Riddelsdell Brothers was established in Boxford, Suffolk, UK in 1900 and is believed to be Europe's oldest recorded working car garage.

Howard Watts, who has run Riddelsdell Brothers garage since 2001, described Boxford as a “niche village” with a wonderful history and community spirit.

His garage dates back to 1900 when it repaired traction engines and manufactured motorbikes.

“The unusual thing about our garage is that it is right the middle of the village – most businesses in similar locations have long since been turned into building sites,” Mr Watts said.

“We are a working garage where you can bring anything from a lawnmower to a Ferrari and we can sort it out.

“We get people who bring cars from all over Europe but at the other end of the scale, local people bring in wheelbarrows with punctures or come in and fill up a can with petrol for their lawnmower – it’s a well established part of the local community.

http://www.boxfordsuffolk.com/history.cfm?page=gallery
http://www.eaux.co.uk/riddelsdell-brothers-ltd/
https://howardwatts.co.uk/
https://howardwatts.co.uk/articles/the-martini-turbos

Enviably placed on the River Box in between three major towns and a mere 50-minute commute from London, Boxford has now been included in The Times newspaper’s ‘40 best villages in Britain’ and is listed as the 10th most desirable in the south of the country.

The Grade II-listed Boxford Stores, which has a recorded trading history dating back to 1420, reopened last December after shutting down in May 2013.

Businessmen Neil Cottrell and local egg farmer Robin Windmill now run it as a farm shop with extras that local people have requested, ranging from locally grown apples and bread to traditional sweets in jars.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/thriving-boxford-rated-among-britain-s-best-villages-1-4459848

The village sign in Boxford welcomes many a visitor every year, but few outsiders are aware of the meaning of the symbolism in the design, nor of the controversy around the inclusion of various elements in it.

 The most controversial of all the elements. In the 1920s, Tornado Smith of Wall of Death fame lived at the White Hart Inn with his parents. He was well known in the thirties for riding the wall of Death with a lioness called Briton on the motorcycle.

What a character!

Yes, I really do just stumble across a lot of stuff I post... this all started out with a simple desire to post a photo of the oldest garage in England (alleged) and wound up with a Wall Of Death and lion story

http://www.boxfordsuffolk.com/history.cfm?page=sign