Day 61 of the End to End in 2019 officially finished at Eamont Bridge, but had several added on places we visited, including supper at Shap Chippy. It’s this I shall come back to, but not before mentioning lovely villages and verges, interesting henges and monuments, woolly alpacas, the beautiful blue valley of Haweswater and frustrating signs.
The frustrating signs occupied some of the morning and led to me getting a bit lost in a small wood, but then a small wood is harder to get lost in than a large wood. Eventually I came out at a bridge and was no longer lost. This all began due to a lack of accurate signs. Folks will use footpaths, even sporadically. It’s in the landowners interests to keep up accurate signs or else people wander about.
One very accurate sign said that Shap Chippy was open for supper. Of all the things of LEJOG, fish and chips are best. I had my first fish and chips and day 2 in Newlyn and there were many other subsequent suppers. Shap Chippy is a good one: high up in Cumbria, heading for the border, wet and windy it’s a timely place to stop. It’s also won loads of awards and during lock down it set up a fantastic local delivery service. I’d go back there any day!
I grew up on fish and chips. My family owned a fish shop, selling wet fish only by the time I was a child, in West Green Road, Tottenham. It was brilliant. On Saturday nights we were allowed to choose our own fish, any fish, from the shop, to have cooked for supper, as long as we tackled it ourselves (bones and all). That’s how we learnt about fish. We’d serve in the shop during the day time or help with jobs like timing the fish smoking or filling up the prawns and cockles. We learnt to work the till and do the money. I can still hear Uncle George saying ‘Hurry up, that lady’s got a bus to catch!’
That’s Uncle Len frying fish in the 1950s at West Green Road. The family shop went under the name of Ann Sewell and Sons. I remember my great grandma slightly but I remember Uncle Len, Aunt Olive and Uncle George best of all: generous, kind, welcoming. Of all the Sewell brothers and sister, I never knew Uncle Nick: he died on D-Day aged 27. On his gravestone in La Deliverande Cemetery are the words chosen by his family. It says: ‘A light is from our household gone, a voice we loved is stilled’.
The families of over 40,000 people are now experiencing this effect as a result of COVID19. Most missed at family meal times I suspect: food makes families. I remember mine every time I eat my fish and chips.
From the remembered bible: Jesus said ‘Happy are those that mourn, however odd that sounds: they will find comfort’.
On dark days, I remember the smell of fish and chips
and the tang of salt and vinegar:
my memories are stirred by smoked haddock or chewy shellfish.
Mourning and laughter side by side,
just as you are side by side with us, Fish Finder.
Whenever we sit down to eat and remember,
may your presence make our meals holy times,
festivals of the kindom.
JAL: 06.06.2020 in Longdendale.