T&A Best Chippy: Mother Hubbards in Baildon in running

Mother Hubbards’ shop in Baildon is one of 10 fish and chip shops hoping to win the T&A's Best Chippy 2024 competition.

The T&A received 2,237 nominations for the contest through our online voting platform, and we are currently in the process of profiling the finalists in print and online.

In almost a year of opening, the takeaway and dine-in restaurant has become embedded in the lives of local people.

From sponsoring local sports teams to bonds between customers and staff, it has become a place where community thrives.

Fish and chips from Mother Hubbards’ shop in Baildon (Image: Newsquest, Mike Simmonds)

“It’s like one big family, the customers, the staff, they all get on very well,” Hassan Sheikh, national manager at Mother Hubbards, said.

Hassan says he owes some of that community spirit to senior staff member Donna Denton, who he described as “the life of the shop”.

“What’s best about Donna is her personality, her character. Every shop will say, my staff are great, but our staff are genuinely great.”

Donna, pictured (Image: Newsquest, Mike Simmonds)

It’s not only a place where customers chat over the counter, but where they share ideas for the menu and wider Mother Hubbards brand.

In fact, one customer’s story recently inspired Mother Hubbards to open its first international branch in Dubai.

The walls are filled with old black and white photos of Baildon throughout the years - sparking interesting tales of days gone by.

One customer recently told Hassan about how she used to sit in the corner of the old sweet shop seen on the shop's wall.

She would hide away and eat sweets as her mother worked.

Mother Hubbards is based in what was formerly Websters.

The takeaway section of the shop (Image: Newsquest, Mike Simmonds) Speaking about how the shop came to open in Baildon, Hassan said: “With our friends being a massive estate agent in Yorkshire we went to go view another store in Bingley and from Bingley we just went down the Baildon Moors, through the countryside.

“We were just speaking about a few different properties on the way and we were driving past Baildon and it came to his memory that the owner wanted to sell the site. We thought we’d pop in and give it a look. It was just one of those things, like the stars aligned. The shop was busy, it had a lively atmosphere. It was like it was meant to be. It wasn’t just the fish and chip shop, it was a community spot."

The shop remains a bustling place for people to get their fish and chip fix.

The batter for Mother Hubbards’ fish and chips follows their traditional recipe and is made in factories to ensure it is perfectly crispy and crunchy.

They also use premium quality Icelandic fish.

• We aim to have profiled all of the finalists in the coming days. To vote for your favourite, pick up a copy of the T&A and fill out the coupon.