The Natural Grocery Store is at the corner of Bath Road and Clare Street. The block was built in 2003, but it had been the site of Thirlestaine Service Station for more than sixty years.
Over the last thirty years, a significant change to our townscape has been the disappearance of petrol stations, garages and car showrooms from our streets. They have gone from all parts of the town, but here I will concentrate on those lost from my part of town – Bath Road and environs. You can, no doubt, think of those who have gone from other parts of the town.
Tesco first sold petrol in 1974, but the proliferation of more extensive, out-of-town supermarkets in the 1990s put the local filling station under pressure. Supermarket groups could and did use petrol pricing to attract customers. There was never much margin for the small petrol retailer, but predatory pricing and bulk buying changed the market.
Car showrooms have also migrated to the edge of town as larger agencies – often with multiple dealer agreements – needed more display space and easier access for the customer.
Within a few hundred yards of the Thirlestaine site, there were three other garages. Round the corner was Bill Allen’s garage on Suffolk Road. Does anybody remember when there was a blue Austin A40 on its roof?
Two were close to the Eagle Star building – one by its flank on Montpellier Terrace (now Langton Court) and another under a cedar tree on Bath Road.
A little further to the north was Grove Garages – later Broughton’s Rolls-Royce showroom – at the junction of College Road and the High Street. If you looked across the road from here, another was on Hewlett Road. At the town end of Bath Road was the Ebdon showroom where Weatherspoon’s is today and, directly opposite, Wicliffe Motors.
Other large showrooms were close to the town centre – Haines & Strange on Albion Street and Widdows on the Lower High Street, Regent Motors on Regent Street and large showrooms on the High Street, Winchcombe Street and North Place. [That’s enough garages! Ed.] It probably is, but I will add an unexpected one in Montpellier.
The Thirlestaine site was a coal yard for many years before it was a garage, and, if I had been considering loss and change in townscape fifty years ago, I might have been writing about changes in the distribution of coal. Our social and economic infrastructure continues to change – the loss of bank branches and post offices may have a less marked effect on townscape, but national and international changes continue to limit our local options.