REPORT ON MEETING OF SHAP LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY HELD ON MONDAY
23rd JANUARY 2006.
Memories of Transport in Shap
The first meeting of the year for Shap Local History Society was
held in the Green Room of Shap Memorial Hall. The Vice Chairman
Jean Scott-Smith welcomed almost thirty members and friends.
She then introduced the speaker of the evening Wendy Fairer;
who was assisted by Liz Amos operating a Powerpoint presentation
to illustrate the talk on Transport in Shap.
Ms Fairer who is a native of Shap has had a lifelong love of transport
in all its forms, she began by explaining how she had been informed
of the registration number of the first car in Shap – EC
464, and some years later was given a copy of a ‘an early
car’ by coincidence this bore the very registration number,
the car was a 1909 10/12 Darracq, and it belonged to the local
GP of the time Dr Nicholson, who lived at the Rockery, the photograph
showed the car outside the house with the chauffeur, a First World
War veteran standing beside it. Ms Fairer had followed up this
car’s history and managed to obtain a copy of its registration
document, she said she wondered whether the car still survived.
There followed several early photographs of the road over Shap
Fell, and of the Leyland Clock, which now stands in the grounds
of the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. A photograph of the old Tollbar
at the junction of the Orton Road with the A6 was shown, with the
additional information that the last toll keeper was named Evans;
the building was demolished in the mid 1950’s.
There were photographs of street scenes in Shap with a variety
of vehicles, cars, vans, motorcycles, lorries and an early bus,
possibly a Thorneycroft operated by Whites, who were taken over
by Ribble. There was also a photograph of the Earl of Lonsdale’s
Mercedes, a gift of Kaiser Wilhelm, who also supplied a chauffeur
named Keiser; he and his descendants later set up and ran Keiser’s
Garage in Penrith.
A photograph showed one of the cars manufactured in the county,
the ‘Cumbria’ made in Cockermouth; cars were also manufactured
in Kendal, Crabtree’s were involved in the production of
a model called the ‘Victix’ and Croft’s model
was the ‘Victory’. There was also a move to manufacture
Angus-Sanderson cars at a coachbuilder’s in Carlisle, but
it is not certain whether any were produced.
The familiar sight of a Shap Granite Works lorry bearing the legend ‘Shap
Granite the Best’ brought murmurs of appreciation, as did
photographs of the Fell Garage at the south end of the village
and Simpson’s garage at the north end with their coaches
which transported locals all over the country on day trips. A number
of photographs showed several distinctive vehicles owned by local
people, a real trip down memory lane for the locals who remembered
some of these.
The final slide was of a reproduction circular AA sign showing
the distances to the nearest towns, similar to one that once adorned
Simpson’s garage, the reproduction is on display at the Commercial
Vehicle Museum in Leyland.
Chairman Jean Jackson thanked Ms Fairer for a fascinating talk
and Ms Fairer in turn expressed her thanks to Mrs Amos for operating
the Powerpoint equipment.
There was a display of photographs, books and ephemera for members
to browse through over refreshments.
The planned Summer Exhibition will be on the subject of Transport
by road or rail, and the society would be pleased to hear from
anyone who has any photographs, documents or artefacts they would
be willing to loan.
The next meeting will be on Monday 27th February when Len Clark
from Tebay will speak about ‘Steam at Tebay in the 1950’s’
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