Esso - Beckington, Somerset circa 1968
Here we see a dramatic photo of the premises of S Hillman and Sons after an explosion! Here's the full story of the event.
"Three lorry drivers on Tuesday afternoon risked their lives to stop a petrol blast that could have shattered the village of Beckington.
A Bristol Co-Operative Society milk lorry , laden with hundreds of crates of empty bottles had ploughed into a garage at The Plain, in the centre of the village, demolishing two petrol pumps and turning the forecourt into a blasting inferno. Beneath the crashed lorry were two tanks containing between 400 and 600 gallons of petrol – less than an hour before a tanker had delivered 500 gallons.
Almost immediately after the crash two lorries from Hoveringham of Asham Quarry, Chastry, followed by a low-loader belonging to Messrs Holdway, of Westbury, carrying compressors, came down the road from Bath. After a short word together the three lorry drivers decided to pull the stricken lorry into the centre of The Plain to reduce the fire hazard in the garage itself and to prevent the petrol tank blowing up.
Thirty-six year old David Burton of Glebelands, Nunney, backed his 24-ton lorry into the blaze. The two other drivers, Mr Victor Johnson of Summerleaze, Trowbridge, and Mr Tony Pearce of Whiteston Road, Frome, fixed a towing chain between the lorries. As they worked milk bottles exploded around them , filling the air with shattered glass.
Mr Burton’s lorry pulled the flaming wreck clear at the third attempt and another man sealed off the tanks. The stricken lorry was left in the centre of the junction of the Frome and Warminster roads.
Then villagers moved in to fight the fire with buckets of water until two units of firemen from Frome moved in. The driver, Mr Terry Sheppard of Hilltop Gardens, St George, Bristol, who escaped from his cab by clambering through a window and over the bottles, was rushed to Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, suffering from burns. Mr Sheppard (35) was later said to be “quite satisfactory, but remains ill”.
Mr John Willis, who owns the stores near the garage – Beckington Motors – had wrapped Mr Sheppard in a duffle coat and taken him to safety. He said later “those lorry drivers deserve medals. The driver of the big lorry did a marvellous job.”
Another villager said that if the storage tanks had gone up the centre of Beckington would have been gutted. “They probably saved the village” he added. Mr W Hillman, the garage proprietor, had been in the office only previously but had just walked up the road to the other garage to get a cup of tea.
Mr Christopher Hillman and an employee were in the back of the garage at the time. Mr Hillman went to get to the cab of the stricken lorry but the driver came out over the top.
The village postman, Mr R W Higdon, was coming down Church Hill to The Plain when he saw the milk lorry approaching. It appeared out of control with the driver, he said, trying desperately to bring it under control.
The lorry went straight across the main Frome-Bath Road – fortunately there was nothing coming either way - and plunged straight into the office store annexe at the side of Beckington Motors Ltd.
The cab of the lorry embedded itself right into the building between two petrol pumps and immediately both the pumps and the front of the lorry burst into flames.
“I jumped on the phone, which is right there on the spot, and put through a 999 call for emergency services,” said Mr Higdon.
Mr Johnson, the driver of Holdway’s low-loader, said he pulled up behind two Hoveringham lorries and saw the garage and lorry on fire. He and the other drivers went to the garage and pulled out a car and drove another out to safety. They carried welding bottles and a car engine out of the building.
Traffic was diverted away from Beckington for two hours after the fire.
Electricity board and GPO engineers were called in to repair telephone lines and power cables.
About £500 worth of tyres, a £100 of motor car spares, office equipment and papers were destroyed.
The annexe was completely destroyed and there was also damage to the adjoining garage."
Reading all of this incredible story seems to suggest that either all the premises along here were owned by the Hillmans, possibly different family members, and that they were collectively called Beckington Motors, but I'm still not sure! It wouldn't explain why there were different brands of petrol on sale. Having said that I know of an example from Cambridge in the 1970s where one company had two garages within a few hundred yards of each other and one sold Texaco and the other Mobil. So it did happen. Maybe it was a ploy to make the garage appear separate and different to fool people into thinking there was genuine competition here when in fact the same family would benefit from any business to either garage!
Below I've added all the other images I have of this small part of Beckington, along with one from Richard showing the expanded premises of Beckington Motors in 2011 when they were just about still selling fuel, and one from Ian Calvert showing the premises as they are in the present day.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2651166,-2.2870488,3a,75y,349.1...
Esso - Beckington, Somerset circa 1968
Here we see a dramatic photo of the premises of S Hillman and Sons after an explosion! Here's the full story of the event.
"Three lorry drivers on Tuesday afternoon risked their lives to stop a petrol blast that could have shattered the village of Beckington.
A Bristol Co-Operative Society milk lorry , laden with hundreds of crates of empty bottles had ploughed into a garage at The Plain, in the centre of the village, demolishing two petrol pumps and turning the forecourt into a blasting inferno. Beneath the crashed lorry were two tanks containing between 400 and 600 gallons of petrol – less than an hour before a tanker had delivered 500 gallons.
Almost immediately after the crash two lorries from Hoveringham of Asham Quarry, Chastry, followed by a low-loader belonging to Messrs Holdway, of Westbury, carrying compressors, came down the road from Bath. After a short word together the three lorry drivers decided to pull the stricken lorry into the centre of The Plain to reduce the fire hazard in the garage itself and to prevent the petrol tank blowing up.
Thirty-six year old David Burton of Glebelands, Nunney, backed his 24-ton lorry into the blaze. The two other drivers, Mr Victor Johnson of Summerleaze, Trowbridge, and Mr Tony Pearce of Whiteston Road, Frome, fixed a towing chain between the lorries. As they worked milk bottles exploded around them , filling the air with shattered glass.
Mr Burton’s lorry pulled the flaming wreck clear at the third attempt and another man sealed off the tanks. The stricken lorry was left in the centre of the junction of the Frome and Warminster roads.
Then villagers moved in to fight the fire with buckets of water until two units of firemen from Frome moved in. The driver, Mr Terry Sheppard of Hilltop Gardens, St George, Bristol, who escaped from his cab by clambering through a window and over the bottles, was rushed to Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, suffering from burns. Mr Sheppard (35) was later said to be “quite satisfactory, but remains ill”.
Mr John Willis, who owns the stores near the garage – Beckington Motors – had wrapped Mr Sheppard in a duffle coat and taken him to safety. He said later “those lorry drivers deserve medals. The driver of the big lorry did a marvellous job.”
Another villager said that if the storage tanks had gone up the centre of Beckington would have been gutted. “They probably saved the village” he added. Mr W Hillman, the garage proprietor, had been in the office only previously but had just walked up the road to the other garage to get a cup of tea.
Mr Christopher Hillman and an employee were in the back of the garage at the time. Mr Hillman went to get to the cab of the stricken lorry but the driver came out over the top.
The village postman, Mr R W Higdon, was coming down Church Hill to The Plain when he saw the milk lorry approaching. It appeared out of control with the driver, he said, trying desperately to bring it under control.
The lorry went straight across the main Frome-Bath Road – fortunately there was nothing coming either way - and plunged straight into the office store annexe at the side of Beckington Motors Ltd.
The cab of the lorry embedded itself right into the building between two petrol pumps and immediately both the pumps and the front of the lorry burst into flames.
“I jumped on the phone, which is right there on the spot, and put through a 999 call for emergency services,” said Mr Higdon.
Mr Johnson, the driver of Holdway’s low-loader, said he pulled up behind two Hoveringham lorries and saw the garage and lorry on fire. He and the other drivers went to the garage and pulled out a car and drove another out to safety. They carried welding bottles and a car engine out of the building.
Traffic was diverted away from Beckington for two hours after the fire.
Electricity board and GPO engineers were called in to repair telephone lines and power cables.
About £500 worth of tyres, a £100 of motor car spares, office equipment and papers were destroyed.
The annexe was completely destroyed and there was also damage to the adjoining garage."
Reading all of this incredible story seems to suggest that either all the premises along here were owned by the Hillmans, possibly different family members, and that they were collectively called Beckington Motors, but I'm still not sure! It wouldn't explain why there were different brands of petrol on sale. Having said that I know of an example from Cambridge in the 1970s where one company had two garages within a few hundred yards of each other and one sold Texaco and the other Mobil. So it did happen. Maybe it was a ploy to make the garage appear separate and different to fool people into thinking there was genuine competition here when in fact the same family would benefit from any business to either garage!
Below I've added all the other images I have of this small part of Beckington, along with one from Richard showing the expanded premises of Beckington Motors in 2011 when they were just about still selling fuel, and one from Ian Calvert showing the premises as they are in the present day.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2651166,-2.2870488,3a,75y,349.1...