Esso and BP - Beckington, Somerset circa 1960
One would have hoped that as I acquired each further image of this part of the village of Beckington it would clarify the exact timeline and location of each site, but in some ways it actually gets harder. Certainly this was once the A36 running through here, later on bypassed. As a result one might have expected to find one or two fuel outlets along here back then, but it would seem there were actually three, almost in a row. It gets more complicated because what was known as Beckington Motors seem to have expanded from one of these premises to swallow another along the road later on in time, and combining them into one. Trying to pinpoint dates for these images is also hard.
The nearer premises were once known as S Hillman and Son, they may well have still been when this photo was taken. It seems to have always been Esso branded from say 1955 through to 1970. It's been suggested that this later on became Beckington Motors, but I'm not sure of that. Certainly later on, what is seen as a BP site in this image, became Beckington Motors but it may have already been called that when this image was taken. Here we see it was branded BP, a few years later on and it was a Shell site, and just beyond it there was a Regent outlet which over time seems to have merged with the BP as the site in more recent times was much bigger and encompassed both sites as seen here. That much can be ascertained by looking at Streetview. That garage survives to the present day, only stopping selling petrol about ten or fifteen years ago. Richard has a photo of the garage from 2011 when it was certainly still selling diesel which I have added below. Ian Calvert has a very recent image showing the small petrol forecourt had gone by then, also added below.
In addition an image I have of it looking the other way back to this point, showing the BP site here as Shell and the Regent site nearer in that image, further away as we look here.
Also added below, the oldest image showing the nearer garage as S Hillman and Sons.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2651166,-2.2870488,3a,75y,349.1...
Esso and BP - Beckington, Somerset circa 1960
One would have hoped that as I acquired each further image of this part of the village of Beckington it would clarify the exact timeline and location of each site, but in some ways it actually gets harder. Certainly this was once the A36 running through here, later on bypassed. As a result one might have expected to find one or two fuel outlets along here back then, but it would seem there were actually three, almost in a row. It gets more complicated because what was known as Beckington Motors seem to have expanded from one of these premises to swallow another along the road later on in time, and combining them into one. Trying to pinpoint dates for these images is also hard.
The nearer premises were once known as S Hillman and Son, they may well have still been when this photo was taken. It seems to have always been Esso branded from say 1955 through to 1970. It's been suggested that this later on became Beckington Motors, but I'm not sure of that. Certainly later on, what is seen as a BP site in this image, became Beckington Motors but it may have already been called that when this image was taken. Here we see it was branded BP, a few years later on and it was a Shell site, and just beyond it there was a Regent outlet which over time seems to have merged with the BP as the site in more recent times was much bigger and encompassed both sites as seen here. That much can be ascertained by looking at Streetview. That garage survives to the present day, only stopping selling petrol about ten or fifteen years ago. Richard has a photo of the garage from 2011 when it was certainly still selling diesel which I have added below. Ian Calvert has a very recent image showing the small petrol forecourt had gone by then, also added below.
In addition an image I have of it looking the other way back to this point, showing the BP site here as Shell and the Regent site nearer in that image, further away as we look here.
Also added below, the oldest image showing the nearer garage as S Hillman and Sons.
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.2651166,-2.2870488,3a,75y,349.1...