{"id":17118,"date":"2021-07-16T17:51:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marthamnorfolk.co.uk\/?page_id=17118"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:16:53","slug":"fish-and-chip-shop-the-green","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marthamnorfolk.co.uk\/?page_id=17118","title":{"rendered":"Fish & Chip Shop and Rose Cottage, The Green, Martham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fish & Chip Shop and Rose Cottage, The Green <\/a><\/em>, Martham<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Fish and Chip shop must be one of the most attractive chip shops in the country. Many visitors go out of their way to visit it on the way to their holiday on the coast and enjoy fish and chips by the pond on the idyllic village green.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a date plate on the north gable end of the thatched building which unfortunately has been mostly painted out but appears to say 176? and under it are the initials STM. The building  was re-thatched in 2021 and the plaque checked close-up but was still indistinct. If the date is 176?  it would pre-date Faden\u2019s map which is the earliest available for Martham. A copy of the map is shown below and the building can be made out by an optimist but is not totally clear.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Faden’s map of 1797<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The cottage seems to appear in the 1812 Inclosure Award<\/a><\/em> map \u2013 shown on the right \u2013 but it is poorly drafted and the plot is not numbered meaning that the owner\/occupier cannot be identified from the 1812 Award<\/a><\/em> list.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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The age of the cottage is also confirmed by a map published in a little book published by Robert Porter<\/a><\/em> in 1830 entitled \u201cThe Strangers Guide Book for the Polite Village of Martham\u201d<\/a><\/em>. The book includes several maps of the village green<\/a><\/em> area and the houses that surrounded it. The cottage is shown near the Back Lane pond<\/a><\/em> on the map as illustrated below. Robert was the village schoolmaster at Martham and wrote most of his book whilst living at The Vicarage<\/a><\/em> although he was never the vicar. You can read more about the book by clicking on the links in this paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hand drawn map from the book by Robert Porter dated 1830.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

These maps do not show the building as being directly beside Hemsby Road<\/a><\/em> and it may be possible that the part that is the fish and chip shop today stood alone in those early days without the attached cottage. The present-day photograph at the top of this page shows a central gable end wall dividing them and two chimneys indicating that Rose Cottage was attached later. The 1842 Tithe Award<\/a><\/em> map shows them both as a semi-detached pair – see below.  <\/p>\n\n\n

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1842 Martham Tithe Award map. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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At the time of the 1841 census <\/a><\/em>the cottage was occupied by James & Mary Manthorpe. He was a basketmaker and probably operated from the shop side of the building whilst they lived at what is today called Rose Cottage next door. James & Mary had moved to Black Street<\/a><\/em> by 1851 and then to Caister by 1861 where he ran a successful basketmaking and mending business at Yarmouth Road employing three men and a boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1842 the cottage was owned by John Francis (1786 to1863) a solicitor at Lincoln\u2019s Inn, London who acted for clients in Norfolk and it was still occupied by James Manthorpe, the basketmaker. It was described as a cottage and garden of 28 perches. John Francis did not live in Martham, he came from the farming and landowning Francis family and his brother George farmed at Grange Farm<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We now come to a long period of some 60 years from 1851 to 1911 when there are no identifiably records for the fish shop or Rose Cottage. No-one is listed as a fish merchant or fryer throughout this period. Fish and chips first appeared in the UK in the <\/strong>1860s so it is possible that the fish and chip business had not started in <\/strong>Martham. If this is so we have to look for other trades but as the properties are not directly beside others there is no consistent walking order in census returns that helps identify either trades or people living in the vicinity over several years. If anyone can help with more information, please contact me. Indeed, it is not thought that it became a fish and chip shop until around 1915. The photograph below dates to this period and there is a sign above the door on the left but you cannot make out what is says. Business directories<\/a><\/em> for this period do not mention a fish shop.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Looking east towards Hemsby Road. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Harry Cobb lived and owned at what is today called Cobblers Cottage<\/a><\/em> where he plied his trade as a leather worker supplying boots and shoes, but he also owned the Fish & Chip shop and the adjoining Rose Cottage which he bought in the early 1930\u2019s. He bought them for his daughter Sophie and her husband Reuben Ward who had married in 1932. Reuben was a fisherman and Harry thought it may be safer if he had an occupation which was not at sea. Sophie and Reuben used to do the frying and run the business, but they all lived at Cobblers Cottage<\/a><\/em>. In 1939 Rose Cottage was let to Beatrice Self (1888-1964) who lived there with her three sons and a daughter. Beatrice was a widow, her husband Frederick, a former bricklayer, having died in 1929. One of her sons was called Sidney (Siddie) who ran an \u2018open all hours\u2019 sweetshop from a small shed there until the 1950\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Siddie Self’s ‘shed’ shop next to Rose Cottage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Harry Cobb died in January 1960 and actually left the Fish and Chip shop to his other daughter Olive (1917-2008) and Cobblers Cottage<\/a><\/em> to Sophie and Reuben which had been their home throughout. Olive, meanwhile, had married James Ryan in 1941. By 1960 the chippy needed work doing to it which Olive could not afford so she sold it to the sitting tenants at the time who were John & Laura Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John (known as Jack) Smith was born in 1912 in Hampshire and having married Martham girl Laura Jane Moll in 1935 had a small chippy in a wooden shed in Staithe Road <\/a><\/em>in the 1950s before moving into the shop on The Green<\/a><\/em> in around 1953. Apparently, they took the frying pans from one shop to the other when they moved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Staithe Road ‘chippy’ was in the small shed behind the white van. c1950’s<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Signage for Jack Smith at the chip shop in 1953.<\/em> (Photo courtesy of David Stretton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Older generations remember the counter being across the whole front inside the shop facing the door with the preparation room to the rear where they had a hand operated chipper to cut buckets full of chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack & Laura eventually retired and sold the business to Sid & Daphne Seily in 1979 who traded successfully for 20 years until they too retired and the business passed into the hands of the present owners, the Taylors, in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Fish & Chip shop in 1991 when run by Sid & Daphne Siely. (Photo courtesy of David Stretton).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The shop was re-thatched in 2021 by the Taylors and Skippers Printers is next door. (Photo courtesy of David Stretton)<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My grateful thanks to Martha Baker, a descendant of the Cobbs, for help proving this page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fish & Chip Shop and Rose Cottage, The Green , Martham The Fish and Chip shop must be one of the most attractive chip shops in the country. Many visitors go out of their way to visit it on the way to their holiday on the coast and enjoy fish and chips by the pond … Continue reading “Fish & Chip Shop and Rose Cottage, The Green, Martham”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17118","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t