was delicious - yellow and creamy. 6118/906.

Ann Sargeant (nee Batchelour) tells us that Mr Fortuna got a lot farther afield than just Bagshot : I used to live in Yorktown (part of Camberley). Mr Fortuna used to bring his ice cream there regularly during the summer. Funnily enough I don't have a memory of him with a van but I do remember him selling his cornets from a cart on the front of his bicycle. He always parked his bike at the corner of The Avenue where it meets London Road. Thus he was close to the children as they left Yorktown school but he also 'caught' the rest of us who were walking home down the London Road from Camberley School and St Tarcisius schools. 688.906

Dave Bridle : I remember on the way home from Windlesham School Mr Fortuna van would stop near the School. It was the best ice cream I have ever tasted. His son told me he never knew the ingredients as his father kept it secret from the family. 6133.1106

Lionel Parr recalls that before the business was at Church Road, it was in the High Street, opposite the entrance to Half Moon Street. He doesn't remember when it moved - sometime between 1928 and the war. The Fortuna family knew the Delli Coli [spelling?] family who ran the scrapyard in Half Moon Street. Lionel recalls a Fortuna girl (the Italian spelling) at Bagshot School (sometime between 1929 and 1935). 118.1206

From Peter Summerton : The man who sold the ice cream from the tricycle was NORMAN KIRBY, FRANK FORTUNAS son-in-law. He also played in a dance band trio with Jack [John] Camille on drums and A.N. Other? Norman also gave guitar lessons, Bert Weedon was the man of the moment at that time and Bob Dylan was a few years into the future. BAGSHOT FOOTBALL TEAM invariably refreshed them selves after the game in FORTUNAS CAFE with lots of tea and or an ice cream float, a glass of cola with a large scoop of Franks ice cream on the top!

I was a friend of BOBBY DINALO, I also think the DINALOs and the DELICOLLIs were related to the FORTUNAs. My twin brother and I used to go to Bobby's house on a monday evening, in the early fifties, I think his mum may have been at 'THE W.I.' and listen to "JOURNEY INTO SPACE" This was repeated on BBC RADIO SEVEN earlier this year. HAPPY DAYS!

I met TERESA DELICOLLI, a school friend, in the village a couple of years ago.7068.1007

Can you can add anything about Frankie Fortuna and his ice cream?

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