WHEN Bill Oldham first started selling cockles and winkles out of a handcart in the East End, he can only have dreamed that decades later his legacy would still be going strong in the form of one of Westcliff’s most popular and long surviving fish and chip shops.

But dream he did, and after buying his shellfish cart from his war pension, growing his business and then in the late 1940s opening his first fish and chip shop in Leyton, he upped sticks and moved to open a shop in East Street in Prittlewell, where a dynasty was soon to be born.

It was particularly hard graft back in the beginning, with Bill’s wife Lil having to shovel coals to keep the cooking fires alight, the ice having to be delivered by horse and cart to keep the fish fresh and the chip cutting machine taking one potato at a time. 

But despite the work, a number fish and chip businesses grew, with the couple’s sons, Rodney and Derek, who would help out from very young ages, also going on to open a their own restaurants in Southend.

Between the family, the businesses owned included The Pied Piper, Zorba’s Restaurant, Quality Fayre and The Supreme Fish Bar - now called Oldham’s, the name change coming to honour Bill Oldham when he became ill.

Oldham’s, in West Road, was opened by Rod Oldham in 1967 when he was a mere 21 years old. 

It is now run by his son - Bill’s grandson - Bradley Oldham, and is the last one of the Oldham businesses standing. Bradley took it over running it in 2009.  

He’d by then left Southend and was working as a photographer but following a call from his dad saying he needed to ease off work and feeling the importance to continue running the family legacy - Bradley said yes.  

Bradley said: “It is hard work - seven days a week, but I said yes and took it over.

“I had helped out as a kid, cleaning the fridges and that sort of thing, I can’t remember for how much, probably 70p of something back then.

“The shop was originally bought from The Clark’s family’s fish and chip shop. The name was changed to Supreme Fish bar then, and dad [Rodney] was running it on his own. 

“The building was almost the same, with the same restaurant upstairs, although the downstairs restaurant wasn’t there then.

“There was a Bakelite bell in the restaurant - still there but now disconnected - that people would ring, and dad would run up and get the order, then go down and cook it and send it up on the lift, which is also still there and the same as it is today. We still use it today!”

Being opposite the Palace Theatre, on London Road, Oldham’s is not only popular with the customers, but also with the stars that perform there. 

They have included Adam Woodyatt - Ian Beale from Eastenders; Leslie Grantham - ‘Dirty Den’ from Eastenders; American comedian Joan Rivers and Cliff Richards. 

Bradley said: “My mum loves Cliff Richards, so when he asked to book a table, we got mum in and told her to dress as a waitress so she could serve him.  But when it cam to it she got so star struck she ran off!”

Aside from the odd development with inevitable modernisation of some of the machinery the other change that Bradley says he has seen, is the difference climate change and other world concerns have made to the fishing industry. 

He said: “Prices of fish have gone crazy, and oil is expensive because a lot of the sunflower oil came from Ukraine. 

“I have stopped selling white bail, because - and not a lot of people realise this - but all whitebait are, are baby fish, a mix of all kinds of baby fish. There is not a fish called ‘whitebait’ which a lot of people think. And I believe the baby fish need a chance to be left alone to grow into one fish that is big enough to be one meal!

“Fifty or 60 years ago, when my grandad used to buy three stone of skate, the rock would be thrown in for free because there was always so much of it. Now it is overfished and really expensive - it is a slow growing fish.”

He added: “But on the flip side of this, we have all these loyal customers that come back again and again.  People are happy to pay £10 for a good meal of wild fish and locally grown potatoes.

“We’ve made our own coleslaw for 37 years, which dad was inspired to create following a trip to America, which was when he started introducing the ribs and chicken and so forth. All our meat if from a local butchers. People love fish and chips as it is still a good, solid meal.”