Car Dealers, Garages, Petrol Stations

I think it was a gradual move starting around the very, very late 1970's to early 1980's. I do recall around 1980 ish pulling into a remote village forecourt, having to place a £1 note into a drawer on an old petrol pump before I could serve petrol for my motorbike at the time. Once the pump had managed to take the pound note and accept it, I was then able to a £1 worth of petrol into the the tank. BTW, petrol was quite a bit less than £1 a gallon (less than 25p ± per litre), even for 5 star petrol.... That was enough at the time to get 100+ miles.....

Many thanks for the info 20A

Raymond James Garage, previously known as Corts on Beech Tree Avenue, was used for storing "green goddesses" fire engines, according to a conversation I had with the business owner recently.

That wouldn't surprise me, it has quite a high ceiling. If you look at the history of Tile Hill generally during the post war years and early Cold War years, there were a number of civil defence and ministry of defence buildings. Some that to mind are the former Henlys, Jobs lane, plus the former Vauxhall showroom on Broad Lane/Banner junction, and opposite the Canley works gate on Tile Hill Lane by the Standard Recreation Club, a former used car garage was a former civil defence building. There will be many more, probably now demolished and new houses, not just in Tile Hill, but around the city generally.