Women At Work

A Memory of Hatch End.

On the right, between the first and second trees there was AJC Motors, apart from Cornwall Garage, the local garage and filling station. The premises comprised an office on the street with an arch at the side leading to the workshop.

Standing on the pavement, but hard against the office wall, was the petrol pump. It had a huge boom which was swung out across the pavement so as to serve petrol to cars drawn up on the road outside.

I only ever saw this manned, or staffed I should say, by a woman. She wore dungarees and had a scarf round her hair. When petrol was needed she would don a pair of heavy gloves, swing out the boom and start to work the pump.

And work she did. This was not a modern electric pump; this was manual!! At the top of the pump was a glass measure, like a pub optic, which held half a gallon; she would turn the pumping handle in one direction to suck petrol from the underground tank into the measure and then turn it the other way to pump the petrol into the car tank.

My father's 1924 Rolls Royce had a tank capacity of about 30 gallons.