MADAM – I am writing to ask if any readers have any memories of the chip machine on Bath Road 50 odd years ago.

Regulars at The Prince Albert led me to pen the piece.

Any memories welcome as we try to recreate this history.

Remembering Rodborough and Stroud Local History Society are on the case.

Is it a phantom, or is it a dream?

Could there really have been a chip machine, Down there in Rodborough, on the Bath Road, Not in the days of warriors and woad, But back in the sixties, in ‘Sixty Four, When you paid in your money, and out of the drawer Came the hot manna, you all licked your lips, A bag all wrapped warm, and all full of chips.

A half crown was dear, we all know that’s true, But where else in the world could the dream come through?

Not just mere money at a hole in the wall, But a great bag of chips – so let’s all heed the call, And all gather around, by Frome Hall Lane, On Friday nights, again and again, Down by the Bath Road’s old Language School, Let’s pay the chips homage, won’t that be cool?

And laud the person who invented these chips, By painting a picture of head, nose and lips, With a caption that daintily flutters and trips: ‘The face that launched a thousand chips.’

Stuart Butler

Rodborough