Historical Question - Russells Car Dealers

posted by jan c on 26 Jul 2010 at 12:35 pm

Does anyone know what the old russells car dealers building at London Rd was...its now been taken over by HFS,my money is on somr sort of grain store.

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Russells Car Dealers

posted by Brian Storkey on 28 Dec 2010 at 4:05 pm

In May 1902 when Bexhill staged, on the seafront, the first motor race on British soil and the became the Birthplace of British Motor Racing, Louis Russell owned and ran the Garage in London Road. St John Ambulance at that time kept their ambulances at the garage. At that first race meeting in 1902, Louis Russell met Louis Renault and the garage from that date onwards became a Renault dealership and continued to be so until quite recently. About 5 years ago John Russell,Louis Russells son,retired, the garage continued to be a Renault dealership until about 3 years ago when it closed as a garage. John Russell, and his wife still live in the area.The show-room of the garage is now operated by a Hastings charity,and the garage itself is occupied by Hastings College for their Mechanical Engineering Department.They share the garage facility with The Bexhill 100 Motoring Club.

Russells

posted by jc on 12 Jan 2011 at 7:51 pm

To Brian Storkey,thanks for the info on the above,im a bit dissapointed as i was convinced it had something to do with storing grain or the likes..reason being ..inside there is a very small door..very close to the ceiling plus a few other oditys like what you would see in a grain store,thanks anyway.

Old Russells Garage

posted by Steve Portch on 11 Nov 2012 at 3:32 pm

I used to live opposite Russell's Garage when I was a young boy, (about 1948 onwards), and the smaller 'showroom', to the left of the archway, was the local fire station. The firemen's accomodation was on the first floor level, and there were two fire engines kept in the 'showroom' area below. If my memory serves me correctly, there used to be a firemans pole from ist floor to the engine bay, accessed by a small trap hatch.
The fire station moved to new accomodation, (behind the town hall), somewhere around 1956.
I vividly remember the firemen being called to the station by the station officer letting off 2 or three extremely loud maroons, which were sent into the air from a metal dustbin, (No sirens or pagers in those days!!!)

Old Russells Garage

posted by Steve Portch on 16 Nov 2012 at 2:36 pm

I feel that I should quantify my earlier post, as I do NOT want to provide any 'historical detail' that maybe inaccurate and/or cannot be proven.
Whilst I am 99.99% certain that there were fire engines based at Russell's garage when I was a young boy, (early 1950s),the Bexhill Fire Station has been shown as based behind Bexhill Town Hall since at least 1899, (the earliest Bexhill map that I could find online), and I can find absolutely NO record of them being based at Russell's garage. However, the Fire Station at the rear of the Town Hall was rebuilt at around the time that I was a young boy living opposite Russells, so I'm beginning to wonder if the Fire Engines were based at Russell's gagarge for a short period whilst the new Fire Station in Buckhurst Road was being constructed. Maybe someone with a good historical knowledge of the Bexhill Fire Brigade could confirm or trash this theory.
Certainly I also remember the St.John's Ambulances being based there at some time, (see Brian Storkey's post above).
This is really intriguing me now. Have I lost the plot?........... I don't think so, but please prove me wrong if you have any evidence to the contrary.

Fire Station

posted by dave on 18 Nov 2012 at 8:10 pm

for some reason I have a recollection as to the fire station being in the London road area as a small boy,some where close to Russell's garage.mmmmm now you have me wondering.I remember them building the one in beeching road,and i can remember the one next to the drive way to hamiltons engineering, the mystery deepens.

Fire Station And Grain Store

posted by Sheila on 26 Nov 2012 at 7:24 pm

The Fire Station was in Amherst Road near the Town Hall Send. There was a large shop selling grain (Warburton's???) which was again, close to Town Hall Square but perhaps in Buckhurst Road near one of the old cinemas where they showed the ABC Minors. Our domestic science teacher was Mrs Warburton and related to the grain shop owners. This is from my memories of the 50s.