George keogh ex manager Timberlakes wigan

George Keogh was sales manager at H.H Timberlakes in wigan in the 1970's lived in Chorley, wrote to him from NZ but had letter returned to sender not known.
Perhaps someone knows him and his wife Marlene? Or if George is reading this please reply an old friend who remembers him , Jim Murray, and the Caroline cafe they ran opposite the garage.

Maybe there is someone who remembers Timberlakes in the 70s?

Please.

Les Cunliffe from Garswood was a mechanic at Timberlakes when it closed,

I remember Jim Murray! last time I saw him he was still selling cars on A garage on the A6 just past Dicconson Lane! maybe 8/10 years ago, it's gone now they built apartments on it

My Mother worked in the petrol Office, when Wallgate opened in the 60's

I remember she broke a foot there! she went to have a cast on and carried on working.

I've known George Keogh for almost 30 years,and know where he is, and what he's doing !.....I used to do a lot of business with Timberlakes,regrettably Jim Murray is no longer with us,but George has recovered well from a brain operation some 5 years ago, and currently has 2 business's....He split with Marlene earlier this year,but neither of them have lived in Chorley for about 4 years. I have a weekly drink with Ronnie Hodgson,and one or two others from the Motor Trade,there are still some of us left !

I am so pleased that the people that meant a lot to me in my youth are not forgotten. I knew that Jim Murray had passed on, I also believe that his wife Irene has also sadly passed on. I think Victoria their daughter movef to the USA I dont suppose anyone knows her whereabouts. I used to take her horse riding when she was little.

This thread has also opened old memories. Gerry Huyton, Brian Burton, Jack Chadwick, John Ansell, David Ball.Mr Linguard from the commercial vehicle sales.

All information purely for nostalgic indulgence, would be gratefully received.

Merry Christmas

when the place was cleared out I got thre bentwood hatstand from the offices of Timberlakes which I still use today.

my dad was a salesman in the showroom in Library st, worked for them for donkeys years BILL FAIRHURST

my dad suffered several strokes in the 60's and had to pack in work, he died in 1975 on my 21 st birthday .. but he had worked for Timberlakes nearly all his life. i have a photo of him which was taken by the post and chronicle, he sold an Austin A 40 years ago and it came back to him years later .. to be sold again . ... still have the clipping out of the paper.

Was Bill fairhurst the gentleman who was quite small in stature? If my memory serves me well, I think he used to lend me his austin 1100 to do shopping for the boss. he always said if I find out you are going more than 30MPH in town I wont lend you my car again. haha.

Im sorry he passed away, I left in 1993to work at Southern Brothers in Bolton, who were also a British Leyland, main dealer.So I wouldnt have been there when bill was sick.

My father in law was head sprayer at Timberlakes for years and he used to take them as chauffeur to their home on the great orme LLandudno. His name was George Hickey.

curly! is George's Daughter Kath still around?

She certainly is so are his other 2 daughters Molly and Agnes (my Wife) and his 2 sons George and Peter.

Kath and my Mother worked together in the Petrol Office at Timbelakes, they were friends for many years,Phyllis passed away 4 years ago. When Kath's daughter was in Hospital in Liverpool I used to take Kath to visit her,

My wife remembers Phyllis and she will tell Cath tomorrow. Caths daughter now has a young family of her own and her husband runs the bike shop at Birkett Bank corner of Darlington St.

The last I heard of Kath she lived at the top of Scholes, it must be 20 years or more since I last saw her.

She has recently move but my wife is going to mention you to her and she will tell her how you used to take them to the hospital.

Kath had a daughter that lived at Tamar! does she still live there? I just can't think of her name!

Her name was Carol but she doesnt live there any longer.

Thats it Carol, phyllis saw her when she lived at Tamar, I remember her telling me.

As this is a motor trade thread.....

Did anyone know Stan Holland? - He worked for many years as a delivery driver for T A Ledson motor factors at Wigan

Stan the man died this year after a long illness, he was a really nice chap

http://www.fortunecity.com/oasis/seychelles/577/march9news.html

Re Timberlakes...... I once worked for a car salesman from there, his name may have been Jack Regent - he lived in Springfield

cordy

Hi Cordy

I think you mean Joe Regent? He was in charge of Godfrey davis car hire during my time there.He lived in same street as Jim Murray,Sadly I beleive that he also is no longer with us:(

From memory he used to do a lot of ferrying of cars for Jim Murray. I dont recall him spraying though, I thought that was Wilf. I do remember I had to talk to him in one ear as he said he couldnt hear with the other ear. This gets better . great to hear more about those great people of the 70s

I think Joe Regent ran the Godfrey Davies car Hire, and in the petrol office was Betty, Kath, Phyllis, and Pat and after Pat left Carol started, I remember all the Wallgate beat Police used to call in for a cuppa, it was a very busy garage.

Joe Regent it was then, he lived in a house down by the latics ground at Springfield........

btw, my Ms worked at Timberlakes in accounts in 1968 -- "trying to work out how the workers were fiddling the petrol vouchers and other things".......

Never did find out.....

hiya Kameras, yes my dad wasvery small, always dressed up in a three peice suit, shirt ,tie, trilby !!! very queit man.

Did the Les Cunliffe from Garswood join Hindley Motor Cycle & light Car Club in the 50s & 60s.A wartime schoolmate of mine in Hindley went to work on Sales at Timberlakes his name was Richard Tidmarsh, anyone know of him?

Did she drive a grey MGB GT? If so I remember her well

hi kameras you are on about Bob Hickey he was deaf in one ear but George Hickey ferried the Timberlakes around and he was definitely a sprayer as well. To cap it off he was also colour blind hows that for a sprayer.

my dad used to talk aabout George Hickey, they got on well. Does anyone know a Jimmy Bimpson ? he worked there as well , lived next door to us years and years ago.

Kameras! if you meant Carol drove a grey Mgb, yes she did,lived up at Shevington.

Curly! did you speak to Kath?

dlanor yes my wife spoke to Cath and she remembers you well and spoke very highly of you.

I worked for Timberlakes then Baldwin-Timberlakes from about 1973 right upto the day it closed in 1982/83 ish,I worked as a works controller in the Service dept,George Hickey I think Im right in saying worked as a driver for the sales department but to the best of my knowledge did not spray cars,The sprayer then was a chap named Barry Edwards and a guy named Wilf used to spray the used cars in prep for them being resold,Barry who was a fantastic sprayer went on to work for Gordon Fords when Timberlakes closed down,Joe Regent who was a diehard Latics fan and a good friend of Author Horrocks (a dircector of WAFC)at the time,

Yes,I remember Mr.Horrocks, he had a plate on his car 'AOH' I used to pick up his drop his car off for Jim Murray when it was in for service. He had a travel company.

I also remember Barry, but I couldnt remember his name until you mentioned it. Didnt they call that department "rempex" I used to help dewax new cars when we were extra busy, we had a few laughs, I can tell you.I remember as a junior Wilf saying to me to be careful when de waxing, not to scratch the paintwork with the grit that sometimes accumilated on the wax in storage.

Talking about fun, they sent me to pick up the first morris marina from Hattons in Southport who were the morris distributors at the time ( also in the same group as Timberlakes). I remember it was a harvest gold 1.3 coupe. I will never forget how ineffective the brakes were on that car.

Such good memories.

joncon sorry to disagree with you but in the late 30s early 40s my father in law drove Timberlakes and Lord crawford around but I can assure you he was most definitely a sprayer.

Yes I mean Carol, I used to talk with her quite a lot. Maybe whenI ought to have been doing other things in the sales department. haha. Does anyone know where Carol is now? I would love to touch base with her and other people that have been mentione domn here. Unfortunately I do know that a good number of them are no longer with us, sadly.

If anyone does know Carol's whereabouts, I would be keen to catch up.

Another person who I remember was george Tench,the service manager. I know he is now in the Lake district. I remember a man named Daley, who was in the service office. Its funny my memory is now revealing more detail since we started the discussion and various people long since forgotten are cropping up. Its quite exciting actually. Happy new year to you all by the way:)

Curly,dont disagree the George was a sprayer in the earlier years all I was saying was that in the time that I was there I dont recall him spraying,Kameras..
George Tench was was my manager when I started there as a mechanic,your right he did retire to the Lake District actually met him when he doing a bit of part time driving for a Austin-Morris dealership in the Lakes and I was working for Southern Bros in Blackburn, at the time,The guy in the service dept I believe was a Ken ,Daley who had left before I started

Other Characters I remember well were,Eddie Arrowsmith the foreman,Kenny Jackson in the bodyshop,Tony Marshall again in the bodyshop,Tommy Orrell in commercial shop,fitters such as Steve Barrow,Alan Sixsmith,Bryan Wittaker,Mick Lowe,alot more when my memory starts to work lol

I worked also for Southern Bros. In Bolton, also for their branches in Horwich (Horwich Motor House)and Preston. What happend to Richard Southern , sorry to digress. :)

Getting back to Timberlakes.I remember Eddie Arrowsmith. Im not sure but didnt he go to work at Sydney Harrisons Peugeot dealership I could be wrong on that.

I was at Southern Bros when they sold out to Arlington Motor Co.Richard was the only Southern famaily member who stayed on after the sale,(As an advisor)Roger,John and their father Percy moved I think to the Channel Isles then I think onto the Isle of Man.Richard I think is still about, last time I spoke to him was just before I finished at Mead of Blackburn(who bought Arlinton out)circa 1995.Eddie Arrowsmith did work for the Peugot dealership,Going back to the Southern family Richard was one of the nicest guys I have ever worked for in the Motor Industry,

The Southern family were unique.In fact If anyone were to ask me what profession they were in, car sales would be the last one I would guess.

If you will indulge me . I recall Richard used to drive a Triumph Dolomite sprint, in Datona yellow. He used to throw me the keys and asked me to get the cleaner to valet the car and fill it up with fuel. He had lovely manners indeed.

Many thanks for letting me know about what happend to the Southerns.

Percy was a real gentleman I recall if ever there was a dispute in the sales department. Percy would always go the way of the customer whether he was right or wrong.Did you know Harold Southern?

Did you ever meet Gordon Haslam or Derek Smith?

Harold retired to Teneriffe and used to have to spend 6 months out of the country so he bought a large mobile and used to travel back to the UK,once a year,apparantly he had an accident whilst trying to fix the aerial on his roof in Teneriffe,not sure what the extent of his injuries were but there compounded by the fact that there was nobody over there to tend to him,the last two names I know but they were finishing at Timberlakes as I started

Harold was an interesting guy. He used to call at the showroom at Horwich often. Always spent his time in the workshop.Are any of the older southerns still alive?

May 95 was the last contact I had with any of the Southern family,and at that time I had no reason to doubt that they were all present and correct,I think there was also a brother named Herbert if my memory served me well who got out the motor trade before the rest,

I remember there being a burnt out car in the yard at the back, one of the salesmen had been to Southport to drive back this car, there must have been a petrol leak near the back somewhere and the salesman lit a fag, he was lucky to get out with his life. Also the pub next door had to be evacuated! there was a petrol leak into the cellar.

Any body remember a John Green that work there in the late 40s/50s I think he sold cars.

my dad would have known him.

Talking about BL garages, anyone remember Watsons garage?
I think it was on Warrington road.

wasn't that the Vauxhall dealer that shut down a couple of years ago, just before/ past Skew Bridge?

The garage was built by Billy Digle.After which Watson's from Liverpool took over the garage.In the mid sixty,s I was involved in tuneing BMC mini's.
The stores manger then was a lady called Gladys Hart,who had most BMC part numbers in her head.she was brilliant!! She worked for H H Timberlakes before Watson,s. She used to obtain parts for me from BMC special tuneing department at Abingdon.
A full race camshaft for a Cooper S then cost £ 9.00 !!!!
How times have changed.

After leaving for NZ. a lot has changed over there. Hattons had branches in St Helens,Southport,Wigan. I actualy did a few months there under Ray bannan.Whatever happend? was it a case of as Leyland ceased to make cars, they ceased trading, or did they change to some other make of cars?

Anyway, has anyone sen George Keogh recently? would like ot hear form him.

Kameras,I also worked for Watsons just as it was taken over by Oliver Rix Garages (who at that time probably had more dealerships in the Uk than anyone,)was there right upto Baldwins taking Rix over (in Wigan)then moved to Rix Garage in Warrington before moving to Timberlakes,I remember Gladys well,she used to frighten the mechanics to death,but a very knowledgable lady in the parts dept,I think she had a sister who was high up in the police force at Wigan and was actuallya Timberlakes customer,and a very nice lady.

sorry message should have been to BMWMAN53 and not Kameras

Anyone know where george keogh's business is now?

Has anyone seen George keogh's business in bolton?

anyone remember f.j.wilson.s pottery rd in the seventies johnny wink forman

Hi
I am Jim Murray's daughter Victoria. I live in the US now and came across this site by accident. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers my Dad. If you could e-mail me any memories you have of him I would love to read them. I miss him so very much. I have an 18 year old son whom he would have beeen so proud of. Please contact me @ engmuffin@verizon.net

Hi Victoria
I have sent you an email. the first one i sent was blocked for some reason by Verison.

My uncle spent his entire working life as a mechanic at Timberlakes. He retired I think in the sixties. His name was Jack Errington and he lived in Poolstock.

there is a mention of John Ansel further back in the thread.
I worked with John in the motor trade,in Abram back in 1971 before he joined the mercedes people at Bryn.I can't remember their name,I've been out of Wigan for too many years.
If anyone is in contact with John ask him to give me a shout.Ta.

I wonder if anyone has any info on George Keogh. ?or Marlene

After a couple of part time jobs as a student, the first full time job I applied for, was for one at Timberlakes on Wallgate, but I cannot remember who interviewed me and I didn't get the job, but it may interest people to know that when Timberlakes closed and the site became a B&Q the upstairs offices were retained, although the rest of the Timberlakes site was demolished and the offices were incoporated into the B&Q building and strangely the way those offices had an internal window, which looked out over the car sales showroom of Timberlakes, that window was retained in an identical fashion and it looked out over the sales area of B&Q and now the building is a Go Outdoors store and that window is still there, so that part of Timberlakes is still in existence, so if you ever go into Go Outdoors, have a look up at the end wall and you will see what I mean

It’s now 15 years since my original post.
Looking back over the discussion. Thanks everyone for your valuable contributions.
Merry Christmas to you all.

It’s now 15 years since my original post.
Looking back over the discussion. Thanks everyone for your valuable contributions.
Merry Christmas to you all.