FROM a local chippy to a dental practice, Stratton Fisheries Chip Shop has undergone quite a transformation since the Weeks family ran it in the 1970s.

Sally Clark was just three years old when her parents, John and Jenny Weeks, took over the shop on the corner between Merton Avenue and Beechcroft Road, moving into the two-bedroom flat above with her five-year-old sister Luci in 1970.

“As children we loved living above the chip shop,” said Sally. “I know for my mum and dad it was really hard work, but we had an amazing childhood.”

Sally, who is still remembered by people as ‘the little blonde one from the chippy’, spent six years living there before her parents bought number 14 just across the road.

“We were always having friends round for birthday parties or tea parties,” she said. “Because for them it was a treat. One of my oldest friends says one of his favourite memories is coming round and having tomato ketchup on chips. So it was really good to be known for that.

“Everyone knew who I was in the neighbourhood, because I had white blonde hair when I was young and I was from the chippy, so I couldn’t get away with anything!"

“I was a bit of a live wire. Luci was the quieter one,”

After the family sold the business in 1978, it passed through a number of owners including Shanghai Fish Bar and Ocean Chinese Takeaway. The shop has now been taken over by Smiles Dental Clinic, based next door.

Sally added: “It really is the end of an era for me. It’s probably great, but for me it’s sad to see it changing so completely from what it was.”

“We had the heyday of that shop,” added Jenny, who was 26 when her husband John, 28 at the time, decided he wanted to run a chip shop.

“His aunt and uncle had a fish and chip shop over on Grange Drive. And he used to go over and help out and so gradually he learnt the ropes over there,” Jenny said.

When the Weeks family lived there, downstairs was the front of the shop with the prep room behind, and a conservatory where there were freezers. At the back was a small kitchen, a dinning room and then above the shop was the living room, bedrooms and a bathroom.

Sally added: “The garage, which is still there now, was the fish house where dad would prepare the fish and make the batter. We had a potato rumbler which would peel potatoes and I can remember a big sink in there where dad would have the potatoes soaking.”

“I can remember everything was kept absolutely pristine and it would all get hosed down at the end of the day.

“It was hard work for my parents but for us as children we just saw the fun side of living in a chippy,” she added.

“Mum was really, really fussy about things being clean and pristine. She worried we would smell of the shop. My sister and I had a bath and hair wash every day, and clean clothes,” Sally said.

The family ran the business during the 1970s Cod Wars, selling coley when there wasn’t cod available and also saw the change in the currency to the decimal system. Curry sauce as well as pineapple, mushroom and spam fritters were all on offer for customers.

“You’d have your cockles and your mussels up on the shelf, and we had Corona soft drinks back then,” added Sally who also remembered going with her mum to place an order for potatoes with T Quality.

”I’d always get a banana going in there,” she said “It’s silly things like that you remember.”

Jenny added: “We did ok. We never had any trouble, even when the pubs closed.

“There was always someone in the shop.

"We had four girls working for us in the end and the queues would often be out the door, sometimes right up Merton Avenue.”

Jenny said she ended up having to unplug the TV after putting the girls to bed at night.

“I used to pop upstairs to check on them after putting them to bed, and one time I went up and there was Sally in an armchair watching The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and she was only three!

“But generally the girls were very good. What was nice in the summer was having a crowd of kids playing out the front which I would keep an eye on, and we’d let them have a few chips and they would sit outside and loved it.”

Sally and Luci, who lives in New Zealand, both went to Beechcroft Infant School, Ruskin Junior School and Penhill Secondary School.

Sally, who now lives on Urchfont Way in Penhill said: “We were very local and in fact some of my grandchildren are going to those schools now.”

She added: “I remember the freedom most. Mum and dad were always there because we lived where they worked. It was easy to pop down the road to see friends.

"We’d just run up and down to each other's houses.”

After they sold the business John worked for Hambro Life and Jenny joined an agency to allow her time to look after the girls.

Sally added: “I do remember feeling a bit jealous of the little girls living there after we left, as that was my home.

“But we had such a fantastic life and lots of friends in the area so I don’t remember things changing all that much. As I got older I did think it would have been nice to have taken over from my parents and kept the business in the family but it wasn’t to be.”