A POPULAR fish and chip shop has undergone its first major change in almost a century of being open.

Beacon Road Fisheries, in Wibsey, has been closed for five weeks while work has been underway on a full five figure refurbishment.

The store is set to officially reopen again next Tuesday at 11.30am.

Alex Butler, who will have owned the chippie with partner Cheri Smith for four years in July, said it is the first time the shop has had any major improvement work in its near 100-year history.

He said: "We just wanted, we've been open all the way through lockdown, other than the first month off, and we just thought it was looking tired now.

"We wanted to freshen it up, things were wearing out.

"It's nice and modern and vibrant."

The fisheries closed after service on April 3 and the £40,000 refurbishment began less than an hour later.

But the estimated finishing date for the project was delayed after workers found an unexpected issue.

Mr Butler said: "We've done everything, went back to brick, then found out the roof was about to collapse at the back, but we got it secure.

"It was meant to be three weeks, but ended up being five weeks.

"We shut at half one, then at two, we started taking the old range out.

"By five o'clock that Saturday, it was totally stripped out - that's when it started."

The works have included installing a totally new range for cooking and Mr Butler said regulars will notice a huge difference in the look and feel of the shop.

He added: "We should be quicker, we had a wall range, with our backs to people.

"With the new counter range, hopefully we'll get people in and out quicker."

But some things will always remain the same at Beacon Road Fisheries, and for good reason, in Mr Butler's opinion.

He described the shop as a "proper traditional" chippie that will continue to use the finest Icelandic Haddock and frying the fish in beef dripping.

Beacon Road Fisheries had been open in some shape or form right since April 21st in 2020, until the refurb this year, after closing for the first month of the pandemic "just to be safe".

Mr Butler said: "I'm looking forward to normality and I'm hoping it gets better.

"I think it's going in the right direction."

It seems the chippie's customers are just as eager to get going again too after a five-week absence.

Mr Butler said: "The phone has been none stop, to see if we're back open and on Facebook we've got a huge amount of people messaging all the time.

"They're desperate for us to be open.

"We're always very busy on a Friday, they queue up the road, it's none stop."