A LOOK BACK AT GARAGES THE WORD ‘GARAGE’ ACTUALLY COMES FROM THE
It is easy these days to pull up to one of the many petrol stations to put fuel into your vehicle, or to visit a garage shop.
That might all change in time with the advent of electric vehicles?
How annoying is it when you want to pull up to a pump to find that you are waiting for an indefinite period of time whilst the person in front of you is buying food and drink, some of them have not even filled up with fuel, they have just abandoned their vehicle?
In the early 1900s, before petrol pumps even existed, you had to purchase petrol from hard- ware stores in two gallon cans, or believe it or not, visit the local black- smith’s shop which could sell you petrol whilst his forge was merrily heating a piece of metal to an extremely high temperature. Cars also had running boards and on these boards was a place where you could conveniently attach an extra fuel can.
Early petrol stations were not custom-built, most of them, particularly those in villages and small towns, were buildings built for other purposes which were converted into a garage that had a mechanic, who was usually the garage owner and lived in the house situated at the back. The word ‘garage’ comes from the French word ‘Garer’, which means to shelter.
In fact, an interesting point I found whilst researching this article was that these early garages usually had a car that was available for the mechanic to take the local doctor, busi- ness person or anybody in particular to the train station whilst their vehicle was serviced. This believe it or not was the beginning of the private hire vehicle business.
Cars of yesteryear were nowhere near as complex as cars of today. Mechanics were usually self-taught and were familiar with engines of any make of car.
If your car broke down and you could not repair it yourself, it was usually a man with a horse who came to your rescue to tow you to the nearest repair shop. The repair shop was usually a cycle shop. Cycles became increasingly popular in the 1890s, so much so that when automobiles were increas- ing in numbers, the cycle shops became car sales shops and then small garages.
88 JULY 2021
The Locomotives and Highways Act 1896 removed the strict rules and UK speed limits that were included in the early government acts. Before the 1896 Act came into force, we had the Locomotive Act 1865 which stipulated that any self- propelled road vehicle had to have a person in front, about 60 yards, carrying a red flag. The top speed was 4 mph in the country and 2 mph in towns and cities but after the 1896 Act you could drive at 14 mph.
Naturally, the powerful railways lobby and those that wanted to keep using horse drawn vehicles wanted low speed limits to be kept on public highways. They were concerned about noisy combustion engines frightening the horses and their riders as well as horse drawn carriages.
In 1902 the Imperial Motor Works of Lyndhurst, Hampshire started to operate as a garage. It is now called Meridien Modena, an official Ferrari dealer. Lyndhurst is known as the capital village of The New Forest but in the early 1900s, although the garage had petrol pumps there were more New Forest ponies, (who of course have the right of way wander- ing the roads in this area) than cars. The garage staff at Imperial were experts at a wide range of repairs, stripping down engines, repairing upholstery and specifically mending tyres that had collected nails used to shoe horses.
In February 1914, an unusual incident at this garage occurred when one of the staff was employed as a chauffeur to take an American guest on a day’s visit, touring the local area. The passenger pulled out a revolver and told the chauffeur to drive to unfamiliar places. He randomly fired the gun on the journey, but was eventually arrested and he shot himself dead.
In 1908 the Automobile Association published its first AA membership’s special handbook which contained a list of nationwide agents and repairers. Later, in 1949 they launched a night-time breakdown and recovery service, first in London then elsewhere in the country.
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