An award-winning chippy is at the heart of the community in Petts Wood, seeing regular customers grow up through the generations.

The Village Fish and Chips in Petts Wood has recently won a 2024 Good Food Award and this year alone was also named in the top 50 of the Fry Awards.

The shop has continued to be loved by locals, with residents even coming together to raise money for the shop staff after the chippy was burgled back in December 2022.

It is owned by husband and wife duo Serena and Andy Pybus, and they have been running it for 15 years.

Over that time, Serena said that staff and regulars have made real connections, with some loyal customers who would buy from The Village Fish and Chips with their parents when they were only in primary school now coming in for fish and chips with families of their own.

She said: “There are lots of people travelling into Petts Wood to eat in these fine dining restaurants popping up here, there and everywhere but we have our regular customers who come in week in, week out and I love that because it’s like it’s their safe place every Friday.

“And, they are bringing in their grandkids and their kids so I’m hoping that the generations are showing young kids that fish and chips are a British, traditional food.

“The ladies at the front know a lot of the customers by name and they see the kids and they are in university or working now but when they started coming in they were in primary school coming in with their parents.

“Now, they’re coming in with either a pregnant partner or they are in suits working.

“Some of them used to work with us and then they have gone and got jobs wherever that might be, but they still pop in on Fridays.

“If one of the ladies on the front is on holiday, they will come in and go ‘where’s Angie?’ or they’ll say ‘I used to work here, it was just a couple of weeks in the summer holidays’ or ‘I used to pot wash here’ and it’s so lovely.”

Serena has occasionally been away from the shop for periods at a time, for example when she had young babies to look after, but she said that Angie who manages the front of the shop has been there consistently and knows the regulars by name.

Many of them even had their first job working at The Village Fish and Chips, which is something Serena is very proud of since “no one forgets their first job”.

She added: “It’s really sweet that we have that base for some people.”