Residents may be aware that the Pershore Place Board has been established by Wychavon District Council following the adoption of the recent Prospectus for Pershore.

The Board was established in July 2022 and is made up of 10 independent members. It aims to deliver initiatives which support businesses and organisations to do better in the town which, in turn, will provide more jobs, better pay and more visitors to the town. The Board is independent of, but works closely with, Pershore Town Council.

The Board has been working to develop short and longer-term plans. Funding of £200,000 has been made available to the Board by Wychavon through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to assist with this work. The Board’s focus is on the economic development of Pershore. Work by the Board will also focus on attracting private investment into the town, working to encourage business owners to invest here and to grow their businesses in our town. Greater business success will help attract funding to improve public spaces, making Pershore a more enjoyable place to live and visit.

The Chair of Pershore Place Board is Darren Eden and he recently delivered an update on the Board’s work to the Town Council sharing the detail of their short-term plans. These include the fitting of flagpoles to carefully selected buildings in the town centre for the display of flags during the King’s Coronation and then for onward use to highlight key dates in Pershore’s events calendar. A joint project with the town council is also well underway to enhance the promotion of Pershore at Christmastime including additional lighting where possible.

This “town presentation enhancement project” is to be funded by the Board through a £30,000 slice of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund grant. Further funds will be made available to the Board over the next three years to fund other projects in its work to deliver economic development to the town. Making Pershore an easier place for businesses to flourish and a place where people want to visit is a key driver for the Board’s work.

Beyond this financial year, the Board have further ideas for the town. One major project is exploring the business case for a new marina in Pershore. Vice Chair of the Board, Michael Hodges, is investigating the potential economic impact of the project. Board members also discussed adding to existing moorings and providing more footpaths along the river.

All members of the Board are volunteers and meet once a month. Members share their expertise from their various professional backgrounds. Guests are welcome to observe these meetings at different public locations around Pershore.

Finally, more information will become available to the public soon. Board members are developing the new Pershore Place Board website. This will be up and running in the coming weeks to ensure that all of the work of the new Place Board can be shared with residents and businesses in the town.

Darren Eden        Pershore Place Board, Chair

GARAGES IN PERSHORE Part 1

There were quite a few motor vehicle garages in Pershore when I came to live here. One of the largest was Abbey Garage in the High Street on the corner of Cherry Orchard. The Abbey garage was started in 1921 by W R Tarrant & G.E. Morrell, who started at Worcester Road, opposite the bottom of Station Road, at The Garage, later called Central Garage. They were Morris, Rover, Austin, Ford agents.  Mr. John Pettifer later became co-owner, according to the report from a paper. They were later taken over in 1975 by a Welsh company. The Abbey Garage closed in 1982 with 23 jobs lost. It was then bought by Graham Williams, a Lotus dealer and made into small units.

I will continue with Central Garage, Worcester Road which was first mentioned in an advert by Wagstaff & Co. dated 1916. Later owned by Mr Harry Price, who started to work at Abbey Garage, then came to Central Garage from where he had the same garage name in Bridge Street 1924. (I did hear that Abbey Garage, kept the Worcester Road Garage so no one could use it!)

In about 1930 Mr Price moved to Central Garage. He lived there with his wife Constance and family. He repaired both Cars and Motorcycles, later it became an Austin & Ford garage plus an official AA. Garage, but moved on to Morris, Commer, Hillman and Standard cars.

Later in 1953 there is a letter from a Mr Norman Jones, about the Coronation celebrations, from the Pershore branch of Royal Air Force Association to Harry Price. The letter is thanking Harry Price for the loan of a coach. Mr Price sold the garage in about 1960 to Mr. Jason Baldwyn and his wife.

In Newlands numbers from 59 to 63, was Pershore Garage, the first report I found was an advert for Whitmarsh’s Garage owned by Mr. McCubbin, later it was owned by Walcroft brothers, Brian Muir Alpina Motor Services, who were BMW and Renault dealers, and then S W Antiques, it is now houses which were built in 2015.

On Three Springs Road, the KCR Garage behind the BP station was once owned by the late Bob Edney, this garage now has new owners.

Amerie Garage next to KCR, Victor Bradford was there, later a Captain Ernest Stapleton was there, he used to race sports cars. Later this became a petrol station in 1983 plus car sales and now it is a car wash.

Cox’s Cars was also on Three Springs Road, this is quite a new garage owned by the family of the late Mr Graham Cox who arrived in 1970 and rebuilt the garage at the rear, as previously there were the petrol pumps and a small workshop and showroom at front.

In New Road, Pershore, Dadge & Loxley did car and body repairs in a large building which has since been demolished! Next door was Till & Alan Patterson, but Till must have left as I only knew the late Alan there.

There were also several garage workshops on the trading estates and the Motor House Pinvin.

Written by Anthony Wittenberg

         
Central Garage in 1930’s                                       Abbey Garage in 1930’s