Biography of Louise

Louise began her working life as an IT journalist travelling the world for specialist magazines. She also discovered she loved teaching coding to young people.. ane especially biology and history to difficult children in exclusion units. So her life changed direction and by the time she married Keith Chapman, owner of Chapman's Fish and Rye Fish Market, she took a course to teach English to foreighers so the couple could travel and live six months in the UK and six months abroad. Then six months later Covid struck and everything changed.

The complexities of Brexit and Covid made life difficult for so many businesses but for the fishing industry to cope with all the new EU rules and reams of paperwork for customs agencies to get UK fish through border crossings was an especially daunting logistical challenge. Despite these difficult times with Louise working with the 'Border Resolution Team' to resolve problems, to cope with costs rising and the inevitability of unpredictable bad weather for the fleet here, their business is working well. Louise is encouraging an all woman team of fishmongers (all of whom are connected to local fishing families) to work behind the fish counter at Simmond's Quay. She and her family have created the popular weekend Seafood Bar in Simmonds Quay in the summer of 2023. The Chapmans are an exceptionally entreprenurial team with exciting plans for developing a range of by products from some of the fish they catch and are working with local schools and adults to increase an overall awareness of the rich past, present and future  'Fish Culture' here in Rye.  

Audio of interview with Louise