Measham, Car Auctions Ltd c.1965
Photo ref: M234013
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Photo ref: M234013
Photo of Measham, Car Auctions Ltd c.1965

More about this scene

Basically a colliery village, Measham owes a small debt to businessman John Wilkes (1732-1805), who built warehouses by the canal as a distribution outlet and manufactured his own oversized bricks, known as 'Wilkes Gobs', in his local brickworks. His bricks were his reply to Government proposals to tax bricks after the costly War of American Independence in 1782. His warehouses survive, and so does part of his brickworks, and a single building from his cotton mill also survives in the car auction complex. Interestingly, the building was an outpost of cotton mills at Burton and Fazeley in Staffordshire, owned by the family of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. The car auctions were a magnet to young drivers from miles around looking for a good bargain.

An extract from Leicestershire Villages Photographic Memories.

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Leicestershire Villages Photographic Memories

Leicestershire Villages Photographic Memories

The photo 'Measham, Car Auctions Ltd c1965' appears in this book.

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A Selection of Memories from Measham

For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our website to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was, prompted by the photographs in our archive. Here are some from Measham

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Mr Hill was the govenor when I first went to Measham, I would say around 1959, a gang of us used to go every Tuesday from west norfolk in one or two cars, this continued for many years.Originally it was two or three ex-army huts side by side to include the resturant. It was a great day out, we would drive our bargains home, if we had any surplus, the girl drivers at the auction would deliver them later in the week to Norfolk ...see more