Market Harborough | Food

Date Published:: 12/09/2008

Mike Brown added Joules Yard in Market Harborough to the Map, but I found there was plenty more to explore in this quintessential Leicestershire town

After rocking up at Joules Yard in the dead hour for eateries the world over - 3pm - I had a brief nose around the lovely looking antiques and bric-a-brac before moving on to Bates Butchers and Deli, just around the corner.

Eddie Partyka bought the business in 1993 from the eponymous Mr Bates who, in Eddie's words: "has sort of retired." He now makes Brixworth pate that he still supplies to Eddie's shop. As well as selling the pate as is, Eddie uses it in his homemade beef en croute pies.

"Look at this," says Eddie, showing me a book of the local area featuring butchers of yesteryear in their horizontal stripped aprons. "This butcher's been here for a very long time, way back when there used to be an abattoir around the back in the lane, and beyond that a field the cows were kept in," he tells me. Now that's a short journey from gate to plate.

Something fishy next door

Next to Bates is fishmongers, Martin Hobbs. Sadly Martin passed away a few years ago and his daughter Jenny now owns the business. Also on the staff is his wife Nora who, with her husband, took over the shop in 1971. It had belonged to Mac Fisheries (they were quite big in the 1970s and owned by Unilever). "When they closed they left large parts of the country without fish," says Nora.

But the shop history goes back even further. Nora shows me a picture taken around 1920 where the owner is TB Hunt (est. 1860 says the sign above the shop). What's more, the original one-piece marble display is the same one Nora puts her fish on today. "In the 1980s they tried to make us change it," says Nora, "but Miss Willits, the local conservation officer, helped save the block." To think that this one piece of marble has been in constant service for over a hundred years, through all the changes in society and owners and fishing and commerce – amazing.

Tools of the trade

A bad workman blames his tools, so the saying goes, and one could say the same about cooks. Opposite Bates Butchers is The Cookshop, owned by Jade Johnston. In here is everything you might need in the kitchen. As well as gadgets and presents there's proper chefs equipment including a large range of knives from suppliers like Global and Henckel. "Most men are prepared to spend more money on quality knives, they see specific brands used by top chefs on TV and want those," says Jade. Other people come in and buy items to decorate their kitchens. "Even if people aren't foodies, they still want their kitchens to look nice," she adds. Fashion has well and truly made it to the heart of the home.

I ask Jade which celeb endorsed items sell best: "The Kenwood mini mix did well off the back of Delia's last show," she says, and Nigella is popular. We look at some other items, including silicone egg poachers, ceramic knives, oven gloves and finally the 'Garlic Zoom' by Chef’n from the USA. It's like a little car that you pop the garlic bulb into and then run it along the worktop to chop it up – crazy!

So there you go, from antiques to cutting edge design, all in an average market town in England, all you need to do is look.

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