Former Petrol Station - Colyford Garage, Colyton, Devon EX24 6QQ History
It's very convenient that the site here has its own history on display outside the premises. It comes as no surprise that the garage dates back to the 1930s, maybe even the 1920s, due to its design. In those pre-war years it would have sold a variety of brands, and in the captions here they allude to this fact, mentioning a time when Esso and Cleveland were dropped in the 1950s when the site became a Shell-BP group site. It then became a Shell solus site later on but the supply deal with Shell ended in 1977, very early for them to be deserting a village garage, and it spent the next twelve years selling UK fuel for certain as can be seen in the adjacent photo but also apparently there were Anglo and Shaw periods too. The order was Anglo after Shell, then Shaw and then UK after they bought out Shaw. In the late 1980s, Shell had a change of heart and supplied the garage again, with all the original pumps restored and given a full Shell livery again. Ten years after that and Shell went about face again and the garage ended its days retailing petrol under Texaco's Regent brand for smaller sites. By 2001 the garage had closed and became a museum for some time, but even that closed in 2013. In its time as a museum the pumps were again altered back to look original to the pre-war era with National Benzole, Power and BP alongside Shell as brands on display. Sometime subsequent to that, all the pumps were again changed to all Shell again which remain to this day, with the old garage now a cafe under the name Amy's at the Filling Station.
As you can see in some of the other photos the site has lots of other extras on view including a National Benzole globe in a window, Shell sign mounted on the building front and historical photos outside.
Some of the images featured in this history have been available as postcards or greetings cards and a few of us have copies of them. I have a postcard of the site in its Regent days taken apparently on the day of the eclipse on August 11 1999, Ian Calvert has a greetings card from the site when it had become a museum showing it how it looked then and Richard has a great photo of it when it was Shell branded in that period from 1989 to 1999, his photo is from September 1996. All three can be seen below along with a UK era image in chronological order. Seeing that photo makes it clear the pole sign still standing is the one from that era, the light box just right for a Shell sign of that era. Also of note is the Morris Minor cabriolet that
appears in at least two photos, the Regent era one and an earlier Shell one so that must have belonged to someone working there or the owner, or it had been for sale for a long time.
Here's the Streetview as it was when it was a musuem.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.7277437,-3.0609991,3a,75y,159.9...
Former Petrol Station - Colyford Garage, Colyton, Devon EX24 6QQ History
It's very convenient that the site here has its own history on display outside the premises. It comes as no surprise that the garage dates back to the 1930s, maybe even the 1920s, due to its design. In those pre-war years it would have sold a variety of brands, and in the captions here they allude to this fact, mentioning a time when Esso and Cleveland were dropped in the 1950s when the site became a Shell-BP group site. It then became a Shell solus site later on but the supply deal with Shell ended in 1977, very early for them to be deserting a village garage, and it spent the next twelve years selling UK fuel for certain as can be seen in the adjacent photo but also apparently there were Anglo and Shaw periods too. The order was Anglo after Shell, then Shaw and then UK after they bought out Shaw. In the late 1980s, Shell had a change of heart and supplied the garage again, with all the original pumps restored and given a full Shell livery again. Ten years after that and Shell went about face again and the garage ended its days retailing petrol under Texaco's Regent brand for smaller sites. By 2001 the garage had closed and became a museum for some time, but even that closed in 2013. In its time as a museum the pumps were again altered back to look original to the pre-war era with National Benzole, Power and BP alongside Shell as brands on display. Sometime subsequent to that, all the pumps were again changed to all Shell again which remain to this day, with the old garage now a cafe under the name Amy's at the Filling Station.
As you can see in some of the other photos the site has lots of other extras on view including a National Benzole globe in a window, Shell sign mounted on the building front and historical photos outside.
Some of the images featured in this history have been available as postcards or greetings cards and a few of us have copies of them. I have a postcard of the site in its Regent days taken apparently on the day of the eclipse on August 11 1999, Ian Calvert has a greetings card from the site when it had become a museum showing it how it looked then and Richard has a great photo of it when it was Shell branded in that period from 1989 to 1999, his photo is from September 1996. All three can be seen below along with a UK era image in chronological order. Seeing that photo makes it clear the pole sign still standing is the one from that era, the light box just right for a Shell sign of that era. Also of note is the Morris Minor cabriolet that
appears in at least two photos, the Regent era one and an earlier Shell one so that must have belonged to someone working there or the owner, or it had been for sale for a long time.
Here's the Streetview as it was when it was a musuem.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.7277437,-3.0609991,3a,75y,159.9...