Chippy visited by Oasis star turns 100

A fish and chip shop that counts Hollywood star Tom Cruise and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher among its customers is celebrating its centenary.

The Toll Bar in Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire, started frying in 1926 and still serves customers from its Grade-II listed building.

Harry Grafton, 26, whose family are the current owners, still has the ticket from Gallagher's order which included fish, chips and a pie.

He said: "Many have since asked if he had a chip cob as 'he'd get a roll with it', but I've heard that joke too many times now."

Gallagher's order slip remains behind the counter and while it has faded over time, what he ordered on a Saturday evening in 2023 can still be discerned.

"He was a lovely guy and had two fish and chips, a beef and onion pie, two curry sauce, chips and a fishcake," said Grafton.

Tom Cruise also paid a visit when filming a Mission: Impossible movie nearby in 2021.

No-one is quite sure of the exact date in 1926 when the chippy opened, but a portion of fish and chips back then would have cost about five old pennies, which is a far cry from the current price tag of more than £11.

Grafton said recent increases in costs for essentials such as energy, potatoes and fish meant the chippy's chances of managing a second century were uncertain.

"Energy prices and gas prices make life difficult for all businesses," he said.

"And fish prices at the moment are crazy, the highest they've ever been, it's very worrying."

His father Peter Grafton, who also works in the chippy, agreed the sector is facing immense pressures.

"It's very difficult when times are hard, as they are now, to not go cheap," he said.

"There's lots of pressures to buy cheaper cuts of fish and thinner cuts of fish, but we work really hard to maintain the quality and believe people will pay for that."

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