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Family hang up the pumps for the last time

6/ 3/2008

AFTER 45 years with just one careful owner it’s the end of an era for a family-run garage in Rhodes.

Three generations of the Rowell family have run the Stuart House Service Station on Manchester Old Road.

But after more than four decades in the motor trade petrolhead brothers Chris and Brian, who run the garage along with Chris’s son Ian, have decided the time is right to switch gears and retire.

The business was started by Chris and Brian’s parents Alice and Charles back in 1962 and the brothers, both mechanics, moved to Middleton from Hyde to help run it.

Twenty two years later Ian followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the family firm.

And the price of petrol is not the only thing that has changed in all that time.

Chris, 66, said: "The garage was originally an old doctor’s house and when we first moved we used to live upstairs.

"Then of course we had it modernised but we still had a garden shed as a kiosk. In those days we used to actually serve the petrol from the pumps and I remember we used to sell four gallons of petrol for £1 but that was in old money.

"We have been there so long that some of the kids who used to come in with their parents now have kids of their own."

His wife Irene added: "We have many happy memories of the garage and would just like to thank all of the customers that have supported us over the 45 years, some of whom we have known since we first came.

"We would also like to wish the new owners every success and hope they get as much out of it as we did."