Mindi Gill of Ironmongers Extraordinary, the woman who gave Rye one of Delia Smith’s favourite cookware shops, has died following an extended illness, aged 78. Our sympathy is extended to her daughter Tasha and family.
Born in Uganda in 1936, to a very distinguished Sikh family, she was, together with tens of thousands of other Ugandan-Asians, rudely ejected in the early 1970s by the Idi Amin regime.
Coming with her then husband Trevor Mottram and Tasha to the cold and not always friendly shores of Great Britain, she bravely started again, opening the Ironmongers Extraordinary in Rye, in 1974.
Slowly and steadily her reputation grew, locally, nationally and then internationally. Taking inspiration from such greats as Julia Childs and Elizabeth David, Mindi’s Ironmonger’s Extraordinary was listed by Delia Smith as one of the 10 best cookware shops in the UK, and was often featured in the round of interior design magazines, such as House and Garden.
Mindi recounted how overseas visitors came with illustrations of her shop in Chinese guidebooks. She told, with a wry smile, how most came to look and admire and few seemed to realise that it was possible to buy things. Locals, realising that they had a treasure house on their doorstep, used it to equip their new kitchens and as a ready source of presents, all the time using the visit as an excuse to wander around and to talk to Mindi, always wise and kind.
On one such visit, Mindi touched the lips of my newly born daughter with water and declared herself the child’s Sikh godmother. Few, if any, anniversaries were forgotten.
Mindi fell victim to a stroke four years ago and never fully recovered. She died on March 16, after 40 years as sole proprietor of Ironmongers Extraordinary. Later, her ashes will be scattered, with full Sikh honours, at Lake Victoria in her beloved Africa.
During her illness the shop has been run by Mindi’s pupil and now manager, Nigel Bourne, and his assistant Iris Beeching. Mindi was a great example to us all. It dawns on us that we have lost another of the Rye greats.
Photo of Mindi Gill supplied by Tasha Mottram