Car Dealers, Garages, Petrol Stations

Hi Suzie, welcome to the forum I hope that someone can help you.

Yes welcome Suzie. I've just had a look in my most recent directory which is 1960 and can't see anything listed under that name. Most business directories are listed by the garage name - some include the Proprietor but not all. Do you have any other info to go on - area/vehicle etc.?

Would searching telephone directories for F. Jones be useful? May say garage proprietor and location and reveal the garage.

Thanks to Heathite we have some directories but they only go up to 1960. The latest directory listed by names and a separate section - businesses is 1953. The later ones we have are by road name. The Herbert archive may well be able to help.

I seem to remember using Ancestry or Find My Past for access to telephone directories

Hi Suzie, do you have any other information you can give us? Looking through the newspaper archives the only Frank Jones I can find connected to cars is a Driving School in Keresley. Just looking for Jones comes up with lots of Jones in Partnerships etc. in Garages in Coventry but no other clues.

Probably not useful, but I used to know a Brian Jones who owned a garage in Kenilworth; a relation, or did Frank go by another name perhaps? A very long shot, I know!

I'm looking to find out just where a distant relative worked, back just post war. Elsie Storer appears in The 1939 Register in Catherine St, her occupation given as 'Comptometer Operator' at an aero engine works. I'm not sure which one that would be. Another relative recalls her working for many years in the accounts department at Vauxhall Motors probably up until the late 1960's. I believe that was the factory, rather than a dealers. Could any of you motoring buffs tell where that was? Be gentle; I'm not from Coventry. David.

Those are tough questions David. The one that comes to mind was Armstrong Whitworth/Siddeley at Parkside. They were also at Whitley but that might have been difficult to get to from Catherine Street. I don't know how many of the other engine manufacturers were gearing up to build plane engines in 1939. I'm trying to search for Vauxhall on Find My Past but the newspapers aren't coming up.

The Vauxhall plant was until very recently in Luton. I'm not aware of any Coventry-based arms of this manufacturer. However, Singer cars were built in Canterbury st / Raglan st., Hillfields and Vauxhall st. is in this same area - maybe the family story has become a bit clouded over the years.

Hello, There is a Vauxhall street in Coventry, where there was a Vauxhall club sited. How why & what, I'm sure our members would love to know & understand more about. A district of Birmingham was named Vauxhall with a railway of that name. Can anyone contribute to this please?

Well, well & well, What a turn up. From Vauxhall history. Quote-: Vauxhall Motors Limited[note 2] is a British[7] car company headquartered in Coventry, West Midlands, England.[2] Vauxhall became a subsidiary of PSA Group in 2017, and later, its successor Stellantis in January 2021, having previously been owned by General Motors since 1925. Vauxhall originally manufacture marine engines & overhead cranes. Is that why it's labelled as a Coventry company on Wiki?

In 1850 there was a Vauxhall Terrace just to the south of where Vauxhall Street would be built about 50 years later. The Vauxhall Tavern was at the north end of the terrace but was originally called the Brickmaker's Arms. The area where Vauxhall Street was built on was dotted with brick making sites. Off the Vauxhall Street location was a pre 1850 property that in 1888 was called Vauxhall Cottage. Since Vauxhall the car company wasn't created until 1857, it's not connected to the terrace or the street. The terrace and the cottage don't seem to have survived the war but were still there in 1937.

Vauxhall is only listed as having a Coventry HQ today as PSA(Peugeot Citroen) with whom it became part of in 2017 merged with FCA (Fiat Chrysler) in 2020 to form Stellantis. As such the old Peugeot UK HQ became Stellantis HQ in the UK for all of those sub brands. That's the reason I now have a rebranded Stellantis Pension from my days working at Peugeot Talbot. As far as I am aware prior to any of that there has never been any Vauxhall manufacturing in Coventry.

Quote, In 1857, Alexander Wilson, a Scottish marine engineer, set up Alex Wilson and Company building marine engines and pumps. Within six years, the company was bought by the inventor of the hydraulic crane, Andrew Betts Brown, who renamed it the Vauxhall Iron Works. It took a further forty-two years for the company to make its first car, a single-cylinder, five horsepower four-wheeler, steered with a tiller and no reverse gear. It cost the princely sum of £136. Shortly after, a steering wheel was added, as was a reverse gear, and the business relocated to Luton in Bedfordshire. In 1907, Vauxhall Iron Works changed its name to Vauxhall Motors. I cannot find any reference to a manufacturer in Coventry by the name of Vauxhall or it's constituents. Other than clubs. I'm still looking.