Fish and Chips: A British Tradition with Global Roots

Fish and chips, a quintessential British dish, owes its origins to a fascinating confluence of cultures and histories. The tradition of eating fish battered and fried in oil was introduced to England by Spanish and Portuguese Jews, known as the Chuts, who had previously resided in the Netherlands. These immigrants, settling in England as early as the 16th century with significant waves in the 1850s, brought with them culinary techniques reminiscent of pescado frito. This dish involves coating fish in flour, dipping it into a batter made of flour and liquid—typically water, though sometimes beer—and frying it in oil. Modern variations may incorporate cornflour and use soda water instead of beer to enhance the batter's crispiness.

Jewish immigrants initially sold fried fish in the streets, carrying trays hung from their necks by leather straps. This method of fish preparation was well-recognized by 1781 when a British cookbook mentioned “the Jews’ way of preserving all sorts of fish.” Even Thomas Jefferson noted his experience of tasting “fried fish in the Jewish fashion” during his visit to England.

The accompanying potato chips, believed to have been brought to England by Sir Walter Raleigh from the New World in the 17th century, were popularized in a different context. While the French are often credited with inventing the fried potato chip, it was William Kitchiner's 1817 cookbook, The Cook's Oracle, that featured the earliest known recipe for something akin to modern potato chips.

The integration of fried fish and chips as a meal sees both Lancashire and London claiming its invention. Chips were a cheap, staple food in the industrial north, while fried fish gained popularity in London’s East End. Charles Dickens referenced a “fried fish warehouse” in his 1839 novel Oliver Twist, hinting at the dish’s early presence. The first fish and chip shop in the North of England is believed to have opened in Mossley, near Oldham, Lancashire, around 1863. Mr. Lees initially sold fish and chips from a wooden hut before moving his business to a permanent shop, solidifying the meal's status in British culinary history.

Today, fish and chips are a beloved British tradition, reflecting a rich history of cultural exchange and adaptation. From its Jewish immigrant roots to becoming a national staple, this dish continues to be enjoyed across the UK, embodying a blend of heritage and innovation.
Fish and Chips: A British Tradition with Global Roots

The origin of Welsh language

The Welsh describe themselves as “Cymraeg” but the English word ‘Welsh’ is a derivative of the Anglo-Saxon term ‘Waelas’ meaning ‘foreigners’ or ‘strangers.’

The Welsh language, like most of the languages of Europe, and many of those of Asia, has evolved from what linguists term Indo-European. Indo-European was spoken at least 6,000 years ago (4,000 BC) by a semi-nomadic people who lived perhaps in the steppe region of southern Russia, or perhaps in Anatolia.

Speakers of the language migrated eastwards and westwards; they had reached the Danube valley by 3,500 BC and India by 2,000 BC.

The Aryans who first came to Britain were the Celts. They came in two waves, starting perhaps about 600 B.C. The first wave – the Goidelic Celts or Gaels – settled in Ireland and the highlands of Scotland. The second – the Brythonic Celts or Britons – settled in England, Wales and the Scottish Lowlands.

The name Britain is derived from them. The Welsh language comes from that of the Brythonic Celts.

The Welsh language emerged from the increasing dialect differentiation of the ancestral Brythonic language in the wake of the withdrawal of the Roman administration from Britain and the subsequent migration of Germanic speakers to Britain from the fifth century.

Conventionally, Welsh is treated as a separate language from the mid sixth century. By this time, Brythonic speakers, who once occupied the whole of Britain apart from the north of Scotland, had been driven out of most of what is now England.

In 1542 Henry VIII decreed that Wales would be incorporated within England, and under the much resented ‘Acts of Union’, the Welsh language was dismissed as English became the only officially recognized language in Wales.
The origin of Welsh language

Anglo-Saxon

From the beginning of the fifth century AD Britain began to be invaded by fierce tribes-people from Norway, Denmark and northwest Germany. They formed enduring institutions and cultural and religious traditions that remained part of English society even after their ultimate defeat by William the Conqueror in 1066.

Before that a number of British or Celtic tribes vied with the Roman forces of occupation, which had arrived in Britain under the command of Julius Caesar in 43 AD.

These warriors were tall, strong fighters with blue eyes and long blond hair. There re three main groups of invaders: Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. At first the Anglo-Saxons were hired as mercenary troops to defend the British from their northern enemies of the Picts, who lived in what is now Scotland.

But by AD 600 the Anglo-Saxons had settled in the east and south of England and conquered the British who had hired them.

By 750, the Anglo-Saxons occupied most of present-day England. The famed seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England – Kent, Sussex, Essex , Wessex, East Anglia and Northumbria - struggled for predominance throughout the Anglo-Saxon period, and from time to time a ruler of one of these kingdoms managed to establish hegemony over the other six.

Most of the people living in Anglo-Saxon England were farmers. They lived in individual farms or hamlets (small village) of between two and 10 farm units.

Each farm had a principal house made of thatch and wood in which the family loved and slept.

The English nation-sate began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, beginning around 800 AD.  Over the following 150 years England was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 927, when Athelstan of Wessex established the nation of England after the Battle of Brunanburh.

Norman conquests of England led by William the Conqueror in 1066 ended Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England, as the new Norman elite replaced virtually all of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders.

Anglo-Saxon

Museum of London

The Museum of London was opened to the public in December 1976 but its collections, which before that date were house in the Guildhall Museum and the London Museum.

The London Museum, established to illustrate the history of London was inaugurated on 21 March 1912 by King George V with Queen Mary and Princes Mary and Prince George in temporary accommodation at Kensington Palace. Among the collections were drawings and models - and a range of objects which fascinated the public, such as the ‘Washing bowl from the Condemned Cell, Newgate Prison’.

Guildhall was founded by the Corporation of London in 1826 and administered by the Corporations Librarian.

In 1975 the London Museum was amalgamated with the City of London’s Guildhall Museum to form the Museum of London, which opened to the public in a new building in the Coty of London in 1976.

The Museum of London, located in the Barbican, offers a superb series of displays on the capital’s social, economic and political life from the earliest days of settlement to present times.

As part of the Barbican Estate, the Museum of London has become one of the largest urban history museums in the world, and holding the biggest archeological archive in Europe.

The Museum of London includes the London Archeological Archive and Research Center and until 2011 the commercial field unit, Museum of London Archeology, created in 1991, joining the Museum of London department Urban Archeology.
Museum of London

History of Acton London

Acton is a suburb of West London, 5 miles from Marble Arch. Inns and taverns were built to provide refreshment for travelers on what became busy road from London to Oxford.

The name Acton originally signified ‘The Oak Town’.  The parish is supposed to derive its name from the quantity of oak timber it produced; ‘ac’, in the Saxon language, signifying an oak.

In this place there traces of early tool-making, extending over long periods and the numerous finds of prehistoric weapons and tools which have been made in many parts of the London area.

Sections of Acton include North Acton, West Acton, East Acton, South Acton, Acton Green, Acton Town, Acton Vale and Acton Central.  During early 1800s, East Acton is famous for its mineral springs called Acton Wells. West Acton was chiefly remarkable for the beautiful house and extensive grounds of General Murray.

The earliest recorded in was in 1337, and the number of inns and taverns increased over time reflecting the growing traffic along the road.

The scene changed little until the 1840s when the village began to expand. Acton had its share in the day of fashion. An assembly-room was built and for a few years towards the middle of the 18th.

Acton was granted County Borough Status in 1921.
History of Acton London

Ancient Bristol

The year before the birth of Christ 380, Dunwallo Molmutius reined the first King of Britain. He had two sons: Bellinus and Brennus. Bellinus having followed the example of his father in constructing roads and highway in Britain and contributed to the foundation of Bristol, but William of Worcester, English chronicler and antiquary asserts that it was founded by Brennus.

Brennus was known as a leader of the Gauls and conqueror of Rome.

A little before time of Nennuis, the name of the town seems to have been changed from Caer Odre to Caer Brito.

From Brito the name became Brystoe, and Brighstowe, or the illustrious dwelling; Brigston, the city with a bridge; more recently Bristow, and finally Bristol.

The last of the ancient names by which Bristol seems to have been known is the Venta Belgarum of Ptolemy. The testimony of Ptolemy to the antiquity of Bristol is important, for it shows that it was a capital city of the Belgae when he wrote, as early as the year of Christ 120.

About the year 50, the Romans captured this place under Ostorius Scapula in the reign of Claudius and made war upon and extirpated the Changi a brave British tribe inhabiting Somersetshire.

Under the Romans, it is probable that Bristol was either a rude fortress, or if the seat of any commerce, merely the emporium for such commodities as were in demand among the Romans, in their encampments on Clifton and Leigh Downs.

The original form of Bristol appears to have been circular; its principal streets, High streets with Broad-street, Wine-street with Corn-street, intersecting each other, appear to have constituted the diameters of the circle.
Ancient Bristol

University of Cambridge: The origin

In 1209, two Oxford scholars were convicted of the murder or manslaughter of a woman and were hanged by the town authorities, apparently with the assent of King John. It happened when the mayor and townsmen, unable to apprehend the scholar in question, seized two of house housemates and with the consent of King John, hanged them outside the walls of Oxford.

In protest at the hanging the University of Oxford went into voluntary suspension and the great majority of scholars migrated to Paris, to reading and to Cambridge.

Cambridge was a thriving community in 1201 and 1207. It was the market for immediate are, as well as being an emporium for commerce throughout the Fenlands.

The band of scholars trudging into Cambridge, some were from important Cambridge families included among their number, quite possible as their leader, John Grim. John Grim, doctor of theology, was master of the schools of Oxford in 1201.

The University of Cambridge began ex-nihilo with a handful of masters from Oxford who arrived down the Huntingdon Road, cross the bridge and started in rented lodgings in the neighborhood of Great St. Mary’s Church.

By 1225 at the latest they had achieved sufficient status as a corporation to have a chancellor with powers delegated by the bishop of Ely.

In 1290 a letter form Pope Nicholas IV addressed to the canons of the Order of Sempringham, some of whom were studying in Cambridge, described the school as a studium generale.

The rights and judicial identity of Cambridge were further strengthened by a bull of Pope Gregory IX in 1233, given at the request of the university.

Addressed to the ‘Chancellor and University of Cambridge’, it acknowledge their university status and gave them the ius non trahi extra, which prohibited any court outside of the diocese from summoning a member of the university, provided he appeared before the chancellor or his bishop.

The first college, Porterhouse, modeled on Walter de Merton’s Oxford foundation, was established in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, bishop of Ely, under royal license.
University of Cambridge: The origin

Notes:
ex-nihilo = out of nothing
Studium generale = the old customary name for a Medieval university
ius non trahi extra = a right to discipline its own members