My park-up stand: Tuesdays at Jubilee Crescent in RADFORD by the doctor’s surgery and Tesco at 12 noon.

No longer visiting the market but I am in Allesley Village monday evenings around 8pm.

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One of the most difficult aspects of the job – guessing who will want what and how much of it?  I load plenty on board and always hope that there’s enough for all my customers and some left for my Fish & Chips when I get back to Grimsby.  After cleaning out the van and parking it at home my next call is round to my Mum’s who looks after Joni and Bayda and Lea for me while I’m away.

We do like our Fish & Chips on a wednesday teatime so that’s why I load a little extra over what I expect I’ll need for my customers – it’s always a guessing game – but sometimes I’m very busy on the fishvan especially if there’s been a chef’s program on telly with a fish recipe or monday night’s shows feature something fishy or there’s been an article in the newspapers on eating fish. If something like this is why you’ve searched and found me on the internet then please don’t be too disappointed if lots of others have seen the same program and found me first, this is an idea of what fish I have left on ice when I leave Coventry but sometimes there’s none:

I started driving to Coventry 32 years ago when I took over the round from my friend’s father, Bill, who had been doing the job for seven years. He took over from Norman who did eighteen years from 1964, this was when the government’s Beeching Report closed down lots of the railway branch lines meaning that some fish deliveries which had always been by train couldn’t get to their destinations. The M1 motorway had just been built and it was a three and a half hour drive in an old slow van to reach Coventry. The A46 was a much better road when I started and more so now.

Here’s a five minute video of the Traditional Grimsby Smoke Houses. All of my smoked haddock and cod is from David Atkinson’s smokehouse, he’s the guy in a blue shirt with the two chaps behind packing fish into what used to be called half-stone boxes, they’re just over 3 kilos now. The yellow colouring used by the smokers is turmeric which has only recently been found to be the best anti-oxidant for health benefits similar to the benefits from red wine, cooked tomatoes and chocolate! This means that my yellow smoked fish is totally natural and good to eat for health-conscious fish fans – see info link below video.

Video by courtesy of Grimsby Traditional Fish Smokers Group