A fish and chip shop which still uses a 66-year old batter recipe is attracting visitors from far and wide to sample its famous secret recipe, which dates back to 1948.
The Upton Fish and Chip Shop in Gainsborough, north Lincolnshire, still uses a huge coal-fired range to cook its fish and chips, with the range believed to be one of the only two in operation in the UK.
The takeaway also uses a traditional ‘chipper’ machine for making chips, which is hand operated, a far cry from most industrial style chip makers and fryers which are common place in takeaways up and down the country.
However, very little has changed at the Upton Fish and Chip Shop. The coal-fire range was made by Frank Ford of Halifax in 1948, and at the time a coal-fired range was the only option available with which to cook.
Janet Gillespie (pictured) works at the Upton Fish and Chip Shop which still uses a 66-year old batter recipe is attracting visitors from far and wide to sample its famous secret recipe, which dates back to 1948
Owner Sally Shaw (pictured) still cooks the fish and chips in dripping in a huge coal-fired range, believed to be one of the only two in operation in the UK
The chippy’s owner, 45 year old Sally Shaw, purchased the 70 square foot shop in 2005 during an auction and is still shocked about the success of the business, however is aware that the days of coal-fired ranges are long gone and that many chip shops have now adopted easy ingredients and cooking techniques, which makes her chip shop even more unique.
‘People will queue all of the way down the street. I never get to see how many people are outside from behind the counter but customers will get to the front and say ‘we have been in the queue for over an hour tonight’.
‘It is a regular thing, if someone tells me they have been queuing for half an hour I cheekily tell them that doesn’t sound too bad.’
Customers have known to queue for hours in order to sample the chip shop’s sought after portions, which still uses a 66-year-old batter recipe
The famous chippy has been going for more than 70 years and is the only chip shop to be featured in the Good Food Guide which has reviewed restaurants, cafes and pubs across the UK since 1951. The coal-fired range (pictured) is believed to be one of two still operational in the UK
The popular takeaway opens for just six hours a week, but that hasn’t stopped its staff from getting to know the customers. Janet Gillespie, 74, has worked at the chippy for over half a century and said she has ‘loved every single minute of it’.
‘The customers are all fantastic, they are like friends to me. I have never heard a bad word or complaint said about the shop, we treat everybody exactly the same whether they have been coming forever or it is their first time.’
Janet, who has worked at the chippy alongside jobs at a village shop and more recently an egg factory, made a promise to previous owner, Mrs Longden she would work for the shop when she was just eight years old.
She said: ‘I told Mrs Longden, ‘I want to work behind the counter here one day’.
Kathleen Longden (pictured) was the original owner of the Upton Fish and Chip shop which started in 1948 and still uses a coal-fired range to fry
The takeaway recently celebrated its 70th anniversary and currently only opens on Friday night and Saturday lunch time. The chippy’s original owner Kathleen Longden started the chip shop in 1948
‘When a position became available when I was old enough, she said ‘remember what you told me years ago’ and offered me the chance to work there.
‘It is the best decision I ever made. I have such a passion for it. I will carry on working here until I get thrown out, I will never leave. My family joke if I’m not at the chip shop on a Friday night, I’m probably dead.’
Staff at the traditional chippy have carefully and rigorously stuck to not only the chippy’s age old recipes but to its opening hours. While some customers even travel to the chippy via private plane, owner Sally is adamant that she will keep its limited operating hours which were used by the previous owner and said that during the height of summer some customers even used a local private airfield to ‘fly for their food’.
The Upton Fish and Chip Shop first opened in 1948 and since then has continued to use a coal-fired range which was made by Halifax-based Frank Ford
Janet Gillespie, 74, has worked at the chippy for over half a century and said she has ‘loved every single minute of it’
‘I have known people come from Leicester, from North Yorkshire, from all over the place,’ she explained.
‘Some customers come every week without fail and many have been coming for decades.’
Customers have become so used to having to wait for their favourite meal they have created a system to work out how long they have left to wait.
The chippy’s current owner, Sally Shaw (pictured) still uses this traditional chipper machine and is keen to keep things as they were when the takeaway first opened in 1948
Sally explained: ‘The customers can work out how far away from the food they are by different points on the street.
‘At one post they know they are an hour away, at another they know they are half an hour away. It has become a bit of a social event, people bring their camping chairs and sit and have a chat while waiting.
‘I think the customers like it as it lets them catch up with friends and it is a bit of a weekly event.’
Janet Gillespie has worked at the chip shop for 52 years and said taking the job was the ‘best decision she ever made’
Continuing with tradition, Sally only uses fresh fish and potatoes in the shop so takes the unusual step to close during the winter.
She added: ‘We close all of the way through January. January is the month where everybody is on a diet, the weather is miserable and it is no good for us finding the produce so we choose to close.’
The 70 square foot chip shop has been open for 70 years and sticks to tradition by using age old recipes and traditional machinery
Queues are often seen right up the street from the chip shop which is 70 square foot
This traditional chipper machine is still used today, whilst most takeaways use industrial machines in order to produce large quantities of food
The chip shop has been featured in The Good Food Guide, where it has previously been referred to as a ‘local gem’