Old Garages

[ChinaTom]

 

This is just round the corner from me - I keep meaning to stop to take more photos, but it will entail engaging in 45 minutes conversation with Pat, a chap who lives a few doors up and hangs around there to do just that. The petrol price sign is exactly the same now. He had an orange bond bug out front the last time I drove past.

[barrett]

Crikey!

I know I've asked before, but if you ever do get a chance to get some decent photos of that place I would love to see them. Surely unwanted overlong conversations with old giffers is an occupational hazard of shite-spotting anyway?

[ChinaTom]

As soon as I get back to UK, I WILL wonder down there with my camera.

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

Not an old garage (as such) but this petrol pump is at the local Main Dealer for Citroen here in Luxton:

 

 

 

I think they use it to sick some juice in the cars that they sell.

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

Well that brought about the usual nothing response that seems to prevailed here.

 

Very cliche forum this isn't it?

[Minimad5]

Jack sir, you have to give people some time

 

I personally like old Petrol pumps and alike (Clocks, Badges on things like lights and spotlights and all other weird stuff)

... so great find.

 

Is there a way of seing the mechanicals inside ?

That shall be very interesting

[Pete-M]

Well that brought about the usual nothing response that seems to prevailed here.

 

Very cliche forum this isn't it?

Cliche? I think you mean Cliquey (which it isn't).

 

Anyway, it's Sunday afternoon... we've all got shite to fix, hence it being quiet..

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

Well that brought about the usual nothing response that seems to prevailed here.

 

Very cliche forum this isn't it?

Cliche? I think you mean Cliquey (which it isn't).

 

Sorry, yes, that's the word . (thanks for a response ).

[Minimad5]

Pete-M, you have not commented on my thread

Stop fixing shite and get commenting !!

 

Oj

 

It's just the way this forum works.

My thread for instance about the Mk1 and Rebel, got loads of comments and now not so many.

I don't take it personally as i know afew people like looking at it, but prefer not to comment, or just don't have the time.

 

So you people who stay quiet - Don't be shy come on out and enjoy the fun

 

But Jack, you know you are apart of Autoshite, so don't feel bad

[warren t claim]

Lol! What's the regs regarding petrol pumps? If you converted that to a litres display could you still use it to flog petrol?

[Milford Cubicle]

Well that brought about the usual nothing response that seems to prevailed here.

 

Very cliche forum this isn't it?

What are you going on about you whiny mentalist?

[pogweasel]

Don't beat about the bush now, Milf!

[Jack_Harpers_Teeth]

thanks for that chaps, I honestly feel like I am a 100% autoshiter, just my inferiority complex keeps rising to the surface now again you see.

 

Milford Cubicle you can fuck off!

 

[RedSparrow]

Oh Milford!

[Guest]

I reckon about a quarter of my posts never surface because Milf has already said what I'm thinking before I've had the opportunity to type it. This is one of those occasions.

[trigger]

 

Just came across this photo of Suffolk and Essex Garage in Sudbury, Suffolk from 1976 (It's now a bed shop btw)

 

I like the way that you have to park your car on the side of the road to fill it up with fuel and the fact it's a double yellow lined road.

 

The same chap that owned that garage also had a sideline providing public address equipment for outside events in the 1930's.

 

[michiel]

OMG! The one on the left (looks like an RR and then again not?) is superb, great for driving round Amsterdam blasting Puccini operas or Vera Lynn or whatever was popular back in those days.

[Dave7601]

I spotted this old overgrown & abandoned garage today,just a couple of miles from Durham,must've been many a year since it was in business.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47085192@N06/4894890268/

[HillmanImp]

We went to look at a Saab 9-3 today for a mate. The chump selling it had decided to leave off the advert that it had been written off which we found out with a text check thingy. As soon as we started doing the text check the guy got cagey so it suddenly became obvious that something was up. Only a Cat D but still, he was asking too much for a car that potentially has history and no resale value.

 

Anyhow, about a mile away, we had noticed an old school SAAB garage so we popped in to see what they had. It was all pretty new Saabs so not really what my mate was wanting as he just needs a clunker for work. However it was PROPER old skool.

 

We were chatting to him for ages. He even had old Lancia dealer signs over the door which he remarked about with 'We could not even sell the sodding things when we put them up for less than we bloody paid for them, who would call a car a White hen or a Dead-ra?'

 

 

Loved this pic though that was on display in the showroom.

 

[oman5]

Famous pic, that one- its from the 1987 hurricane. the driver walked away unharmed

[bigstraight6]

Found a few more old garages on my travels today, St. Mawes on the beautiful Roseland peninsula in Cornwall has this old garage on the Harbourside, the pump globes are plastic reproductions!

Just outside the village is this still working MOT test station and general repairs garage with Austin Rover signage....

Inside the former showroom is a lovely old Austin sign, this is the best pic I could get, the owner reckons he still has a load of old BMC parts in the stores in particular for ADO16's....

[ashmicro]

S.S. Logan's in Newtownabbey (Co Antrim) still have a BL Flying Arsehole sign outside, and there's a Supercover sticker on the office door. I've never had the guts to take pics as the Logans can be an unfriendly lot. They had another place in Ballyclare, and the "posh office" looked like Zak Dingle's living room. Logan's started selling cars in 1935, and in common with a few other countryside dealers, about a third of their showroom is occupied by cars that aren't for sale, namely 2 Sherpa Coupes, a Midget, a couple of Old Knackers and a Princess.

[bigstraight6]

Old thread alert! took these pics yesterday in the village of Pensilva, near Liskeard in South East Cornwall. Check out the quality Renault sign!

[AeroNautiCal]

 

Milford Cubicle you can fuck off!

 

 

 

So, that's a MILF you'd like to fuck...

[25v6turbo]

Thats amazing,them Renault signs are pre 1992 and look stunning,did you look through the windows,bet its a timewarp,wonder when it closed?

[Wilko220]

Assuming that garage is derelict, someone HAS to rescue those Renault signs before they end up in a skip or under rubble!

[Spiny Norman]

This is Cambridge in late '86, I'm guessing Marshalls, who I believe are still going.

 

I love old petrol pumps.

[panhard65]

That last one isn't Cambridge or marshalls. It was Raynhams in Saffron Walden so not far away. I used to work there when it was a Renault dealers. It was a very old established garage but was originally a brewery. There was a massive celler underneath it that you could fit a number of double decker buses in. The workshops were rough with one massive pit at one end. They had one one ramp for the grease monky who used to do the oil and filter changes and grease everything before the car went to the workshop for the rest of the servicing. The stores had everything including wings for morris 8's still wrapped in hessian sack. It even had a loft that had a couple of old cars that got stuck up there when health and saftey condemmed the lift that was used to get them up there. If I remeber right is was an austin 7 and a morris minor made to look like a noddy car. A truly wonderful old building now flattened and made into posh flats. There used to be a Mazda RX3 sat in one of the sheds as well. I think they are still going just about but it's not the same now

[face]

I live in Saffron Walden and that is indeed Raynhams as it was.

 

When I started driving in 1988 it was a Renault dealer and had a fantastic showroom right on the high street. It had an extremely high ceiling and the street facing walls were all glass, complete with ornate metal frames. It really was something from another age and I am surprised that it was allowed to be pulled down.

 

Like panhard says, the whole lot is gone now. The cellar now forms the underground car park for the houses built in the garage's place. Raynhams now run a taxi and coach hire business. This is a picture of the old filling station where they keep their buses and coaches. The pumps are still there:

 

 

While on the subject of Saffron Walden, here are a few old shots:

 

This is 'Saffron Walden Motors' which is still going as a well respected independant dealer of low mileage cars, also on the High Street. It was a Rover dealer back in the 80's and 90's and up until the late 80's you could still stop alongside and have your tank filled up by the petrol monkey using the fabulous swing-arm pump.

 

 

The current company was formed after 'Walden Motors'.............

 

 

Now 'ATS'

 

........merged with 'Hobbs Brothers'

 

 

Now a carpet shop.

[panhard65]

There were loads of garages in Walden years ago. I worked at what was Chantry garage, formally uttlesford motor co and before that it was Hobbs. I think the picture of Hobbs was the one I worked at in station street next to what was osbournes bodyshop. The whole site went for redevelopment in the late 80's. The carpet shop was further down next to where there used to be a barbers. His hobby was thinking of new ways to improve car saftey. He grafted pointed fronts on to a whole load of cars the only one I remember now was a volvo 144 and maybe a citroen DS. All long gone now. I think the one down by the eight bells pub isn't the same Raynhams. I can't remember the name of the people there but they weren't connected. There used to be a massive ford dealers on station road as well called Cleales I was very surprised when they went. I think James Raynham is still operating from Newport and hopefully all the old spares didn't get destroyed when the old building went. They used to load it all up once a year for the crank up that used to be held around shire hill trying to sell it on. I love these old garages and have always wanted to buy one as a going concern. The one from a few pages back Bissets in Winkleigh was for sale last year but was pretty expensive and leasehold if I remember rightly. The trouble is the site owners just think of the money not the history which is a shame. I found a lovely old garage in devon all boarded up just across the road from a house I was interested in. When I asked the owner if he would rent it so I could open it up again he flatly refused saying he was going to let it fall down so he could redevelop which is just criminal to me but never mind