old garages

[STG95F]

Thank you , i can just make out the Austin sign

Ian

[Nick W]

LF Dove Croydon

[STG95F]

Thank you

[dodge44]

OK so it's not a garage but Minis on delivery - could well be for export though. A Summer 1964 Paul Riley image of a Southbound goods train at Whitnash, just South of Leamington Spa. Consist includes several wagons with Longbridge BMC products - An A40, Mini's, 1100's, then what looks like a Triumph 2000 and few Heralds, then maybe a few Rootes group cars (Humber?) before the wooden van. After that it looks like a few more BMC cars and a load of Heralds. Bringing up the rear are some coal trucks and oil wagons...

[dodge44]

With the assistance of Chris Harris did a bit of research a while back which may or may not be of interest...

Bournemouth Imperial Motors Ltd were a long established local company that became part of a much larger organisation. By the post WW2 period they were Austin main dealers operating from 26-32 Lorne Park Road, Bournemouth with Captain G.H. Simpson listed as chairman, who appears to have been with the company since c.1920. The garage moved to Norwich Avenue and took over the 'Royal Mews' premises that had previously been occupied by Hants & Dorset until 1958/9; the first edition of Kelly's directory showing Imperial Motors located in Norwich Avenue is dated 1961. By 1963 they were still trading as Imperial Motors but owned by 'Andrews Garages', who also owned the Morris dealership in Westover Road. At the time new car registration was administered at Bournemouth Town Hall and as appears to be the case elsewhere, garages tended to reserve blocks of numbers, which were used up and logged in the book as the vehicles were sold. Consequently in the case of Andrews garages a batch of numbers would randomly be used by Imperial (Austin) and Westover (Morris) dealerships. For example in March 1963, 12 numbers, 3557 RU to 3568 RU were allocated to Andrews garages and of those 3557 RU, 3563 RU 3564 RU, 3566 RU and 3567 RU went to Westover, and 3558 RU, 3559 RU 3560, 3561 RU, 3562 RU, 3565 RU & 3568 RU went to Imperial. 5 out the 12 vehicles were Minis. In the 1965 issue of Kellys the dealer was still in the Norwich Avenue premises, but were now named Stringer (Bournemouth) Limited, but in 1972 this had changed to Wadham Stringer (Bournemouth) Limited. The last edition of Kelly's showing a presence for Wadham Stringer in Norwich Avenue is that dated 1974; they are not mentioned at that site in the 1975 edition so had probably moved to Leyland Road, Wallisdown by then. Which was quite handy really, as after the disastrous fire at the Exeter Road garage overnight 24/25th July 1976, Hants & Dorset returned to the premises and remained there until 1980 when local area operations were all moved to Poole.

In 2015 the site in Norwich Avenue is occupied by a sheltered housing complex called Spicers Court; there is nothing left to show that a bus garage or a motor garage once operated there. In the same year the former premises in Lorne Park Road were under development.

Scottish museums website, now has close up OS maps online for several years between 1860's & 1950's. The garage is clearly marked on the 1947 map:

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=10&la ... 30,50.7150http://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=10&la ... 30,50.7150

So far we've failed to find a photo of Imperial Motors operating from Norwich Avenue but there are a few images of it as a bus garage in the 1976-80 period on the web. Here is the site today with a Mini sold new by Imperial Motors cluttering up the highway outside.

[SMOKE GREY]

OK so it's not a garage but Minis on delivery - could well be for export though. A Summer 1964 Paul Riley image of a Southbound goods train at Whitnash, just South of Leamington Spa. Consist includes several wagons with Longbridge BMC products - An A40, Mini's, 1100's, then what looks like a Triumph 2000 and few Heralds, then maybe a few Rootes group cars (Humber?) before the wooden van. After that it looks like a few more BMC cars and a load of Heralds. Bringing up the rear are some coal trucks and oil wagons...

plenty of Coopers there!

[GraemeC]

Anyone remember or have details of Ribblesdale Motors Ltd, New Road, Kirkby Lonsdale from around 1980 (so presumably British Leyland)?
Smoke Grey? Billy Cooper? Slowboy?

[rich@minispares.com]

OK so it's not a garage but Minis on delivery -...

just drive it into my personal sidings my good man!

[minidean]

Anyone heard of British Leyland dealer Pantdu Motors in Cwmavon? I belive they are long gone but i wondered if it would be possible to get hold of a dealer window sticker?

[Simon776]

Pantdu Motor Sales
Cwmavon Road
Pantdu

Austin Retail Dealers

Pantdu Motors Sales Limited was registered on 16 July 1959, changed on 31 December 1978 to Pantdu Motors Limited but is now dissolved

[618AOG]

I still walk past the old MiniBitz shop on the way to the Sheaf pub now and again. There was an Inca yellow Clubman there long after the shop had gone - it had literally rusted into the ground.

The Sytner building on Broad lane was opened in the 1960's and became Hallamshire Motor Co, a BL dealership. It took on a BMW franchise in 1975 and the BL bit was moved into a new building next door to become Kennings, now long gone. Sytners bought out Hallamshire in 1993. The oldest serving Sytner employee (in parts) started there in 1975 just as BMW took over from BL - 3 Series in, Marinas out. Sytners are moving to the Meadowhall area in the next 12-18 months after which I expect the old place to be flattened and yet more student flats built on the site. The land is worth a fortune.

Sheffield is almost unrecognisable now - thinking back to 1995, only 20 years ago, there was a lot more old the old city standing (particularly around the Bramhall lane area) but it was pretty awful to be fair.


There are still other BMC dealership buildings about - the old Vincents building in Yeovil is still there as a bank, virtually unchanged. It was a BL dealership until the late 1990's I believe. Vincents are still going in their other location nearby but as Hyundai.

[618AOG]

Here's a couple of photos. One is Morris Garages on St.Aldates in Oxford for there launch of the 18/22 in March 1975. The building is still there almost unchanged but is now the local courts. The other is Vincents in Yeovil, taken around 1965 and again, still there.

[Andrew1967]

Nice pics there 618

So Colonel Sanders had a trio of BL Wedges as his fleet cars then

[Metronick]

I still walk past the old MiniBitz shop on the way to the Sheaf pub now and again. There was an Inca yellow Clubman there long after the shop had gone - it had literally rusted into the ground.

The Sytner building on Broad lane was opened in the 1960's and became Hallamshire Motor Co, a BL dealership. It took on a BMW franchise in 1975 and the BL bit was moved into a new building next door to become Kennings, now long gone. Sytners bought out Hallamshire in 1993. The oldest serving Sytner employee (in parts) started there in 1975 just as BMW took over from BL - 3 Series in, Marinas out. Sytners are moving to the Meadowhall area in the next 12-18 months after which I expect the old place to be flattened and yet more student flats built on the site. The land is worth a fortune.

Sheffield is almost unrecognisable now - thinking back to 1995, only 20 years ago, there was a lot more old the old city standing (particularly around the Bramhall lane area) but it was pretty awful to be fair.


There are still other BMC dealership buildings about - the old Vincents building in Yeovil is still there as a bank, virtually unchanged. It was a BL dealership until the late 1990's I believe. Vincents are still going in their other location nearby but as Hyundai.

Photo taken this week, these two cars sat together in the Kennings showroom in Sheffield in early 1970.
Check out the pre-delivery inspection stickers in the top right corner of the windscreens.
I don't think the buy one get one free poster applies to the cars

[Nick W]

I still walk past the old MiniBitz shop on the way to the Sheaf pub now and again. There was an Inca yellow Clubman there long after the shop had gone - it had literally rusted into the ground.

The Sytner building on Broad lane was opened in the 1960's and became Hallamshire Motor Co, a BL dealership. It took on a BMW franchise in 1975 and the BL bit was moved into a new building next door to become Kennings, now long gone. Sytners bought out Hallamshire in 1993. The oldest serving Sytner employee (in parts) started there in 1975 just as BMW took over from BL - 3 Series in, Marinas out. Sytners are moving to the Meadowhall area in the next 12-18 months after which I expect the old place to be flattened and yet more student flats built on the site. The land is worth a fortune.

Sheffield is almost unrecognisable now - thinking back to 1995, only 20 years ago, there was a lot more old the old city standing (particularly around the Bramhall lane area) but it was pretty awful to be fair.


There are still other BMC dealership buildings about - the old Vincents building in Yeovil is still there as a bank, virtually unchanged. It was a BL dealership until the late 1990's I believe. Vincents are still going in their other location nearby but as Hyundai.

Photo taken this week, these two cars sat together in the Kennings showroom in Sheffield in early 1970.
Check out the pre-delivery inspection stickers in the top right corner of the windscreens.
I don't think the buy one get one free poster applies to the cars

Both my mk2 cooper UWJ 90F and my Mk1 S KNU 266D have "Sheffield motor co" on there heritage certs
Any Idea when the name changed to Kennings

Nick

[Pandora]

any one got a shot of Coldwell engineering , I drive past Coldwell lane every day ,but cant see ,where it is/was ?

Not a photo, but there is cine film in the video of the Coldwell Mink being built - search youtube for 'Baitings Dam' and from half way through you'll see footage in the garage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No6RPr2N-mU

Garage Footage at 2 mins in and again at 5mins

I think it was demolished for housing? Looking on Google earth, I guess about 2/3 of the way down on the East side there are 3 large detached houses set back from the road, and the access looks like the sort of place a small engineering works would have been located. (I'm speculating here, but the works look to have been a decent size in the film)

Al

Interestingly, I was looking at the Coldwell GT pge of Jeroen's 1st book, and noticed the shot taken with the car half built, and there re a couple of resonably distinctive houses in the background - unusual striped brickwork on the corner of one, and close set chimneys on the other. A quick trip on Bing maps show these houses re directly opposite the site of the newer houses behind no.9 Coldwell Lane, but more interestingly, the old white single storey workshops are still there in the ariel photo! On street view however, it's the houses.

Al

[Pandora]

http://www.bing.com/maps/?FORM=Z9LH3#Y3 ... hlZmZpZWxk

Al

[spoon.450]

I still walk past the old MiniBitz shop on the way to the Sheaf pub now and again. There was an Inca yellow Clubman there long after the shop had gone - it had literally rusted into the ground.

The Sytner building on Broad lane was opened in the 1960's and became Hallamshire Motor Co, a BL dealership. It took on a BMW franchise in 1975 and the BL bit was moved into a new building next door to become Kennings, now long gone. Sytners bought out Hallamshire in 1993. The oldest serving Sytner employee (in parts) started there in 1975 just as BMW took over from BL - 3 Series in, Marinas out. Sytners are moving to the Meadowhall area in the next 12-18 months after which I expect the old place to be flattened and yet more student flats built on the site. The land is worth a fortune.

Sheffield is almost unrecognisable now - thinking back to 1995, only 20 years ago, there was a lot more old the old city standing (particularly around the Bramhall lane area) but it was pretty awful to be fair.


There are still other BMC dealership buildings about - the old Vincents building in Yeovil is still there as a bank, virtually unchanged. It was a BL dealership until the late 1990's I believe. Vincents are still going in their other location nearby but as Hyundai.

Photo taken this week, these two cars sat together in the Kennings showroom in Sheffield in early 1970.
Check out the pre-delivery inspection stickers in the top right corner of the windscreens.
I don't think the buy one get one free poster applies to the cars

I had missed this Nick....they look great together again.

[Pete]

Already mentioned earlier in this thread is Car Mart of London (Austin distributor/dealer), well there were a few branches, but specifically the Park Lane branch was mentioned (now a Hard Rock Cafe)...




As many will know Radfords were Austins more often than not due to being bought in from Car Mart (all the Beatles cars etc), Car Mart being long established Austin distributors for London..



I found this shot of 50s/60s star David Kossoff buying his new Austin Seven (with bespoke paint job!) from the Euston Road branch...





Earlier photo....



I think this was also Car Mart's depot, again in the 50s...





Other Car Mart branches (just bought a car that went through the Colchester branch...)

[mini5967]

Our local rag's been running a series of undiscovered photos from around Stoke-on-Trent in the 1960s over the last couple of weeks and there's a couple of Hanley Garage, the Potteries' Austin dealership circa 1964 in there which I've attached if anyone's interested (I certainly was, as it was the first port of call for my 64' SDL). Most of the buildings in the pics have gone, and it's now a Stratstones Landy dealership.