A photograph taken in 1988 of Central Garage, Central Street in Yarm.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A photograph taken in 1988 of Central Garage, Central Street in Yarm.
Ken Sherwood-tight owld so-and-so he was
I seem to remember that the owner was referred to as ‘Dickie Bird’. Or was it my imagination?
He repaired my Morris 1000 to enable me to get it a MOT Certificate. A small patch welded in place for the princely sum of 10 shillings (50 pence in decimal). This was back in the early 60’s.
Happy days!
Yes his nickname was dickie bird. My uncle, Jack Walker worked for him for a lot of years.
Yes, an allegro central garage belonged to Richard Bird for many years as a body shop and was bought out by Ken Sherwood and also used as a car body shop repair garage. It was then sold for a building plot and now has flats built on the site and is called Merryweather Court.
I thought it was flats now. There also used to be a car “showroom” of sorts where Sainsburys is now, if I remember well?
The garage with showroom was Victoria garage owned by the lodges…the roots main dealer.
Yes, it was a Chrysler garage I think, Victoria Garage? Became Hintons, then Presto, then Safeway, then Sainsbury’s.
I started serving my apprenticeship under Ken back in 1979 – he took the place over from Dickie. I worked with Graham Palmer and Ross Mckechnie (Jock). It was a scream. The brick built structure came after my time. Ken had his office where that building is and a car salesman shared the other side.
I am not very good on identifying cars, but even I remember those naff door handles, can anybody confirm that it is an Austin Allegro?
Yes, it is indeed an Austin Allegro. They were also popular in orange or dark brown!
Come to think of, I remember this garage adjacent to Strickies – what is there now, flats?
Fitted to lots of different cars those handles – Range rovers, Morris marinas etc – even James Bond’s Lotus Esprit