More information about Wellington Fisheries. Doris Marsden writes to tell me that her great grandfather, Alfred Sore, was a fishmonger there in the late 1890s and early 1900s "so there has been a connection with fish at these premises for almost 120 years," she points out.

She adds: "I do not know when he stopped trading, but it was probably around 1906 as he was born in 1840 so he would have been in his mid-sixties by then. When my great grandfather wasn't selling fish at the front shop he cobbled boots and shoes at the back of the premises. Probably his leisure time was spent counting the pennies."

Mrs Marsden, who lives in Lister Lane, not far from where she was born, recalls her great grandfather saying that he made a lot of his profits from herrings and from fish head and tails.

"The heads and tails were bought by housewives, not to feed their cats but to make fish pie. How times have changed!" she writes.

"Herrings were bought by the bucketful for a few pence and a group of housewives would join together and share out. In those days there were farthings and halfpennies in our currency so quite a few could be in the co-operative and still get a decent share-out."

Ms Marsden adds: "My father and his brothers were all born on the premises at Dudley Hill Road and I was born not many yards away at 19 Peterborough Place. I have lived in Lister Lane for many, many years, so as you can see I haven't moved very far from my roots."