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fish and chip shops

Anyone remember a fish and chip shop on or near Bottetourt Road in Weoley Castle/California near the footbridge over the old abandoned canal? - I say fish and chip shop - It was just a bungalow (maybe a prefab), Every Friday and Saturday afternoon there would be a blackboard leaning against the fence outside saying "Frying Tonight 6pm". - If you went back there at 6pm there would be a queue of people, anywhere between 10 and 50 people. A few minutes before 6 an old man (well he seemed old to me at the time, I'd have been only 5 or 6 at the time) would come out and count the number of people waiting in Line. He'd disappear inside again and then a few minutes later the top of the front door would swing open (it had a stable-type door) and they'd start serving. I seem to remember that the only things on the menu were fish and chips and maybe a pickled egg or pickled onion, so it took no time at all to serve everyone (how different to today when the range of stuff on offer is so large that you have to wait ages for it). The fish and chips seemed to be cooked in a big cauldron of fat in the middle of the front room with a gas burner under it. There were always two or three older boys hanging back at the end of the queue to ask for any leftover bits of batter or chips once everyone else had been served. Once the queue was served it would shut up shop. This would have been about 1964. It didn't last much longer, I guess the competition from "proper" fish and chip shops that stayed open longer because they had proper fat fryers they could keep running all evening killed it off. Strangely, years later I came across a fish and chip shop that operated on the same principle at Seydisfjordur on the East Coast of Iceland, complete with "Frying Tonight" blackboard, they had got the taste for Fish and Chips from British troops stationed there during the war.

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a big lump of resh battered roe...not tinned stuff

Fish roe is another name for fish eggs. More specifically, it is the fully ripe and unfertilized eggs of a fish. Those eggs can be sourced internally from the ovaries or from an external egg mass. The term "roe" also applies to eggs from other marine animals, like scallops, lobsters and shrimp.
 
bestcover said:
Not sure whether this will find you as 7 years on. have only just seen your reply!! My gt grandparents were Fred ILES and his wife Florrie Annie (nee Baldwyn) who ran the chippie
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So in the 1921, Fred Iles was shown as a fish and chip labourer, own account in Maxstoke St but he died in 1937. In 1939, Florrie was at 51 Maxstoke st (was that the address of the chippie?) but was shown as unpaid domestic duties. Wonder if she owned it and rented it out?
I can't see the immediate connection between Ann's Iles and mine. Her father was Charles H Iles born 1906, married a Miss Longbottom
 
When visiting Oban (where my wife spent many of her school holidays, staying with relatives) we always popped into "Oban Fish & Chips". It really is delicious stuff (photos below), where they take your order and they then cook it for you. We really need to try to support our local fish & chip shops too, because if we don't they may become even more scarce, in the same way that our corner shops did.
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John L said:
When visiting Oban (where my wife spent many of her school holidays, staying with relatives) we always popped into "Oban Fish & Chips". It really is delicious stuff (photos below), where they take your order and they then cook it for you. We really need to try to support our local fish & chip shops too, because if we don't they may become even more scarce, in the same way that our corner shops did.
View attachment 198337 View attachment 198342View attachment 198344
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Washed down with Iron Bru,nothing better.:yum:yum
 
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