• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Petrol pumps & filling stations of the past

The Baron

master brummie
Remember when petrol cost 1/3d per gallon not £1.09 per Litre, Found this sign on our Hols in Somerset last weekend.
WOW Was it ever that cheap?
ASTON
 
Last edited:
The old pump in Alan's post is the same as the one we had at Watsons in Villa Street, it was just inside the fence and had an arm that swung out over the footpath, It worked on a wind up rack, bottom to top for each gallon, a nice arm ache when the trucks wanted twenty gallons.
The first place I worked at was on the Chester Road at Streetly (by the Parson and Clerk) they had four pumps all with different company globes on, I can remember there was Power and National Benzole and I think Shell Mex an BP but the petrol was all the same 'Pool' petrol the wartime stuff.
 
Linked to the theme of petrol pumps:
Not quite Birmingham but there is a pub in Shirley, on Stratford Road called "The Pump House".
Ths is its pub sign
1630584583626.png
Why is it called this? I gather there are photos and a history inside but it is on the site of one of the first garages opened in Shirley. Referred to by my Mom as "Wood's Garage".
 
The old pump in Alan's post is the same as the one we had at Watsons in Villa Street, it was just inside the fence and had an arm that swung out over the footpath, It worked on a wind up rack, bottom to top for each gallon, a nice arm ache when the trucks wanted twenty gallons.
The first place I worked at was on the Chester Road at Streetly (by the Parson and Clerk) they had four pumps all with different company globes on, I can remember there was Power and National Benzole and I think Shell Mex an BP but the petrol was all the same 'Pool' petrol the wartime stuff.
eric living in villa st at the time you was working at watsons i must have walked past that pump many times but being a youngster would not have taken much notice of it

lyn
 
This is 578 Pershore Road, posted by Stitcher on the Street Furniture thread. A lot of pumps squeezed onto a small space. Viv.


90A6AAA9-A6D0-4D6F-AF46-B3F26187DB61.jpeg

Today, all signs of its use have gone and the shop has reverted to residential use. But a little further along Pershore Road, next to the Selly Oak Tavern, is a modern Esso station. Viv.

02758B69-1EA9-4DE2-B340-779881F9D48B.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Here are some photos taken for a school project of 3 different garages for which I do not have a location (hint!!!! - they will be somewhere in Lozells / Hockley / Aston area). Interesting old petrol pumps on these - not sure on the dates (late 70's I think) but 4* and 5* fuel was a whopping £1.38 a gallon! Struggle to get a litre for that today.........
1630653102006.png
1630653134878.png
1630653160565.png
1630653196246.png
1630653223357.png
1630653282499.png
1630653317958.png
 
Great photos all. Surely there must have been a point where petrol pumps couldn’t be located within a certain distance of domestic premises? Some of the old pumps look dangerously close to houses. Viv.
 
Above them you may well have seen one of these - taken somewhere (do not know where) in Aston in the late 70's - bet it is not there now!
View attachment 161075
This signage would have gone by 1976 as Shell Mex & BP split from each other end of 1975. Their employees and sales were split 60% Shell and 40% BP, initially at the end of June 1975 I was branded BP but Changed to Shell by year end.
 
Great photos all. Surely there must have been a point where petrol pumps couldn’t be located within a certain distance of domestic premises? Some of the old pumps look dangerously close to houses. Viv.
The scientists say a 'minimum' distance of 50 metres should therefore be maintained between petrol stations and housing, and 100 metres for 'especially vulnerable' facilities such as hospitals, health centres, schools and old people's homes.
 
I remember stopping at a house in Derby with a pump in the garden for fuel with my dad in the 50s. you rang the bell and a man come out to serve you.,he put the hose in the tank and started turning a handle on the pump while looking at the gauge it was like the contraption below :grinning:

vintage pump.jpg
 
From another thread ...
Aston Road North / Powell Road
index.php
 
Here are some photos taken for a school project of 3 different garages for which I do not have a location (hint!!!! - they will be somewhere in Lozells / Hockley / Aston area). Interesting old petrol pumps on these - not sure on the dates (late 70's I think) but 4* and 5* fuel was a whopping £1.38 a gallon! Struggle to get a litre for that today.........
View attachment 161127
View attachment 161128
View attachment 161129
View attachment 161130
View attachment 161131
View attachment 161132
View attachment 161133

The Dallaway's garage was , I think, at 489 Bordesley Green, though , on the map it does look wider than it looks on the photo.

map c1970 showing 289 Bordesley Green.jpg
 
Recently when out cycling I felt the need for a sugar hit so nipped into a garage for a flapjack. I walked up to the counter in the shop fully clad in cycling gear, still wearing helmet etc. The woman said: "any fuel?" as if I looked like a motorist! I replied "yes, this flapjack is my fuel."

p.s. I have two engines - a left leg and a right leg!
 
Here are some photos taken for a school project of 3 different garages for which I do not have a location (hint!!!! - they will be somewhere in Lozells / Hockley / Aston area). Interesting old petrol pumps on these - not sure on the dates (late 70's I think) but 4* and 5* fuel was a whopping £1.38 a gallon! Struggle to get a litre for that today.........
View attachment 161127
View attachment 161128
View attachment 161129
Over the door it says Terry Bros

This is an entry for 1975 phone book
1630676720518.png
 
Over the door it says Terry Bros

This is an entry for 1975 phone book
View attachment 161143
Trouble is it does not look much like a trading estate, certainly nothing like that estate as seen on streetview, and anyway they are in Kellys at that address from at least 1962. That address must have been the mainn office running a number of petrol stations. There was also a Terrys Auto services in Smethwick, but they were definitely on a corner.
 
Back
Top