ONE of the country’s last remaining coal-fired fish and chip shop businesses will celebrate 100 years this weekend.

At Fields Fish Shop, in Esh Winning, County Durham, cod and chips are still fried on a Frank Ford coal-powered range, virtually unchanged since its installation in 1931.

It’s the best way, owner Jeff Field insists, and he would never consider modernising.

“It runs so fast. You can cook ten times quicker than on gas. People come from miles around,” the 52-year-old says.

The Northern Echo: CENTENARY: Field's Fish Shop in Esh Winning is one of 4 remaining coal-powered fish and chip shops in UK, its celebrating 100 years of business in the same family this weekend pictured Cornsay Colliery where the family opened its first two shops picture:

The Northern Echo: CENTENARY: Field's Fish Shop in Esh Winning is one of 4 remaining coal-powered fish and chip shops in UK, its celebrating 100 years of business in the same family this weekend pictured Jeffs great grandfather Old Bill, Uncle Bill, grandfather Tom and Uncl
Top: Cornsay Colliery where the family opened its first two shops. Bottom: Jeff's great grandfather Old Bill, Uncle Bill, grandfather Tom and Uncle Harry

Jeff is a fourth generation fish fryer, his great-grandfather William Field having started the family business with wife Annie with their first shop in Cornsay Colliery in 1915.

“Old Bill”, a mineworker, had been hawking fish round the houses, so the story goes; and his wife kept the shop open even after he went to fight for King and country.

Business fared well during the Depression, but it was a legendary stroke of luck in 1926 that heralded the start of a major expansion.

With the pits locked down and many unemployed, Old Bill was walking to Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland, in the hope of work when he met a bookie’s runner and put every penny he owned, £2, on a horse named Light Dragoon, which came home at odds of 100-1.

The windfall allowed the Old Bill and Annie to buy their rented shop and another too.

In 1931, the family traded in the two Cornsay Colliery shops for their current premises, in Durham Road, Esh Winning.

The Fields also ran a wholesale business, selling fish to shops across the county, and the village petrol station.

At the shop itself, things have changed little in the decades since. The range, fuelled with coal from the front and both sides, still boasts a picture of Windsor Castle made from tiny glass beads by a process called Vividek and imported from Weimar-era Germany.

The shop walls are still covered with green glass tiles; only the seating booths having been removed.

Through the years, ownership passed to Old Bill’s son Thomas, grandson Harry and great-grandson Jeff, whose sons Danny, 25, and Aidan, 19, now run the shop day to day, with mum Angela, 50, who met Jeff over the counter as a young customer.

The Northern Echo: CENTENARY: Field's Fish Shop in Esh Winning is one of 4 remaining coal-powered fish and chip shops in UK, its celebrating 100 years of business in the same family this weekend pictured Jeffs grandfather Tom with his fish wagon  picture: SARAH CALDECOTT
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Jeff's grandfather Tom with his fish wagon

Cod and chips is still the favourite with the locals, priced £4.60 and made to a secret family recipe handed down through the generations.

To celebrate the centenary, several top-secret special offers will be available.

The Mayor of Durham, Councillor Jan Blakey, will visit on Thursday (September 24) and on Saturday (September 26) there will be more VIP visits and live music from Bearpark and Esh Colliery Band, plus charity fundraising. Visit fieldsfishshop.com