The Big Fish, 166 Bath Road (formerly 1 Clare Cottages)

In 1889 this was the home of a Post Office clerk called William Woodward, who lived here with his wife and five children. The house still had a front garden at the time and the children played there and in the street, long before the electric trams and motor vehicles at the start of the 20th century.

At the turn of the 20th century this became one of three adjoining properties owned by the Dix family. This one was a hardware store and had a brass strip announcing that fact along the pavement.

During the First World War the shop was converted into a National Restaurant, otherwise known as a ‘communal kitchen’. This was part of a national movement during a time of food shortages, whereby local authorities set up kitchens to cook nutritious food at affordable prices. Customers would take their own dishes to the shop and take the food home to eat.

By 1920, electrician Arthur Chapman lived here with his wife Mary and their five children. Their hardware shop was double fronted; in one window Arthur had a black china cat and in the other a black china dog. He replaced the eyes on both creatures with flashing lights. On one occasion an elderly gentleman passer-by was quite cross with him saying it was an outrageous waste of electricity!

Arthur, who had been a motor mechanic during the First World War, loved to tinker with anything mechanical and made a radio receiving station in a room above the shop. Great care had to be taken when listening to the radio, as when a tram rumbled along the Bath Road huge sparks would fly out of the set!

In 1924 this became a fish and chip shop called ‘The Bath Road Supper Rooms’. The first fish fryer, Mr Thomas Nicholson, used coal to cook the fish and chips and local people could tell how burnt the food was by the blackness of the smoke from the chimney!

Although it has changed ownership and name several times over the years, in 2024 there will have been a century of fish and chips served here.

Use the pelican crossing to cross the road to the opposite pavement. Walk northward until you are at the front of Thirlestaine House, the large neo-classical mansion.