Fifty years in a job with a lot of sole
TIM Gardiner’s been involved in fishy business for fifty years and admits he’s hooked on being a fish monger and has no plans to reel in a career which started in Stratford when he was 17 and has netted him many loyal customers along the way.
Tim, aged 67, is a very familiar sight in Rother Street, Stratford, where every Friday he sets up his market stall and has done for the past 25 years.
He usually serves 140 customers throughout the day in Stratford and repeats this number of customers at markets in Warwick, Kenilworth and Tewkesbury every week of the year which means getting up at 4am in order to catch his home delivery of fish from Brixham.
He’s then on the road and won’t get back to his home in Bickmarsh near Bidford until 7pm where he gives his stall a complete clean out, ready for the next day.
“I was trained as a 17-year-old by Jack Codling a fishmonger in Solihull. I then worked for my father - Colin – who ran Simpsons Fishmongers in Henley Street until he retired. I’ve always been in the fish trade and own Fishy Business which is my stall at the top end of the market in Stratford. You get to know all the different varieties of fish and after 50 years there’s nothing much I don’t know about the fish side of my work but times are changing. When I first started there were thousands of fish mongers out there but not many young people want to learn the trade now because of the long hours, the hard work and fish is sold in supermarkets now. For me, my trade is constant and regular and at the end of a day not a single fish isn’t sold and that’s because I sell fresh fish so I’ve no plans to retire at the moment,” Tim told the Herald.
Which is good news for his loyal customers who have stayed with him for over two decades.
“I have a chap in his 80s in Stratford who gets up at 6.15am and I’ll have his regular order of salmon and tuna ready for him when he visits my stall. The most popular orders at Christmas were salmon – smoked or raw - and lobster. I’ve got lovely customers who sent lots of texts with their feedback saying how much they enjoyed the lobster,” said Tim who stocks 50 varieties of fish at his market stall.
Throughout the centuries the fish trade has reflected what’s going on in the wider world and that is still the case today.
During the Covid pandemic, Tim was never busier. With fish markets closed he worked round the clock with home deliveries to make sure 150 of his clients got regular deliveries because they wanted to maintain a healthy diet.
He told the Herald one of the reasons why fish and chips was now so expensive was because some chip shops had previously used frozen cod from Russia but since the conflict in Ukraine and the impact of trade bans the cost this family favourite has “gone through the roof.”
When Tim finds time to relax he and his wife – Maria – spend it with their daughters and grandchildren and when it comes to his particular fish dish favourite he doesn’t need to surf the recipe books in the kitchen for ideas, he’s a big fan of sand sole.
“I like halibut and Dover sole but I love sand sole which I shallow fry until it’s just right and serve with chips and a nice pint,” Tim said.
