AFTER six decades, the owners of a County Durham fish and chip shop has seen most things - including a man who waved a fake gun in order to jump the queue.

Clem and Jane Oxenham, of Clems Fish Restaurant, began trading in Spennymoor, County Durham, on January 29, 1954.

They began on Wood Vue before they managed to raise 3,000 in 1956 to buy a shop across town on Clyde Terrace.

Mrs Oxenham, 79, of Binchester Moor, Spennymoor, said: "We worked between 7am and midnight. It was hard work, but we had some laughs. We're proud of what we've achieved.

"One night the queue was to the door. A man, who was a bit of a lad, tried to jump the queue.

"He then pulled out, what everyone thought, was a gun. It was fake, but I've never seen a shop clear so fast."

Now also operating outlets in Shildon, Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street, and Sunderland, Mr Oxenham, 83, from Blackhall, near Hartlepool, was a chef in the Army where he prepared food for the officers' mess and an Army hospital.

Mrs Oxenham's father, Harry Wardell, had a wholesale business and wet fish shop, in Hartlepool.

They originally called the shop OC Oxenham's, but changed it to Clems in the 1960s. They even owned a trawler, called Marget, which sailed from Hartlepool.

They sold fish for 8p and chips for 3p. Average weekly takings were 70, while weekly running costs were 14.

The shop was so busy that no-one could be spared to drive Mrs Oxenham to hospital at the onset of labour for her son Stephen, so she had to go by bus.

The couple have six children John, Jane, Peter, Stephen, Julie and Andrew and some of them work in the family business.