Telephone:
01980 670348

Telephone: 01980 670348

A Brief History of the Garage

Great things have been achieved by engineers in sheds over the years and the Motor Garage is no exception. Originally an engineering shed at RAF Netheravon dating back to the first world war, the main garage building was dismantled and brought down from the camp to the village in 1926 so it could be repurposed for the service and repair of new-fangled motor vehicles. One such shed can just be seen in this historic photograph of airfield camp – could it be our very own shed? We like to think so…

Royal Flying Corps, Salisbury Plain

There are pictures of the garage going back to the 1930s in our reception. The rear shed was formerly attached to the old village Post Office (the red-brick house on the right hand side of the garage) and for a time was used to service and maintain GPO vans. The telephone number for the garage at this time was shared with the Post Office and was “Netheravon 1”. A solid communications cable apparently ran between the Post Office and the air-base at the top of hill.

A part of the garage was for some time sub-let as a drapers store, with the forecourt housing petrol pumps. These were removed some time ago, most likely for fire regulations, being adjacent to a thatched cottage.

The garage was rescued from redevelopment in 2013 upon the retirement of then proprietor Rod Smith who ran the garage for nearly 30 years from the mid 1980s. Refusing higher offers from developers, he entrusted the future of the business as a going concern to classic car enthusiasts and father and son team Gerald and James Russell.

Through investment, hard graft and the valued support of loyal customers the future of the garage was secured as a local success story and a highly regarded classic car specialism was born. The growth of both the modern and classic sides of the business, with their competing and contrasting requirements, was such that by 2023 the business had outgrown the original garage premises. A decision was therefore made to move the classic cars to dedicated workshops nearby. Ironically, we now work on modern cars in classic premises and classic cars in modern premises!

Traditional village garages are few and far between these days. Since the garage was saved from redevelopment a decade ago at least three other village garages in the local area have closed. We are grateful to all our customers for their support which has seen the business go from strength to strength in recent years. With your help we look forward to celebrating our centenary in 2026!