How family-run Bognor Regis garage has stood the test of time to celebrate its centenary

As national chains took over and family-run petrol stations began to die out, one garage which survived the changing trends and has stood the test of time is Bognor Motors Vehicle Solutions.

Director Justin Kracke joined the business in 1989. His grandad Ron had started there company in 1949, with his dad Ian joining later, and he guided the company for more than 50 years. Oli Hicklin arrived in 1999 and when Ian retired, Oli became an owner and director in 2005.

The company, which can trace its origins back to April 17, 1924, has traded in various locations, including premises in Charlwood Street for servicing and repairs, and the old Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in High Street before it was demolished in 1980.

The chapel had been built in 1840 at a cost of £1,100, with seating for about 200 people but the chapel was found to be too small for the needs and it closed in 1920. The site was purchased by Mrs Esther Cohen for £3,500 and leased to her son for use as a garage, which later became Bognor Motors.

The company also began operating in Longford Road in 1963, where an attended petrol station was opened. According to newspapers from the early 1980s, you could purchase an Astra E two-door saloon for £3,300 or a Chevette L hatch for £3,400 at the Longford Road site.

When the High Street site closed in 1980, Bognor Motors moved all operations to Longford Road. The petrol pumps in Longford Road moved to self-service in 1982 and by 1990, premises either side were acquired for car sales, while the servicing moved to London Road.

The Longford Road garage, with its petrol pumps, car servicing workshop and sales sections, became the only petrol station in Bognor Regis town centre in 2003, when Hillsboro Garage closed.

It made headlines when two massive fuel tanks, each capable of filling 1,250 cars, were installed at the petrol station. It took a week to dig the chambers necessary to hold the tanks and the earth removed from the holes filled 38 16-tonne trucks.

The 50,000 litre tanks were hoisted into place in a delicate operation, as the cylindrical structures, 12m long by 2.5m diameter, were hauled in past lampposts and buildings.

Then fuel protests in September 2000 put Bognor Motors on the map after the Department of Trade and Industry earmarked it as a priority site, meaning it would be one of the first to be supplied with any petrol that managed to break through the blockades.

Desperate drivers queued for hours for fuel at the designated filling stations, including Bognor Motors, in Longford Road, and Tesco, in Shripney Road, Bognor Regis.

Bognor Motors was the only family-run petrol station for miles around, the last survivor as the national chains gathered strength. It had been in existence for 75 years and owned by the same family since 1949 but things were about to change.

A planning application for flats was finally approved 20 years ago, after several failed attempts, and Regis Gate was built on the garage site in Longford Road. Bognor Motors was thriving and it made a pledge to remain in the town, just in a new location.

Bognor Motors has operated from Christie Place, Durban Road Industrial Estate, since September 2005 and opened its second site in Bognor Road, Chichester, in April 2015 for camper hire, daily rental and vehicle sales.