HARRY Grundy is still one of the most recognisable characters at Bolton Market after almost 60 years there.

The fact that he retired nearly 10 years ago has not altered that connection because he still “does the books” for his son, Chris, who took over the family’s fruit and veg stall and is a regular customer.

But it is really the Fish Market where Harry is known best because his history with it goes back to when he was 15.

Harry, one of five children of a couple who owned - ironically - a fish and chip shop in Horrocks Street in the Valetts Lane area, was born with Pott’s Disease.

This is a kind of tuberculosis of the bones and it meant young Harry spent most of his life, from birth to around 10, in hospital. “They used to treat curvature of the spine then by putting you in a plaster cast for months and then in a leather jacket,” recalled Harry, who is 80 this year.

“I can remember playing out with my brothers and sisters but most of my early memories are of being in hospital.”

Harry was actually seen by up and coming young surgeon John Charnley, whose work at Wrightington Hospital would pioneer hip replacement and bring him fame. He felt he could help Harry and, in spite of some medical opinion againt, his parents felt this was a chance worth taking and so the youngster went into Wrighington where further operations and injections of penicillin and then new drug Streptomycin followed.

“He managed to stop the curvature by putting a steal rod in my spine,” stated Harry, “but that also stopped my growth.”

Undeterred by this handicap and with a severely interrupted education, Harry went back to school and eventually left at 15. His father, also named Harry, had been offered a job at Bolton Fish Market by Service Fish Supply and the owner said he was happy for “Harry’s lad” to go out and about with the drivers delivering fish if he liked.

This small piece of philanthropy developed into the offer of paid work, although Harry recalls that he was “quite lazy” and was eventually told that if he wanted a career at the Fish Market he would “have to pull my socks up!

“Then I became a workaholic,” added Harry, with a rueful smile at the memory. “I worked very hard, starting at 4am and on market days not getting home until 6pm. By my early 20s, I’d decided that by the age of 30 I wanted to have got married, have £500 in the bank and own my own business!”

Addressing the first, Harry was a keen dancer – there were many dancing schools in Bolton then – and he used to go to the Palais with his friends five nights a week. Here, like many Boltonians, he met his future wife. He and Enid married in 1965.

By the time he was 30, Harry had fulfilled the first two on his “wish list” and was able to open his own business when he took over a shop on nearby Great Moor Street. H J Grundy had its first fish outlet.

Next, he bought a nearby stall in the Fish Market and opened his first market stall – The Top Stall - in 1967. By then, Harry had acquired plenty of knowledge about the buying and selling of fish. “I used to buy a lot of mine from H and S Openshaw’s, which were wholesalers, but I also went to Manchester a couple of times a week.”

Harry took on a neighbouring fish stall and also opened a fruit and veg stall which is still there today. This is run by his son, Chris, who is keeping the family name going. As well as often being the first to have unusual fish for sale as Continental holidays expanded people’s tastes, Harry’s Top Stall was also the first on the market to have a refrigerated counter.

For Harry, the Fish Market represents years of hard work in often very cold conditions to create his successful business. But, it also represents great friendship, banter and laughs.

These days, he spends pleasurable time crown green bowling at Great Lever Vets and at the large Tottington bowling club near his scenic home overlooking Ramsbottom, Hawkshaw and the beautiful moorland there. He’s still active with the Rotary Club of Daybreak and enjoys organising fundraising events.

He finds that he cannot go anywhere, home or abroad, without someone recognising him. “I don’t always recognise them by name, though” stated Harry, laughing now. “I just think of them as 2lb of cod and a finny haddock or whatever they used to buy regularly!”