The Red Lion Garage, Reg Cottle and many road traffic accidents
- David Young
- Apr 1, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 17
The garage was situated on the old A3 opposite the The Red Lion. It was owned for many years by Reg Cottle who recorded many of the tragic accidents that not only occurred along the A3, especially alongside the Devil's Punch Bowl, but also literally impacted his garage and the pub opposite as can be seen from the articles and photographs below.
NB: All of these documents and also the ones referred to in Reg Cottle and the Red Lion Garage are in the physical archive in a box marked "Red Lion Papers".
And here are two of Reg Cottle's photographs of the vehicle above being recovered:
On the rear of the second photograph, Kay Gunner has written, "Before they built a bank round the Punch Bowl bend, cars used to go over and down into the bowl. The breakdown is parked on the footpath and the rear view is of Don Keen". 1950s.
Reg kept an album recording many of the tragic accidents and the wrecks that he recovered over the years. Here are some examples and the entire album is in the pdf below:
The press reported on these tragic accidents as can be viewed in the pdfs below:
Unfortunately, many of the cuttings do not include either the source or date but the pdf below featuring the death of a husband and wife was from the Farnham Herald, May 5th, 1967:
And this was from the Surrey Daily Advertiser, September 6th, 1974
Reg liked all sorts of mechanical tool, instruments and engines and this extended to short wave radio which helped to catch a thief!:
April 27, 1954
More details are in the attached pdf:
