Answers

197 High Street, Watford

& Fried Fish Shops

January, 2008

Sarah  Duce (sarah_duce @t hotmail.com) of  Fortrose, Ross-shire, writes: I am wondering if you know anything about  197 High St, Watford. It was home/shop of my G G Grandparents, David and Clara Duce. My Granddad who lived there in 1918, told me that it was on the site of a monastery and that it had priest holes in the yard? He thinks they were investigated and a report sent to the local museum. he also once told me that it had an old vine that was a cutting from one at Hampton Court Palace. I know the building collapsed in 1925ish and was rebuilt. I have been feverishly putting a family history/memory book together for him, and would love to know if his tales are true! And if there are any photos of the building, as I believe it has all long since been demolished.

I don't know of any unambiguous pictures of 197 High Street but the 2nd Edition of The Book of Watford has a pictorial survey of Watford High Street. On page 324 it has a view from the roof of Benskin's Brewery which shows the back of 194 High Street (now the museum) and a number of properties on the odd numbered side of the High Street can be seen beyond it. It also has a closer view of three shops - which include a fish & chip shop called Weston's! However a check in the 1968 Watford Street Directory shows this as being 189 High Street. These shops were demolished in the 1980s as part of major road developments. However I don't know if the High Street has ever been renumbered - but even if this is the wrong shop it shows that there was still a fish & chip shop in that part of Watford some 30 years ago.

However of the author of the book. J. B. Nunn, has his own web site on Watford (www.watford-history.co.uk) and may well be able to advise.

In investigating your question I was intrigued to find that your ancestors ran a fried fish shop, and wondered when "fish and chips" take-away meals first appeared - as it was not really a practical activity in Hertfordshire before the coming of fast rail transport and efficient refrigeration. My own childhood memories (from the 1940s in Devon) were of taking unsold newspapers from my father's newsagents to a nearby fish and chip shop and earning the marvellous sum of one penny a pound (approximately 1p a kilogram). In addition there was a man who had a coke-fired fish fryer on a specially built barrow who sold from a spot a few hundred yards down the road.

The National Federation of Fish Friers web site say that in 1839 Charles Dickens referred to a "fried fish warehouse" in Oliver Twist. and Wikipedia reveals that the first combined fish & chip shops appeared in the 1860s in London and the North of England. To find when they appeared in Hertfordshire I carried out a survey of Kelly's Hertfordshire Directories to get some facts.

Nothing is listed in 1886. In 1890 there was only one fried fish shop listed in the whole of Hertfordshire. This was "Smith Thomas, Bucklersbury, Hitchin". There was still only one in 1895 - this time "Farr Alfred, Queen Street, Hitchin". By 1899 the number had increased, and the Duce family first appear:

The 1901 Census lists David (55, fish merchant) and Clara Duce at 197 High Street, Watford - the household including 3 sons (Joseph, Matthew and John Duce) and a nephew (Harry Duce)  all listed as fish fryers. The birthplaces of the children suggests that he had lived in Yorkshire before coming to Watford (where his wife had been born) - and a check shows David is listed as a fried fish dealer at 91 Manchester Road, Bradford, in the 1891 Bradford Directory, suggesting that he learnt the trade in the North of England.

By 1902 David Duce had four fried fish shops in Watford. However the total number of shops in the county had not increased significantly:

The boom in fried fish in Hertfordshire was well underway by 1908:

Out of 20 fried fish shops in Hertfordshire 12 were in Watford and 5 of these were run by the Duce family. The 3 at Hitchin were the only ones in the North and East of the county. The total numbers continued to expand in subsequent years, and I was interested to note that by 1914 George Smith had opened 4 in Berkhamsted (34 George Street, 1 Holliday Street, 14 Gossom's End & 1 Back Lane.)

From then on I only charted the Duce family. The 1912 directory lists the following:

In 1922 Kelly's listed

In 1929 and 1933 this had become

By 1937 it was

In the 1960 Watford Directory we have

It would appear that fried fish sellers started to become common in Hertfordshire in the early 20th century - particularly in Watford, and the Duce family were the market leaders.

Shortly after the above text was posted it was "googled" by a distant cousin of Sarah - who supplied a copy of a personal family letter written about 100 years ago - from which the above letterhead is taken.

There is a web page for Watford

See also Hodgson & Hankin - A Fishy Tale of Old Hitchin

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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Page updated January 2008