Clocking off time at motor works

Going home time - this old photo shows workers pouring out of the Greyfriars Motor Works of Vincent Greenhous in Shrewsbury some time around the mid to late 1930s.

All this has been swept away now and replaced by a new housing development. Greenhous, as the firm is now called, relocated some years ago to Old Potts Way in Shrewsbury.

Our old view was loaned to us by Roy Pilsbury, of Shrewsbury, who works for Greenhous and has become an archivist of the firm's pictorial history.

Roy says the firm moved to Greyfriars Motor Works from Dogpole in 1921. He is not sure whether the Greyfriars building existed then, but thinks it possible that it was specially built for Greenhous.

The firm dealt originally in Chevrolets, Clynos, and Buicks.

"When General Motors bought Vauxhall Motors we were one of the first Vauxhall dealers in England."

Roy started at the firm in 1960.

"I was in the parts department. I used to do all the deliveries - I had an errand bike. In those days we only had one parts van. I used to deliver parcels to buses for different customers, and take parcels to the train station.

"We used to send parcels to our Wrexham branch. They contained parts - we used to wrap them up and send them.

"The building on the left was the workshops and service department. They used to service cars there and repair them, of course.

"The building beyond is the parts department, and beyond that was the body shop and also the engine reconditioning bay and trim shop."

Roy thinks the photo was taken just before the war, around 1936 to 1937, and thinks the fact that the workers are all coming out of the same exit at the same time doesn't ring true.

"I think it was a photo shoot - I think it was taken specially, although I don't know."

Roy is these days a parts van sales rep at Greenhous having worked for the firm for about 35 years. He has broken service, having done a spell at Perkins Engines.

He says Greenhous moved out from Greyfriars around late 1994 or 1995.

"It was empty for a while and the Flower Show stored all their stuff there for two years."

Roy says the old photo was taken about 100 yards from the Greyfriars Bridge. Our modern comparison view is a reasonable approximation, although ideally it would have been taken from a little further forward - this was not possible because the site is gated off.

When did it all disappear? A 1995 aerial view in our files shows that the main building had already gone by then.

Other buildings are still present in a 2002 aerial view of flooding in the area, but another picture of the February 2004 floods shows that the Greenhous site had been completely cleared by then - so it seems likely that demolition took place in 2003.

By Toby Neal