A & B Motors

[helson]

Does anyone remember A & B Motors when they were trading? In the 1960s was it run by David Mulvaney? I have a motor car which passed through his hands in 1963-4, and would like to learn a bit more about the company and about him, if anyone remembers him

Helson

[ron knight]

A & B stood for Alderman and Bowd. The Aldermans ran the motor dealership side of the business and Bowd the engineering division. They were originally dealers for Rolls-Royce and Morris. Later they sold Datsun (now Nissan).

[ironside]

Peter Alderman was the main man not sure about the Bowd name but seem to recollect that the other name was his wifes maiden name? There were also 2 A & B garages,A&B Motors at the top of Mill Lane near the Railway Bridge this lasted the longest (as a Datsun dealer) and the other was A&B Cars which was where the filling station is now opposite Newton Station,think this one closed earlier,beetween the two they supplied many different makes of cars.
Peter was a bit of a character and owned and piloted his own helicopter,he lived in the big modern house behind the gates at the top of Willow rd on the LH side before moving to the US IIRC
My mother worked for them in the 1960's but dosnt recollect the name you mention in the original post

Regards

Dave

[Poppy]

I was interested to see the posts about A & B Motors. It was a thriving business when both my parents and my aunt and uncle worked for them in the fifties.

Mr Bowd (not Peter's wife's maiden name) was, I am sure, a silent partner with the Alderman family very much in the forefront. Stan Alderman, Peter's father, was a real gentleman who built up the original business. I remember the first personalised number plate I ever saw belonged to Peter's wife. It was 1 VYA which stood for IVY A(lderman)!

Unfortunately, I've reached the age now when I can recall minor details from long ago and but sometimes forget what day it is!
Poppy

[ironside]

Hi Poppy

you are probably correct about the Bowd name,when i asked my mother again she did seem to recollect that name and of Peters wife.She does suffer from exactly the same problem you describe also,-remembering what happened years ago in great detail but cant remember even telling me about it yesterday....

Dave

[ron knight]

I was at Grammar School with David Bowd, the son of Mr. Bowd of A&B. He was a good friend of mine in my school days. I lost contact with him many years ago. He went to work for the BBC technical branch somewhere down south.

I remember there was a fashion shop in Newton High St. called "The Bowd". i wonder if this had any connection?

[kingfisher_61]

Bowd's had a shop in High St, my dad told me a few weeks ago,
I worked at A&B Cars from 63 for a couple of years.

[DaveC]

A&B Cars was originally called Lancashire Cars. It was owned by a chap called Vin Grocott who sold it to Peter and then retired to North Wales.

[bill morse]

I was interested to see the posts about A & B Motors. It was a thriving business when both my parents and my aunt and uncle worked for them in the fifties.

Mr Bowd (not Peter's wife's maiden name) was, I am sure, a silent partner with the Alderman family very much in the forefront. Stan Alderman, Peter's father, was a real gentleman who built up the original business. I remember the first personalised number plate I ever saw belonged to Peter's wife. It was 1 VYA which stood for IVY A(lderman)!

Unfortunately, I've reached the age now when I can recall minor details from long ago and but sometimes forget what day it is!
Poppy

I can still remember the No of that Ford Popular your Dad had Poppy

[jasperalan]

hey up a&b motors i was the foreman there over the top and bottom garages as there was two of them

[kingfisher_61]

how do, what years was you foreman at A&B Cars ?, i was there in 63/64 and Eddie Thomson was foreman and Les Newton was Manager then.

[jasperalan]

IT WAS ALDERMOND WHO OWNED IT WHEN I WAS THERE I USE TO CLEAN HIS HELECOPTER AT WEEKENDS

[colin ferguson]

i was sacked from a&b when i was 15, for driving the land rover into the wall of one of the buildings. its amazing how that incident changed my direction in life.i remember both alderman(he drove a large jaguar) and bowd , who was an invalid (drove a small standard) it was also the first automatic car that i had come across. mind you it was"nt as small as the bike that les in the stores drove. i also remember the cars that were hand painted and the large american cars that were damaged in transit and watching the dent being knocked out with just the fist.

[Noel]

I served my time at A&B Motors in the 1960s it stood for Alderman & Boardman, the Boardman came from Peter's sister marrying Mr Boardman who was the Rolls Royce mechanic,Henry Ward was the engineering Forman ,John Murphy was the paint shop Forman ,and Norman Hallet was the body shop Forman .do you remember any of the work force, Bob Straw,Jack Dykes,Freddie Ashcroft, Malc Dean played football for St Helen's town,Jackie Vizard, Tony Martin best man at my wedding,Jack Jollie,Nellie who ran the canteen,oh what happy days.

[kingfisher_61]

These are the names of people i remember working at A&B Motors & Cars, Les Newton, Eddie Thompson, Larry Crawford, Tony Hayes, Alan Beswick, Harry Bilsbury, John Chadwick, Dave Wainwright, Dennis Gregory, Lawrence Darbyshire, Frank Hampson, Roy Davenport, Eric Seddon, Eric Puzzar, Bill Puzzar, Pete Conboy, Keith Middleton, Brian Deloose, some of these names may be wrongly spelled, please forgive me...