For many years the Meteor Garage, latterly Meteor Ford, was a Moseley landmark. The garage stood at the junction of Wake Green Road and Oxford Road and was demolished in 2014.
These pictures show the garage at various stages in its development, including one in the form of a Christmas card. (Click on the pictures to enlarge)
The Moseley Local History Group Collection has a number of documents relating to the Meteor Garage.
The following letter from Graham Underhill published in Birmingham 13 in 1996 gives some idea of the history of the building.
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Birmingham 13 – April 1996 Dear Editor, With reference to Question 6 of your Christmas Quiz, I am puzzled by the suggestion that there is a connection between the Meteor Garage and a burned-down cinema. To the best of my knowledge the facts are as follows:- ‘Elmhurst’, the house which formerly stood on the site of the Meteor Garage and home of Dr. J Wingfield, who died in August 1930, was demolished in 1931. In September of that year the site was purchased by George Shaylor, and my late father, Baron C. S. Underhill was the architect who prepared plans for the filling station, garage and shops. Construction began early in 1932, and it is evident from the plans, drawings, photographs and documents still in my possession that the Meteor was designed and built as a garage, although the shops originally included were omitted from the final scheme. The large area to the rear of the two-storey office black was spanned with a patent ‘Lamella’ roof, designed and constructed by the Horsley Bridge Company. In January 1940 this roof collapsed under the weight of snow. In due course it was replaced with a roof of a different construction, but the main building was unaffected and the Meteor continued to function as a garage. I have no record of a cinema ever having been considered for the site. Yours sincerely, Graham Underhill |
• A bill from 1946:
• In 1950 Frank Guest, the owner of Meteor Garage, entered the Monte Carlo Rally with his brother Dick. There are a number of reports on their progress (click on the link below to read the reports):
Meteor Garage Monte Carlo Rally reports 1950
• In 1952 at the Meteor Garage annual dinner, a specially written poem was performed (click on the link to read the poem):
• In 1958 Frank Guest stood for election as a local councillor :-
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