IT’S disappointing to witness the closure of several smaller shops on Cowdenbeath High Street, such as Baulds the Butcher, whose pork sausages were on a par with Tom Court’s prize winners. We no longer have a viable fishmongers either.

In an arguably more austere age, in the late fifties, early sixties, Cowdenbeath High Street was a boom with business. I recall we had at least two fishmongers and select stores such as Richardsons, Fortunes, Maybole and Liptons, with their ornate sawdusted marble floors (no doubt these would be condemned by the Health & Safety brigade today).

The Reverend Alastair Jessamine, who became minister at Dunfermline Abbey, served his time as a shop assistant before discovering religion.

In these stores you could produce quality cheese such as Montgomery cheddar, fresh from the Somerset Gorge or cheap ‘Chatka’, and Russian King Crab, which is infinitely more delicious than lobster claws.

Concerning which, I wrote to Morrisons, Asda, Sainsburys and Tesco, bewailing that either because of protected fish stocks or the fact that they are reserved for more prestigious and wealthy Londoners, you no longer see, for example, whitebait, fresh oysters, dover sole, john dory, turbot, halibut, red mullet, whelks, winkles, razor clams, or smoked eel on display on their fish counters, rather only the ubiquitous, if testy, sea bass. I also lamented that sea urchins, apparently farmed on Scotland’s west coast, are solely reserved and exported to the Spanish market! In reply I received a sympathetic, if anodyne, response from each.

Obviously, in some respects we don’t want to go back to the fifties, but wouldn’t it be refreshing if some innovative and enterprising soul (no pun intended), introduced a more productive and varied selection rather than the plastic cheeses and the limited range of fish we have become accustomed to? New supermarket, please take stock.

NAME AND ADDRESS HAVE BEEN SUPPLIED.