SILVER END

On the way back from Suffolk I treated my architect, Trevor, to a bag of chips from the 'The Cod Father' fish and chip shop 'The Cod Father' in Silver End.

This small village in Essex sits in the flat farmland between Braintree and Witham. 

All the houses are the work of Scottish architect Thomas S. Tait

In the 1920's the industrialist Frank Crittall built Silver End as model village, to serve the Crittall Windows Ltd factory here. In just over six years Frank, from Chicago, created a village that boasted a Hall with a first class dance floor, cinema, library, snooker room and health clinic. In 1928, a large department store was opened. The Cod Father is the next shop along although the store now appears to be a public hall.

To Trevor's delight, as much as his chips were examples of Modernist architecture we saw. We walked down Silver Street; all the houses are the work of Scottish architect Thomas S. Tait, a leading exponent of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne.

An exciting menu 

In 2006 Crittall’s factory output ceased and most of the factory area raised to the ground including to important building in what was/is a conservation area, a developer's slight of hand at the controls of the bulldozer.

The Cod Father's impressive exterior.
The writer making his choice inside

We placed our chip papers in the bin and headed home.