South Yorkshire Times April 29, 1967
A new garage business opening in Lidgett Lane, Thurnscoe this Saturday, is going to fill a long-standing gap in the amenities of the district’s.
Mr Joe Gill, for 23 years an insurance broker, of “Glentworth”, High St, Thurnscoe will officially open his Glentworth filling station.
This new venture is designed specifically to fulfil the requirement of camping and caravanning tourists. Mr Gill knows about camping and caravanning. He spent the first years of his married life in a caravan, and has since spent his holidays in similar fashion, so he really understands the needs of people who choose the freedom of this sort of holiday.
His new Filling Station will sell camping equipment, and he undertakes to help any tourist who gets into difficulties, be they mechanical or otherwise.
Exterior view of Glentworth filling station at Lidgett Ln, Thurnscoe which officially opens on Friday
Real Need
“I think there is a need in this district,” he says, “for a place like this where people can stock up with Calor Gas and other camping necessities.”
On an acre of land to the rear of the filling station, Mr Gill is building a caravan showroom. He has plans to establish a permanent site where enthusiasts will be able to garage their caravans when they are not in use.
He will supply any make of caravan. He already runs a caravan hire business, and assures prospective customers,
“I have hirers from as far away as Hong Kong and Kenya who will testify to the quality of our caravans and our service. We are already known abroad for our caravan hire business, and it is not unusual for European customers to write to us for the hire of one of our 50 caravans when they are about to come to England for a holiday.”
Mr Gill will display boats as well as camping equipment when he opens this Saturday. Boats are another thing he knows a lot about.
He and his son, Kenneth, a 19 years old dental student at Newcastle University, and between them more than 50 cups and trophies won for speedboat racing throughout the British Isles.
He has chosen Olympic Petrol for his new filling station because it has a guaranteed octane rating and is more reasonably priced, he says, than other petrols. He demonstrates his confidence in it by using it in his two speedboats.
His insurance business will continue, of course, and you will be able to insure your car at the new premises.
In the first instance it was Mrs Lena Gill who decided to venture into the caravan business.
“I felt,” she says, “that we should fill a gap in the district by providing a caravan service, and that people really wanted a local caravan centre.
“I know how enjoyable caravanning can be. We had a really wonderful life when we lived in our own caravan, and since then we have always maintained an interest in caravanning.
Mrs Brenda Cliffe and Mrs Sylvia Horne topping up the water and cleaning a car at the filling station
Good as a House
“Caravans today are as good as a house. And you have a tremendous amount of freedom in a caravan holiday that you do not get from me conventional holiday when you stay in one place all the time.
“I would like to thank Yorkshire Caravans of both, was given as a tremendous amount of help in getting established in the business.
“Caravanning and boating are great hobbies in our family, and so it is difficult to look on them as a business. We try to help people all we can and we are not just interested in a quick sale. We are always ready to give advice on camping.
The old Caravan in which Mr and Mrs Gill spent the early years of their marriage