What's happened.

[5eulbdog7]

Not entirely accurate Wednesday and Saturday a van sells fish
at the Saltcoats market.

[morag]

I would suggest that cooking fish is an art and not in the domain of many folk. The fish and chip shops thrived as the wet fish shops closed. How society changed.

Cooking fish is a cinch..

[brian f]

Just wondering has any of the Threetowns have a fishmonger shop these days, or did the supermarkets put them out of business. it's a very rare sight where i live.

Can't be sure of the answer to that in regard to Saltcoats or Ardrossan brian, but I doubt if they do.

In Stevenston these days there's only really the one located inside Morrisons supermarket on the outskirts of the town and that's obviously owned by them.
Most types of Fish have a very short shelf life, so the independent fish traders would likely have been one of the first to suffer when the large supermarkets started to get a real foothold. Large stores can easily absorb losses for a period of time in certain smaller areas of their business, and can also offer cut price deals to clear any stock approaching 'sell by' or 'use by' date without too much financial effect. Not so the small independent trader who's main income was from one product.

The last Fishmongers in Stevenston was at the top of New Street. I can't remember exactly when it closed. (possibly some time in the late 90's early 00's) It's now a café named 'Simply Scrumptious', who also make birthday and celebration cakes.

That Fishmongers was owned and run by a chap named Alec Gentleman for a fair number of years, then latterly by an employee of his named Mary, who made a great go of it there for a while.
Alec is now a bus driver on the local routes and his surname describes him well.
A true 'Gent'

Good reply that Michael

I would suggest that cooking fish is an art and not in the domain of many folk. The fish and chip shops thrived as the wet fish shops closed. How society changed.

I would have thought the" ART" would have been handed down the generations as plenty of fish used to be landed in Saltcoats. Just seems bit odd, seaside towns and no fishmongers ...

[5eulbdog7]

His Christian name is Alexander and its been a long time since Saltcoats was a fishing town.

[5eulbdog7]

Morag lots of folk find it hard to cook fish.

[morag]

Morag lots of folk find it hard to cook fish.

Don't know why Bill...I've cooked all kinds every which way.

[aland]

I have been out campaigning every saturday in saltcoats for 12 weeks now and the town is getting marginally better than it was 10 or 20 years ago. yes there is a lot of poundshops and charity shops but the picture is the same all over, ayr, kilmarnock even glasgow. For big purchases folk go online. As for books the cancer care shop in ardrossan is as good as any, I rarely come out without a handful and usually have change out of a quid plus it is recycling

for years before asda came you couldnt buy a t-shirt in ardrossan, then the town was dead. But it is on the up, the years of the tories doing everything in their power to kill the town and its people are going. We will not give up

[John Donnelly]

Al, with all respect, I've just been in the 3 towns last week, and I must comment that you are easlily pleased, thinking that things are in any way acceptable. I echo Shena's remarks about community spirit. Come over here to NL some time and see how our high streets, who are suffering from the supermarkets and internet just as much as you are have shops where you can buy anything you need from the proverbial Harrodian needle to an anchor; (well, - allow me just a wee bit of exageration).

Seriously, I was very depressed last week. The paint is peeling off the shop-fronts and the people are all looking down-at-heel and giving off an air of downright misery. There is hardly a smile to be seen.

Try looking at things from a different perspective. The place is not the one we grew up in. I hesitate to use an emotional term, but there is no other word for it, it's become a dump.

This gives me no pleasure to write, but it's the people that make it so, and it's only the people who can dig themselves out of it.

Blaming the Tories or anybody else is a cop out.

JD.

[aland]

john, it is the area I grew up in, now I am only 40 so a pup compared to some on here and when i was a bairn/teenager the place was dead. There was no shops even poundshops or charity ones. Yes I can just about remember corner Duncans and john menzies. But if you wanted to do a weekly shop you had presto or tesco on the high road, all you had was small corner shops in ardrossan. I still say that asda coming to ardrossan has helped re-generate the town

[Big Sanny]

Having left Stevenston as a callow 18 year old and having spent the next 40 years as a "missionary" firstly in England and latterly in Wales endeavouring to convert the masses to believe that Scotland is "Gods own country" I sadly must agree about the demise of our beloved " Three Towns".
I was "up home" last week and in beautiful sunshine walked through Stevenston and Saltcoats and later drove up to Largs stopping of in Ardrossan for some "light refreshment". The indisputable fact is that we have some of the most attractive coastal scenery in Britain,unfortunately it is also combined with one of highest levels of social deprivation in the U.K.
The "Three Towns" in ,my view,have been allowed to deteriorate in such a way that would not have happened anywhere else in the country.Since the closure of the factory in the seventies only superficial,limited short term efforts have been made by each successive government in power to address the issue of the high levels of unemployment that now exist in the area.
I am no economist or lover of any particular political party but I am certain that the things that other Forum members have highlighted will never improve and will continue to deteriorate unless the there is well paid, long term employment available to the people of the Three Towns.
How to attract such work to the area is and will be extremely difficult especially in todays economic climate.
We all know what the "Three Towns' has to offer,a beautiful place to live,cheap housing,a large easily trained workforce, an international "all year round "airport on the doorstep,a developed deep water port at Hunterston,a large number of greenfield and brown field sites ideal for industrial development,and excellent rail links with Glasgow.etc.etc.
However,in my view,one thing that is desperately needed is a direct road link to Glasgow.Today the majority of freight is transported by road and in the absence of good road links industry will never be attracted to the area.
When I see the money that has been invested in the U.K.elsewhere on the road infrastructure it angers me that
comparable investment has never been made in North Ayrshire.
It is my opinion that one priority must be to link the Three Towns to the motorway network.The most straight forward way of doing this would be to extend the M8 down the route currently followed by the A737 past Beith and Dalry.This is hardly an area of outstanding beauty and compared to other major road schemes would be relatively cheap.
This of course is but one of many possible solutions to, what appears to me, a deliberate policy of running down of what is,was and still could be a great place to live and work!!

[sweet caroline]

I believe the want of a good road from Glasgow to North Ayrshire is lacking.I remember when the Steel works closed at Glengarnock, and it was voiced way back then that it was needed to lure companies to the area.

SC

[stivis]

Glengarnock?
When it shut the life started to drain out of the area, but a little thought the area was sustainable .Brian Donohoe pile licked his way to get the Paper Mill in Irvine although it really wasn't at that time built for the plant (but BD needed a safe seat) the Mill consumes water in the 80s water in Irvine was in short supply at quite a few times the Mill took the public water supply.
But Glengarnock had far more than was needed on the doorstep,in the reservoirs no increased water infrastructure , no increased costs ,BSC had, of course, told the council
You have the destruction of living area for the benefit of well ,,,,,,,Irvine, and what is a miniscule benefit

Road infrastructure in Scotland ? Ever wondered why it's takes so long to go east to west or visa versa the roads aren't constructed, the country is designed only for people and goods to travel north south.
Consider for example Oban to Leith or pick your own
Now consider Colwyn Bay to Hull

Rather than go over old stuff , and be accused of copping out I blame one lot for the state of the Threetowns!!

Question and I measured it a week ago (I didn't get out a theodolite or GPS) how much wider is New Street opposite the Cross Keys than when the knocked down the White Hart and the rest , about 15-24 inches (check it with the picture in Morrisons)