Total Garage – All Ready for Elsie Tanner

January 1963

South Yorkshire Times, January 5, 1963

All Ready for Elsie Tanner at Conisbrough Service Station

Anyone who is a “Coronation Street” fan – and is there anyone who isn’t – will be at the Doncaster Road Service Station, Conisbrough, on Saturday morning (January 5) to see Pat Phoenix, better known to the North as Elsie Tanner, declared it open at 11.30. After the opening ceremony, Pat – or Elsie If you like – will sign autographs.

The garage in Doncaster Road has recently been taken over by Mr C.H.Rotheram and his wife, Rosemary, and extensively modernised. On the main road from Doncaster to Rotherham,it leads to the new A1 motorway, which will soon be opened. The opening of the Motoway will inevitably lead to heavy traffic on the Doncaster- Rotherham road and the service available will be both necessary and appreciated.

Mr Rotheram is introducing a new branch of petrol, which is only just appearing in this part of South Yorkshire, though it has become increasingly popular in this country since its introduction two years ago. It is TOTAL , the French motor fuel familiar to motorists who have driven abroad extensively in the south and west of Britain.

The garage’s high white sign, with the blue and red TOTAL emblem, will be seen clearly by mtoriststravelling inboth directions, especially at night, when fluorescent lighting and spotlights will provide brilliant illumination.

Seven pumps.

Total petrol will be served from seven pumps – two regular, two premium, two super and one Readymix for motorcyclists.

Behind the foyer, stands a new lubrication Bay, a smart shop where total articles and other products and a wide range of car accessories can be purchased, and coin in the slot vacmobile unit – another innovation for this part of South Yorkshire – which will enable customers to clean the inside of their cars in a few minutes at sixpence (2 ½ p) a time.

The garage will be open from seven o’clock in the morning till 11 o’clock at night, possibly even later in the summer, seven days a week, holidays included. “But,” says Mr Rotheram, “as we live in the house next door to the garage, I hope no motorist will ever hesitate to knock on the door at any hour of the night if he needs service of any kind.”

TOTAL SERVICE

And that remark typifies the outlook of both of Mr Rotheram and his wife on the kind of service they plan to give in the new garage – his service isas total as the name of the petrol they will be selling.

Cars will be serviced efficiently and quickly, and care will be taken to see that when, an owner picks up his or her car it is absolutely clean, witha tissue on the driving wheel, paper mats on the floor, and the windscreen shining clean. Every motorist who stops for petrolwill have his windscreen cleaned – and it is this kind of small service which the busy motorist so gratefully appreciates.

Service isbread into the Rotheram’s, for both have a tradition of service behind them. Mr Rotheram was for four years, manager of a garage in Maltby, comes from a family of hotelisrs, and helped his father to manage a number of hotels, including the George atBridlington, the Elephant and Castle York, the Cat and Fiddle Buxton, and the Lathkill Dale Hotel, Bakewell.

One thought on “Total Garage – All Ready for Elsie Tanner

  1. David Birch

    I was so glad to see this article- it brings back one of my earliest memories. I was a little boy (just short of my 4th birthday) living across the road from the service station. It was pouring with rain so we watched from the front door. I remember embarassing the grown-ups by shouting ‘Hello Elsie’ and getting a wave in return. Happy days!

    Reply

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