Reg Cottle and the Red Lion Garage
- David Young
- Sep 4, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 16
Reg Cottle was the proprietor of the Red Lion Garage on the Old Portsmouth Road from 1934 until his retirement in 1980. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he was called up by the Royal Tank Corps. However, the farmers of Thursley made such a clamour at the loss of the one man who could keep their farm machinery running that the authorities hastily released him.
The documents below show the trajectory of his work and challenges running the Red Lion Garage and end with tributes from his family.
NB: All of these documents and also the ones referred to in The Red Lion Garage, Reg Cottle and many road traffic accidents are in the physical archive in a box marked "Red Lion Papers".
Reg covered a radius of about 20 miles and worked very long hours, mostly 7 days a week. It was often difficult to obtain spare parts for the farm tractors, machinery and generators, but Reg was such a resourceful man that he would often make them himself. His garage petrol pumps were commandeered for military use, so Reg had to drive to Godalming for his petrol. Many tanks churned up the forecourt of the Red Lion Garage and each one had to be refuelled by manually turning the pump handle. Not the most popular job in those days!
More photographs:
Licence to keep Petroleum Spirit, 1934
Compulsory Purchase 1938:
Licence to keep Petroleum, 1939
Rating Notice, 1947:
Signage - Reg faced a number of planning issues over the years:
Reg Cottle recovered many damaged cars from the A3 and the Devil's Punch Bowl but his garage was not immune from accidents:
Rent increase, 1958
Site Plan 1958:
Reg Cottle acquires the Red Lion Garage in 1959:
Compulsory Purchase Orders and Opinions 1969 - 1972; there are 28 pages of documents in the pdf below:
Undated Red Lion site plan:
Correspondence relating to signage for the garage between The Right Honourable Maurice Macmillan, MP, and The Right Honourable Anthony Crosland, Secretary of State for the Environment. The letter below to Reg Cottle shows the disappointing result:
Closure and sale of the business; Reg Cottle retires:
Reg Cottle, a tribute by Maureen Waters (daughter), Chalie Waters (granddaughter), John Gunner (son-in-law) and Jamie Banks (friend
A eulogy (unattributed) for Elsie Cottle:
Growing up in Thursley by Maureen Elsie Cottle:
The scans above can be found together in this pdf:
