Sharing our memories of Heald Green
Last Updated 17th Nov 2024
B.I. Appleton Ltd.
128 Outwood Road
By Helen Morgan
Published on Facebook April 2024
Last Updated 28/07/2024
A family orientated business still moving forward in the 21st century
Origins
I had the pleasure of meeting up with Phil Evans in January, who with his brother Harry, bought the business off Gerrard Appleton, son of Basil who started the original garage back in 1939. Phil started working there as an apprentice in October 2003 and they bought the business in February 2022. Indeed, it continues as a family business with fathers and sons
working together as well as long standing members of staff. He showed me lots of fantastic old photos that Gerrard had in his possession, to tell the story of the business.
So, let us go back to see what was there in 1839. I love the way that history ties itself up.
The land and buildings were owned by John Walker Knight, the landowner who lived in Heald Green House. There’s a full article on that house already within the museum that has a huge tale to tell on its own.
Fig. 1 Tithe Map, 1839
© Cheshire Tithe Maps Online
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Plot 283 is an orchard and plot 284 a meadow. Plot number 285 shows a house, outbuildings and orchard.
Basil Inman Appleton used the barns to start his business in 1939. This was just before the outbreak of WW11 and not long before he was enlisted into the Royal Navy, even though he suffered from seasickness! . His birthday was March 1922, so perhaps he was just 18. The house was never lived in and was demolished around 1954.
On the 1921 census, the year before Basil was born, his parents lived in Didsbury. His father, Arthur Appleton was a motor car salesman working for Tom Garner Ltd on Peter Street in Manchester. He had married Lucy Inman in 1919 in Chorlton.
On the 1939 register Basil listed himself as a motor car mechanic, so had followed his father into the motor trade. His mum was doing unpaid domestic duties but had enlisted to help at Cheadle and Gatley’s first aid station and his dad was now a manager of a stores department, still in the motor business. They all lived at 225 Styal Road. That was opposite the barn that Basil would redevelop.
These wonderful photos from the Appleton family, show how the buildings correspond to the map layout.
Fig. 2 The front of the barn, taken from the field opposite where a bungalow now stands. This
was the original workshop that Basil shared with some pigs! 1940s
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 4 From the back, the L shape can be seen, along with a small outbuilding on the left. The tree that can be seen was nicknamed Cedric, and still stands today.
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 3 Just to the side of the workshop door, can you see the toy car? Love it!
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 5 The barn side on with Styal Road on the right.
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 6 Nothing behind the cottage but fields
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 7 Here’s the cottage, probably not long before it was demolished, alongside Cedric. It was much nearer to Styal Road than the bungalow that would replace it.
© Appleton Family
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During the war Petty Officer Basil worked as an engineer. In fact, he was doing just that on board landing craft number LCT804 on D Day, transporting tanks to the beachheads of Normandy . Back in Heald Green at this time, the army requisitioned the barn to charge the lead-acid batteries used in field wireless equipment . Basil met Mabel, who was
serving with the WRAF at Ringway as a parachute inspector, and the rest as they say is history.
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Fig. 8 Basil in the 1940s inside the barn, hard at work
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 10 Petrol pumps, Basil and the cottage are in this photo along with Cedric the tree. If you
look closely on the left, in front of the small building, there may be a well there with a
cover on it. In the 1960s, Shell petrol pumps replaced Regent petrol pumps.
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 9 This is Alf Nield who worked most of his working life at the garage
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 11 The new workshop being built c.1955. It is still there today as the offices of Enterprise Rent-a-car.
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 12 The new workshop can be seen and at this point the cottage is still there. The small
outbuilding has been knocked down and the rubble can be seen.
© Appleton Family
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In the 1950s the population of the village began to grow and housebuilders were building fashionable bungalows. Rather than renovate the old cottage, Basil decided to knock it down and build a new bungalow there along with another one, next door but one. That left a field in between for the children to play in. Gerrard can remember playing there.
“We lived in Bruntwood Ave, and in winter, my mother would send me to Appleton’s Garage to fill a gallon can with paraffin for our Valour heaters. Cost 2 bob in those days. I later got to know the family quite well, as they had a daughter called Roslyn,
who was in the same Sunday school class as me. May Watkins was our Sunday school teacher. I think Appleton’s garage sold Regent Petrol in those days, and there was a bus stop outside, where you could catch a number 64 bus to Piccadilly.”
- Ian Mann, Facebook, 2024
“Yes, we heated our homes with paraffin filled stoves, either Valor or Aladdin.”
- Chris Barratt, Facebook, 2024
“My brother Roy worked at this garage which was I think in the 1950s after leaving school, so just a young lad back then.”
- Gladys Best, Facebook, 2024
Fig. 13 This is the earliest advertisement I could find. It is from St Catherine’s Parish News dated
December 1962
© St Catherine's Church
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Fig. 15 Prices in 1963 - page 1
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 17 Wages in 1967. All the family are on the books
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 14 This is from the Ratepayers Contact Magazine. September 1964. The garage had been a Vauxhall dealership since 1963.
© Ratepayers' Association
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Fig. 16 Prices in 1963 - page 2
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 18 Mabel and Roslyn taking cups of tea into the garage. The C reg car on the forecourt means it must be after August 1965.
© Appleton Family
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Son Gerrard joined the family business when he was 15. He did an apprenticeship working his way up through the ranks and attended college in the evening to gain further qualifications .
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Fig. 19 Gerrard working on a car down the side of the garage, in the early 1970s
© Appleton Family
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The new building from the mid-1950s, was extended in the early 1970s to provide a showroom for Vauxhall cars at the height of the dealership. This is now being renovated and designed to be eco-friendly with cedar wood and the hope for solar panels in the near
future.
B.I. Appleton set up a 2nd workshop at Manchester Airport with a rental company which opened in June 2023.
Fig. 20 H-registered cars, so this photo is after August 1969. Basil and Mabel’s bungalow is right
next door.
© Appleton Family
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To remember all our yesterdays for people who enjoy cars, I have had a look back at newspapers to recall the old names of some of the Vauxhall cars and perhaps more importantly their prices! [Ed: Click on the images to see full pages]
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Fig. 21 Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser May 9th, 1969
© Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser
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Fig. 23 Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser
Mar 2nd, 1972
© Alderley and Wilmslow Adverstiser
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Fig. 25 Manchester Evening News
Oct 20th, 1980
© Manchester Evening News
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Fig. 27 Stockport Express
April 20th 1994. No longer a Vauxhall
dealership
© Stockport Express Archive
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Fig. 22 Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser Sep 10th, 1971
© Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser
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Fig. 24 Alderley and Wilmslow Advertiser Oct 16th, 1975
© Alderley and Wilmslow Adverstiser
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Fig. 26 Macclesfield Express
Oct 20th, 1980
© Macclesfield Express
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Fig. 28 Manchester Evening News
September 23rd, 1988
© Manchester Evening News
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Fig. 29 Ratepayer’s Contact magazine Spring 1970 and December 1972
© Ratepayers' Association
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“I worked on the petrol pumps after school in the early 70s. Quad Co-Op stamps if you bought 4 gallons! As a teenage petrol pump assistant in the 1970s, I was paid 1s 6d an hour (7.5 pence) and petrol was 32p per gallon (4.5 litres).”
- Les Clough, Facebook, 2024, 2021
“Used to fill my moped in 1977.1/2 gallon and a squirt of oil, 37p lasted me all week. Then my first car, a Vauxhall Viva. My late
dad knew Basil very well. Still take my work’s van there for servicing.”
- Chris Hamlet, Facebook, 2024
Fig. 30 The original workshops around the back, were added to with further bays by the late 1970s or early 1980s. Phil can remember when he started working here in 2003, that there was no tarmac on the forecourt,
just gravel. 25.3.2024
© Helen Morgan
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Fig. 31 In 1985 Gerrard was part of a national campaign to advertise Vauxhall Opel cars.
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 31 Macclesfield Express
December 10th, 1987
© Macclesfield Express
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The association with Vauxhall ended in 1991 and the business became an independent garage again. Today it is a Bosch car service centre. In 2005 Enterprise Rent-a-car started there in the original 1950s building, renting it off Gerrard. Phil told me that although they are getting new signage, the old signage will be kept on display in reception and in the workshop.
The garage had been selling Shell petrol since the 1960s and stopped selling petrol in the early to mid 1980s. The underground tanks were filled in. It does seem odd to me that although Appleton’s sold petrol, an application was sent to the council to consider a petrol station in the field opposite, on the corner of Brown Lane. Permission was refused in June 1966 when the Minister of Housing and Local Government upheld the council’s decision. The grounds stated were the facts that “there is already a petrol station opposite and because it would add to the hazards for pedestrian and vehicular traffic ".
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Fig. 32 Then (1940s)
© Appleton Family
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Fig. 33 Now (24.3.2024)
© Helen Morgan
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In 2019 the garage decided to do their bit for St. Ann’s Hospice. For every MOT that was done in July and August, they would donate £5 6.
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"We have decided to donate to St Ann’s because we can see what a great charity they are. The work they do for the local community and nearby communities is breathtaking. The team works every second of every day to help the lives of so many people that need to be loved and cared for. One day, a loved one may need to go to a hospice, so if we can help out St Ann’s with our special MOT offer, then we will sleep easy knowing we are donating to a wonderful charity. Old businesses are dying off but we are growing just like St Ann’s Hospice. We are only a few minutes away from their Heald Green hospice, and have been maintaining their vehicles for many years now so have built a solid relationship."
Phil Evans, General Manager, BI Appleton.
"Our local community is so important to the hospice, and we’re incredibly appreciative of all the support BI Appleton give us. We rely on donations from businesses like theirs, as well as individuals, to ensure we can continue providing the specialist care our patients need. Huge thanks to the team there for thinking of the hospice and supporting our patients in this way." Eamonn O'Neal , St Ann's Hospice Chief Executive
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Fig. 34 Donating to St Ann's Hospice, 2019
© St Ann's Hospice
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Basil and Mabel lived in the bungalow next to the garage. It is also quite a fascinating property. There just used to be a chain link fence separating the two. Les Carter, who works at the garage, now lives here. He bought it off Gerrard in 2019. He has been updating it and came across quite a few surprises! Les has added a loft and altered the roof but the amazing things have been in the garden. Some of you may remember the red GPO telephone box that stood on the driveway. Apparently, people tried to use it! When digging he still comes across rubble from the old cottage. He had lots of trees removed and the digger used to get rid of roots, unearthed the original gas pipe that lit the gas mantel lamps. The piece de resistance however was the uncovering of an old well, that when he bought the property, he did not know it was there.... and then of course the copper beech tree aka Cedric. The tree lights up at night and a face can be seen! Thankfully there is a tree preservation order on it but at present it has not been registered on the council’s site.
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Fig. 33 Cedric can be seen in all his glory! (24.3.2024)
© Helen Morgan
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Fig. 34 The original gas mantel lamps are now electric and are in the front and back gardens. (11.1.2024)
© Helen Morgan
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Fig. 35 The fantastic well (11.1.2024)
© Helen Morgan
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The well is being lovingly restored by Les. It is roughly 45 feet deep and he has had water from it during a drought year.
Next door but one to this bungalow is another one that Gerrard lived in. Alongside that is still a field, that has never been developed, but has 4 tree preservation orders on some of the trees there.
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Fig. 35 This is Styal Road looking south back to the
bungalows and the garage, showing the overgrown field. (23.4.2024)
© Helen Morgan
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Basil and Mabel had 7 grandchildren. He continued to work in the business until 2000, when he became ill and then sadly passed away in 2001, at the age of 79. Mabel continued to live
at the bungalow. As her health deteriorated, she retired as a director in 2008. She sadly passed away in June 2017. Gerrard took over the business and is a father and grandfather himself now. No longer living locally, he still remains in touch with Phil.
Fig. 36 Basil Inman Appleton. 1922-2001
A young man who survived WW11 and steered a family business, through good times and bad, with hard work and vision.
© Appleton Family
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The business continues to thrive with both loyal, returning customers and new ones. Phil told me that their aim is to get to the centenary in 2039. How fantastic that would be. The Evans family have big plans to take the garage forward into the mid 21st century, whilst still retaining that feeling of a family orientated business of yesteryear. Long may it continue.
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Fig. 37 Staff Photo 29.4.2024
© Phil Evans
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Many thanks to Phil, Gerrard and Les for all their help and to residents who recalled their memories via our Facebook page.
Bibliography
1. B.I. Appleton Limited website, About Us
2. B.I. Appleton Limited website, About Us
3. Ed Browne, All Peachy at Appletons article, 10.7.2019
4. B.I. Appleton Limited website, About Us
5. The Editor, (June 1966), Contact Magazine, Jottings, 4(2),pp24
6. B.I. Appleton drive up donations article, 2.8.2019
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