This photograph is looking south from the A177 and shows the the old Co-op Priory garage to the left and is minus the traffic lights which have since been erected. It was taken in 1989 before the Co-op Hypermarket was built. Courtesy of Martin Spires. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
After Reliance Garage left didn’t a member of the Cooper family run this garage for a while? They were haulage contractors who lived on Darlington Lane near to the junction with Letch Lane and were related, I believe, to Major Cooper V C.
Going back to 1961/62 I had a number of friends who worked at this garage – David Smith, John Banks, Alan Toulson. Some of the other names that come to mind are Les Bainbridge, Alex Mcdowell, ??? Turner (no relation). Dave and myself had an old Morris car parked on the forecourt that we intended to do up we never did get round to it and ended up giving it away.
I might be wrong but didnt Phil the garage owner have a orange Bond Bug three wheel car at one time or maybe advertizing them on the forecourt.
I am one of the bates twins that worked at the garage, really happy days. Phill was great to work for, also his mam and dad were great. We worked for a guy before that called Greame (but I can’t remember his second name) who was also a good boss. Yes Phill had many sports cars. been in them many times, he often use to give us a lift home.
The twins that worked in the garage were the Bates twins, they can be seen when they were younger in the Roseworth School Juniors photo, ref:-t8762.
Thanks for the correction, it was probably was a Lotus sports car, very low profile it was. But for some unknown reason, I can’t help but think the car was red in colour.
I used to go to the garage for my size D batteries for my AM/VHF radio in the early 1970’s, remember the old VHF band, in which FM replaced it. Them were the days, when you could tune into Radio Luxemburg, Radio North-Sea and sometimes Radio Caroline.
I still see the owner of the garage who used race cars. Phil is his first name and he works for Claytons at Carlton.
He used to employ two twin girls that used to live on Roseworth.
I believe Phil had a Lotus Elite which was yellow at one time.
I remember the old Reliance garage in the 1970’s and the owner who had lovely red Porshe sport car.
To think at one time, this part of Stockton was a quite area regarding traffic, esq on Sunday.
My friend from schooldays, Angela Thomas (married name Gorman) lived in the houses that have just been demolished for a few years from about 1967. They were definitely flats then, and the upstairs was accessed by an outside staircase at the rear of the building. I also believe they belonged to the Council as the Gormans were re-housed when some of the streets in Oxbridge were demolished, seem to recall they lived in Mary Street.
The white houses by the BP garage at Two Mile House had been allowed to deteriorate for years and probably at the end, demolition was the only option. In the early to mid 1960s the garage manager, Theo Watson, lived in one of them. At that time the garage was called Reliance Garage, a Tyneside company, I believe, and did car repairs as well as petrol sales.
The farm buildings are still standing. But the other side of the road has cetainly changed with Tesco’s entrance taking over and the Mcdonalds on the roundabout.
Also the white buidings that can be seen near the roundabout have recently been flattened.
Be intresting to see what takes their place in the future.