XIII Oceans

A brief guide to Haydock’s fish and chip history in the modern era (part three)

Times change and that’s acceptable, Dixon’s eventually re-opened and became The Little Chippy, opening at lunch and sometimes at tea proffering a consistent product and one that became the best in Haydock. At last, returning to Haydock after nearly a decade away, there was hope, hope that would turn out to be short-lived. It wasn’t long before The Little Chippy became The Closed Chippy and I was driven into the custom of Haydock Supper Bar, whose owners it was that took over The Little Chippy before closing it down within months thereby denying competition and more importantly somewhere local that didn’t require a short drive or forty minute round trip walk.

Prior to the re-opening of The Little Chippy I’d flirted with fish and chips from Blackbrook Supper Bar which, despite being owned by the same people who own Haydock Supper Bar, has delivered better quality and consistency on the chip front that its more illustrious and frequented mother shop. Once the same people closed The Little Chippy down though my loyalty had waned, my local chippy was never going to open again and The Crispy Cod down in the deepest parts of Haydock, near The Ram’s Head (visit if you dare!), finally fell into the same hands leaving Yickers no option other than to go to the McDonald’s of Haydock or chance a takeaway where the focus of standards in cuisine is not fish and chips.

Haydock had become a fish and chip monopoly and although I have had plenty of tasty food experiences at Haydock Supper Bar and Blackbrook Supper Bar things had changed for me.  They would never be the same after Bridlington.