Pawsons Golden Plaice: “Chip shop of the year” closes its doors

A "we are closed” notice on the door of fish and chips takeaway Pawsons Golden Plaice at 26 High Street is all that remains for customers wanting their carb fix. The sign, which has been put up over the past week, reads: “The shop is now closed until further notice. Thank you for all your custom over the years. From all the staff”.

Baffled customers took to social media to highlight the issue and to ask if anyone knew why it had suddenly closed. While some surmised the reason to be ingredients and energy costs, others voiced their sadness and shock. Although a reason has not been given by the owners for their decision, the shop has changed to “permanently closed” on its website. Given a 4.0 star rating out of 41 Trip Advisor reviewers, one person said they had even travelled from Wigan and called it the “chip shop of the year”, while another cited it was a “Chorley legend”.

It is the second chip shop in Chorley to shut up shop in the space of three months after Lou Lou’s Place was forced to close from rising costs due to endless vandalism. The popular chippy on Lyons Lane became a magnet for vandal attacks over recent months sending repair bills through the roof. Manager Andy Shute said at the time he had reached the end of his tether with the spate of attacks with the most recent being the third in 2023 alone and that five people had lost their jobs because of the closure.

In a Facebook post he informed his loyal customers of the heartbreaking decision. He said: “Well, with much sadness I have to say ‘I’m done with Chorley. For the third time in this short year my business has been mindlessly attacked by bricks being thrown through the windows and so, enough is enough. I was truly saddened to close the chippy, it was going from strength to strength but I couldn’t continue to pay out sums as large of £480 for replacement windows and no guarantee of it not occurring again.