D. P. Breach & Son, Motor Engineers

D. P. Breach & Son around 1971

Bentley Businesses

In the first of what I hope will become a series of articles about Bentley businesses of the past, I have the pleasure of presenting a story rather close to my heart. This is the story of a Bentley business owned and run by my late father and grandfather at their Cooke Street premises for over fifty years, D. P. Breach & Son, Motor Engineers.

Contents

• Beginnings
• Doncaster Bound
• Nelson's Yard
• The Railway Cottage
• D. P. Breach & Son
• David Joins The Business
• The 1960's
• The Sorry Seventies
• Winding Down In The 90's
• The Old Ledger
• Photos

Beginnings 

 

My grandfather (below), David Percy Breach (Percy) was born on the 25^th of November 1907 in York. The son of a police constable and a former nurse, he was raised in the Northallerton area of North Yorkshire with his two elder sisters.

David Percy Breach

At the age of eighteen he joined the Middlesbrough Ship Repairing Company, where he trained in engineering. He left twelve months later, in 1927 to start his own business.

He moved to Malton and opened his first business, Newsham Garage, in Newsham Bridge. While in the Malton area, he met and married Nora Fox in 1930. Their son David Norman was born later that year. 

Business card

Percy, possibly at the Newsham garage, around 1931

By 1933 the family had left the Malton area for city life in Leeds. Percy joined Potter’s Motor Service at Camp Road, and remained there for eighteen months. He must have been well liked at Potter’s as a letter of reference dated August 17^th 1935, states that his employer is ‘very sorry to lose him’. Percy left on his own account as the family were planning another move, this time to Doncaster.

Doncaster Bound

The Breach’s first home in Doncaster was at number 40 The Grove, Wheatley Hills, which was probably rented. Percy took a job at Brock’s Garage, Thorne Road, where he remained for about two years.

In 1937 the Breach family bought a home on the opposite side of Doncaster, at 43 Fairfield Road, Bentley. The close proximity of York Road provided Percy with more work, and he found employment with Roodhouses Garage, then The Royal Blue Garage. Meanwhile, seven year old David attended nearby Kirkby Avenue School.

Nora, David and Percy, NFS days

History becomes a little hazy into the war years, but it is very likely that Percy wanted to be useful to the war effort, which is probably why he decided to go into the National Fire Service. His principle occupation was to service and repair fire appliances, but it’s likely he was available for active duty too. He was based at the fire station in Silver Street, Doncaster at first, but in a letter dated 9^th January 1946 he was appointed as Officer in Charge of the Regional Workshop in Rotherham. This post obviously didn’t last long because by May of that same year, Percy had set up his own business in Bentley.  

Nelson's Yard 

It was in the spring of 1946 that Percy found premises to rent at Nelson’s Yard, Cooke Street, Bentley. The land was tucked into a corner, bordered by the Doncaster to Leeds railway line, and Cooke Street – I say ‘Cooke Street’ as the garage address was always given as ‘Cooke Street’, however, a glance at any Bentley street map clearly shows that this stretch of road is actually a continuation of Church Street. Confusion over the street name aside, D. P. Breach & Son managed to operate successfully for over fifty years with a wrong address! 

D. P. Breach premises (in red) on 'Church Street'

Below is a map showing the yard in 1930, some years before Percy rented it. The site he rented is shown bordered in red. Just squeezed in between the railway and Nelson's Yard is a railway cottage with another building behind it, on the yard's land.

Nelson's Yard in 1930

Nelson's Yard had been previously used as a paddock and bordering it was railway land, which is where the railway cottage was sited. The plan below shows the paddock, cart shed and railway cottage as it was in 1911. The plans were drawn up for the sale of the Railway Tavern and land behind it. 

1911 plan showing the paddock which became Nelson's Yard.
The railway cottage is shown above, near the railway line.
Image courtesy of Lee Morling

The Railway Cottage

The railway cottage, which stood on a triangular piece of land between the railway line and Nelson's Yard has links to another story on this blog, the story of Ernest Goodridge, a young man who lived with his parents and siblings at the cottage from the late 1800's until 1913. Ernest was tragically killed in 1916 on the Somme at the age of 24. Ernest was a keen photographer and captured some photos of the cottage while he lived there.

This first photo shows a gathering outside the Railway cottage on Christmas Morning 1914.

Railway Cottage 1914

This second photo shows Ernest's mother and sister at the cottage door.

Maria and Annie Goodridge about 1900

In this photo Ernest has captured the signal box at Bentley level crossing, which was just opposite his home.

Bentley signal box about 1905

The Goodridge family in 1907

The railway cottage was demolished in the 1950's, but not before this aerial photo was taken in 1952, which just shows the roof of it, bottom centre.

Aerial photo 1952

Another photo from the same time shows the railway cottage in it's entirety. The garage and yard of D. P. Breach & Son can be seen behind.

Aerial photo 1952

For more on Ernest Goodridge go to When Bentley Stars Shine.

D. P. Breach & Son

The first job in the ledger was entered on the 5^th of May 1946, when a Mr Booth had major repairs on his Austin 7. The job totalled £17. 8s. 9d, quite an expense in those days.

Percy ran the business on his own and never employed any help until son David came on board and joined him once his training was complete.

David Joins The Business

 

A young David showing a keen interest in the family business

Percy’s son David left school in 1945 at the age of fourteen, and with an ambition to follow in his father’s footsteps; he gained engineering experience at garages on York Road, manning petrol pumps at Kennings, before moving on to Roodhouses for about a year. David then joined his father for the opening of D. P. Breach & Son in 1946, and began his formal engineering training in 1948 at Doncaster Technical College.

Doncaster Technical College
Photo courtesy of Colin Hardisty

Over the course of the next eight years David continued his training, which was interspersed with a two year spell in the RAF, where he completed his National Service. After basic training at Padgate, Lancashire he moved on to do engineering work at Honington, Suffolk and Wharton in Lancashire. David did not enjoy his time in the RAF and was keen to return to the family business.

David Breach in the RAF

 

By 1956 he had completed his training, gaining a City & Guilds and a National Craftsman’s Certificate in Motor Mechanics. His senior course practical training had been carried out at Edwards Motors Ltd and he was later presented with the Mechanical Engineers Shield by Peter Edwards.

 

Mechanical Engineers Shield

David shaking hands with Peter Edwards

David (with smaller shield) at the presentation

 

David's certificate from the National Craftsman

David's City & Guilds certificate

The 1960’s

 

Business Card

   

Percy and David worked successfully together in the family business, building a loyal clientele. They never employed any other help, preferring to keep the business small and in the family.

In 1965 the chance to purchase Nelson’s Yard came up. Up until then Percy had been renting the premises from Emma Gahagan (widow of Thomas Gahagan), who lived at 132 The Grove, Wheatley Hills. Percy and Nora had lived at number 40 The Grove when they first moved to Doncaster, so we can only assume that they knew the Gahagan’s from their time in Wheatley.

Mrs Gahagan had died in 1963 and as her estate went to probate, it wasn’t until late 1965 that the estate administrator, a Mrs Rita Mair, was able to sell the property.

Percy borrowed just over £2000 from the Yorkshire Bank and the purchase went ahead. Completion was on the 28^th of April 1966, and the garage, its surrounding land and outbuildings were finally in the ownership of D. P. Breach & Son.

Following the purchase of the premises, a new garage was created in one of the outbuildings to house a hydraulic ramp. Memories are hazy, but it may be the case that the garage once belonged to the property adjoining Nelson’s Yard, as it does appear on one of the aerial photos of 1952 (above). 

I have fond memories of having a ride on the new ramp after it was first installed in around 1968/69.

David outside the ramp garage in 1971

There was a piggery and slaughter house behind the main garage building, which belonged to Fred Redfern, a local pork butcher.

I remember being taken to the piggery to see the pigs, which often broke out of their yard and got into the garage yard, where they would have to be rounded up and herded back through the gate between the two yards.

The Sorry Seventies 

Percy (right) and his friend Austin Maynard 1971

In the mid 1970’s tragedy struck, and the garage entered very dark times.

In 1972, Percy turned sixty five years old, and took semi-retirement. With David taking over the day-to-day running of the business and Percy coming in to lend a hand as needed. 

It was around this time that a large wooden shed in the grounds of the garage caught fire. The shed (shown in the photo below) was used for storage of old equipment etc, and one night it was completely destroyed in a fire which may have been caused by lightening. The shed was built onto the side of a house on Halmshaw Terrace, I'm not sure if the houses were still standing when the fire took place, or if it caused any damage to any other property.

The shed which caught fire

In November 1974 Percy died suddenly of a heart attack at his home in Fairfield Road, just short of his 67^th birthday. It was a huge shock to the family and a very stressful time for David, who now had sole ownership of the garage.

The stress of Percy’s death, his mother’s grief, and coping alone at the garage finally caught up with David, and on the 17^th of January 1976 he was taken to hospital with chest pains. At the age of 45 David had suffered quite a substantial heart attack and he spent the next ten days in hospital. 

With no-one to run the garage in his absence, David had no option but to close up for six months while he recovered.

Some businesses would have struggled to survive a prolonged closure like this, but such was the loyalty of his customers, they all came back when he re-opened later in the summer.

Following this bad spell in the 1970’s, things returned to normal and David continued to work alone at the garage, sometimes assisted by his friend Austin Maynard when some particularly heavy work was required.

The 1980's was a stable time in the history of the business and things continued until the mid 1990's when thoughts turned to retirement. 

Interior of main building, D. P. Breach & Son

 

More of the interior

A third photo of the interior

Winding Down in the 90’s

David was well respected in the engineering business; he never had to advertise as recommendations always brought in new customers. Some customers were so loyal they returned to D. P. Breach & Son for their annual service even after leaving the area. One customer moved all the way to Cornwall, but made the trip back to Bentley every year for David’s excellent service. Nothing was too much trouble for him, if he couldn’t provide a part for a car; he’d find a way of making one – conscientious should have been his middle name! 

David Breach under a car in the ramp garage, early 1990's

In September 1995 David reached the age of sixty five and decided to retire. Winding up the business took time and David kept things running by working part-time until the land and buildings could be sold.

On the 9^th of June 1997 the entire plot was sold to The Kingdom Hall Trust, who acquired the land as a future place of worship for a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since that time the Trust has built a church on what was the parking area, while the garages themselves were either sold or leased to Belmont Motors, who owned the old piggery premises behind.

Kingdom Hall Jehovah's Witness Church

Belmont Garage

This ended fifty one years of business in Bentley for the Breach family, and a way of life for my father, David. I would like to say that he had a long and happy retirement (he deserved nothing less), however, that was not to be. Just a few months into retirement his heart problems returned, and gradually got worse. Finally, in June 2001, aged seventy years, he died following triple bypass surgery at Leeds General Infirmary.

A sad end to a life devoted to keeping the people of Bentley (and further afield) safely on the road.

  

The Old Ledger

 

A page from the 1946 ledger

  

An old ledger from the earliest days of D. P. Breach & Son lists some well known and remembered Bentley businesses. Here are a few that I spotted.

A Massarella & Sons

Mr Beresford (Bentley butcher)

Mr Redfern (of the piggery and pork butchers) 

Mr H Joy (of the electrical shop)

Bentley with Arksey U D C

Mr Crawshaw of Arksey Lane (milkman)

Mr Stanley (Chemist on High Street, Bentley)

Father Falby (vicar of Bentley)


This entry (below) is under the name of 'Policeman'. Such was the trust in the police in those days, they didn't even have to provide a name!

Policeman of Bentley

Photos

 

Percy Breach with David just emerging from the garage behind with a customer in 1971

Myself and David Breach in 1968. Massarellas ice cream depot was just opposite the garage

Myself in 1968, the dividing gateway to Redfern's piggery in the background

Myself and David entering the yard in 1968, Percy on the right

Percy (right) and a customer in the yard, Bentley level crossing in the background

Percy stood inside the ramp garage in 1971

Percy Breach and friend Austin Maynard in 1971 (apologies for the creased photo)

Signage

Compliment slip

1940's receipt header

1960's receipt

1970's receipt

Collection of oil cans

__________

Request

Do you have any connection to a family business in Bentley? Do you have information and photos? Would you like to see it featured on this site?

If so, please email me at arkvillhistory@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you


Alison Vainlo 

First written 2015, updated 2020