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Brook Shaws Gibralter St

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Yes Pat. If I had been working with anyone else I would have been sacked lol

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Yes, me! I was a car salesman around that time, selling second hand cars. My name is Bob Smith and I was about 19/20 at the time. Les Rennick was the manager and other salesman were, Peter Hall, John Howe, Terry Swallow, Geoff Bamforth, Brian Hardwick and perhaps a few others. Great team! Kath Saxton and Gladdys were keeping the cars in tip top condition. Love to see u all again.

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Hi to FALLS and all the other contributers to car dealerships. I know the posts are quite old but I only found this site by accident when traling through Google the other day and being an ex pat from Sheffield now living in the south of England for the past 40 odd years it stirred some long forgotten memories as I was in the motor trade ( among other things ) for most of my working life . My first job as a 14 yrs old boy was at Brook Shaw Union Street and I was there when Brook Shaw himself was still alive ! I remember he died on a visit to the Ford plant at Dagenham sometime around 1945/6 collapsing on the loading jetty after the tour around the plant, the garage staff had been treated to the trip by him and I believe by Ford as well. Just after WW2 cars coming in for repair were still much more primative being mostly of the 1930's vintage, there were a very small trickle of new cars coming in but the wating list for a new car could run into 2 or 3 years as most went for export to pay our debts, ( how familliar this sounds again ) and even then for a couple of years the new ones still had the same basic engines and suspensions of their predecessors all very primative by modern day standards and so were working practice as I remember, I think there were a few lorries being produced but again all we saw were mostly old ones ! Ford had a clever and probably economical method of producing engins in those days, a basic 4 cylinder side valve design simply scaled up in size from 8 to 10,then 12 and finally 14 HP and reliying on the ex lincoln motors V8 in 24 and 30 hp versions, and they were side valve as well ! Happy day ? well looking back through the usual haze of nostalgia I think so. westmoors

 

This post from the 'Car Dealerships' thread may be of interest.

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Hello. My husband started work at Brook Shaws on leaving school. That was in 1969. His name is David Cooper.[/quoteHi,Pat,remember me to Dave I had the garage across the road from where you live,I knew John Usher,Mick Shirtcliffe,PaulAdams and Pete Gill.

 

Hello. Hope you are well and keeping busy. Dave send his best wishes. x

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I remember a Mr. Finney who was on the tractor side and a Mr .Holland both from the 1950's

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Hi Pat,

I worked with Dave at Brook Shaws ask him if he remembers Kelvin.Can he also remember our little song wiggy,wiggy wiggy and the other song we used to sing Norman German helmet homo sexual Ping?

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My mate worked there in the sixties Dave Hillman he was the electrician had a black ford pop dg143

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Hello Kel, Yes Dave does remember you very well. He says you had a good laugh in those days. The songs he also remembers. Are you still doing the milk round? Hope you and your family are well.

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Adding to my note posted by Jim Hardie, when I worked at Brook Shaw Norfolk Street the tractor department was in Russell st and even by the standards of those days it was very primitive.

A bit like the punishment for an errant German soldier of WW2 if naughty he was threatened with being sent to the Russian front, likewise we boys were threatened with being sent to Russel street. You really had to be tough to work there , muscle power was of paramount importance , the street double doors had a large gap underneath that became very noticeable in winter, and the only source of heating consisted of one enormous coke stove standing on the shop floor that I am sure you could melt steel in when going full blast, in winter too near and it was almost dangerous and too far away and you could freeze.

 

Garages at that time were still repairing WD vehicles and although the vehicles had their makers designated model we used to refer to them by their W.O.T numbers WOT 1,2,3,etc. ( War Office Truck/Transport ) the Ford made one almost identical to the Bedford QL which I think was more numerous, I never found the Ford model name but I do know it was a W.O.T 6 and housed their V8 engine . But we saw mostly the 30 cwt truck versions made by Morris, Bedford and the Canadian Chevrolet. westmoors

Edited by westmoors

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