Just on the borders of this memory lane but remembered by older readers was the Horseshoe Cafe and Filling Station on the A38 at Moreton Valence (opposite Downtons’ Yard.. at a time when their lorry (singular) would come in for a fill with a five pound note cash!) . The establishment was run by Hector and Pat Wells and their daughter Joan , assisted by several local ladies that did everything needed to run a successful a double cafe. The site had several components. The transport cafe with formica tables, sauce bottles on the tables and cracked ex Port of London Authority plates. Large portions of well cooked food for lorry drivers. Adjacent in a separate room a smart cafe with table cloths and all matching crockery and cutlery but with smaller portions at more money but you could take you aunt there.
The orchard housed about five or six residential caravans which Hector had bought and let out to long term tenants. A very large transport yard which would take a dozen lorries, the yard was full of potholes at it was almost a daily job to repair the worst of them. Why it was never tarmaced I never know.
Finally the Modern ( for it’s day) four pump Fina Filling Station complete with canopy and central kiosk. Fina Regular, Fina Super and for those that did not need it Fina Super Plus. The fourth pump was for Diesel which was almost entirely for Commercial Vehicles. This was a very busy Filling Station and in Summer Weekends would stay open all night.
Be aware this is before Motorway was even thought of and everything, everything went up or down the A38.
Working the pumps was a challenge of accountancy. The first task on shift was to read all the pumps, count the cash in the till and count the cigarette packets in the drawer. The last job on shift was to do the same and make it balance…NEVER. This is because at the Horseshoe cash was the currency of last resort. This was because firstly most of the diesel was on agency card, and I mean card, a bit of tatty old stiff cardboard carried by the driver soaked in oil. If you could read it you put the number in a book with two carbon copies. One for the driver, one for the petrol company and the remaining one was attached to the book. If you did not know the lorry company you checked the stop list before you fuelled in case they were a known bad payer…several ministry departments appeared on the stop list. The next trick was to with the drivers persuasion add a couple of gallons so he got either a free breakfast or a packet of Park Drive. For Petrol, bank cheques were never accepted no matter who… if you wanted to pay by cheque you had better go and get approval from Hector first and you had better have a good reason plus leave your watch behind! Then there were local farmers who would arrive and ask for two gallons without any offer of Payment but two days later would deliver four trays of eggs, account settled! Hector also entertained several friends on quiet afternoons, these were usually other cafe owners su ch as the Cafe Roma in Gloucester and would instruct “ Go fill Nicky’s car up!” Thats another five gallons gone missing off my tally.
In the yard of the Horseshoe the parked lorries were a cornucopia of vehicles and would all grace todays vintage shows. The big beasts were the Scammells of Pickford, ICI and Cowburn and Cowpar which were dated even for that day. The magnificent eight wheeled Atkinsons Tankers of Petrofina who would play their horns as they passed responding with flashing the pump lights if you were not serving. Austin car transporters carrying left hand drive Nash Metropolitans bound for export via Avonmouth Docks. Dee Valley Transport with highly decorated Foden and Guy lorries were regular visitors as where all the China Clay lorries, short wheelbase tippers going from St Austell to Stoke on Trent bragging that the Rowe Hillmaster lorries were actually Made in Cornwall. Bee’s Transport from Hinkley in Leicestershire were daily visitors with AEC flat bed beds and vans. Marshalls from Evesham with Morris Commercials coming back early in the morning from Bristol Fruit Market with just one or two spare crates of Cabbage and cauliflower, again paid for in food and cigs. Cadbury’s Leyland Crumb Tankers in the Horseshoe almost every day and we all know what was in the brown paper bag. Babycham was a very popular drink of the time and it was not uncommon for the Horseshoe to sport six or more Babycham new ERF lorries in two tone blue. The store room at the Horseshoe was never short of Babycham.
The most luxurious Gents toilets anywhere! Hector had been a lorry driver and knew the needsof the drivers. The 1950’s was the time of dirty heavy uncomfortable cabs and the drivers had often made a long journey to get to the Horseshoe . There, and almost unheard of, the toilets had large sinks with hot water, mirrors and clean good towels , good lighting so a good wash up and a meal was invigorating before the next stage of you journey.
One item of currency at the Horseshoe was Nylon Shirts… there was a period of time when Moreton Valence must have been the world distribution centre for nylon shirts. Where they came from no one knows but there were masses of them and I am sure they were all not quite right either one sleeve was longer than the other to the buttons did not line up but they were cheap. All you needed to know was your collar size and you got what came. Many a customer would walk out with three or four.
Another currency was Fina freebees with the regional office of the Petrol Company in London Road Gloucester the Horseshoe was the first call for the Petrofina Sales Reps so if you wanted Key Rings, pencils diaries, calendars the Horseshoe was the place to come.
Summer Afternoon the Horseshoe sported Hector’s Parrott who sat on a perch by the Cafe entrance and talked to incoming patrons. He had been taught to say “Knickers “ and on occasions “Bugger Hector”.
I was great time to be in Moreton Valence.
Goto: The Ketch “Rose”? hulked at Priding
