by Nick Pollard
This month’s photo is of the Deva Service Station in Thames Street, Sunbury, and dates back to the mid-1960s. The service station was originally opened as the Regal Garage sometime in the 1950s, on a previously open piece of land in Thames Street. There are some splendid cars of the period on the forecourt, including a 1964 Ford Zodiac Mk III, and in the background, being filled with petrol by an attendant (as was usual at the time, self-service came in later) is a Vauxhall Cresta estate. The Land Rover was Deva’s own. Sadly no petrol prices can be read, but typically in the mid-1960s, before the oil crisis of 1973 sent prices rocketing, it was about 5 shillings per gallon. This translates to about 5p per litre, although allowing for inflation would bring that up to about £1.00 today. To the rear at the right was the premises of R.J. Searle Ltd who traded as Carawagon International and converted Land Rovers (and later Range Rovers and Bedford vans) into camper vans by adding a folding roof extension, rear awning, and fitting beds, a stove, wash basin etc. They became the vehicle of choice for many overseas expeditions. Attached to the ‘Mobil’ petrol signpost is adverting for Green Shield stamps. These were introduced by Richard Tompkins in 1958. They were a sales promotion scheme which rewarded customers with stamps that could be used to buy gifts from a catalogue. Very popular in the 1960s and 70s, after Tesco stopped participating in the scheme to pursue price discounting, they became mainly the province of petrol stations where price was not such an issue. Although stamps were usually issued at a rate of 1 per 6d (2½p) of purchase, offers of double, treble (as seen here) or quadruple stamps were common to try and attract customers. I well remember helping my mum to stick hundreds of stamps in the books supplied. Later the popularity of the scheme waned, and cash could be used for part of, and eventually all, the purchase of the gifts from the catalogue. Eventually the stamps were dropped altogether and the stores were rebranded as Argos. Deva closed about 1990, and the site was redeveloped as the Berkeley Mews housing estate.
While we are unable to hold our regular meetings, the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society is holding talks for members only on Zoom – if you are interested in joining please visit www.sslhs.org.uk