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Sorn Garages/ Filling Stations:

There were at one time two filling stations in Sorn, now there are none.

ESSO: The ESSO Garage belonged to Anderson, then Jimmy Thomson, later Tom Lorimer, then Brian Wade. This sat opposite the Sorn Inn. It became ICI in Lorimer's time, and then various other lesser known petroleum companies supplied it like Saddler. There is now a block of 4 houses where the old garage once sat.

SHELL: Morton's Garage was the Shell petrol station opposite The Greyhound Inn. This is still a motorcycle dealership, but petrol stopped being sold there in the 1970's or early 80's.

 

ESSO GARAGE
Photo ayrshirehistory.com
Photo Muir Nisbet

Left: An aerial shot of the garage and Sorn Inn in the 80s.

Right: Muir's Aunt outside the pumps at Anderson's Garage. I can remember the sign, a kind of light blue / green thing which used to swing around with a creak in the wind. Or was that the Castrol sign that made that noise?

 

Photos from Harry Girvan's Cines

Four views of Tom Lorimer's petrol station, and "Wee Shop", which sat opposite the Sorn Inn, on the Main Street. The image on the left bottom, shows a land rover parked. This was used for picking up the farm kids for school before Tom had his minibuses. The images used here are the best available so far, and taken from old cine films.



Aerial shot of the garage and Sorn Inn in the 80's, taken from a TV tower, from the archives of ayrshirehistory.com.

 

 

Photo Sorn Community Council
Photo Hughy Harrison

Left: A View of the garage opposite the Sorn Hotel / Inn, during a clean up in the 80s, showing Betty Faulds on the left, and Agnes Thomson.

Right: A view of some women on the bowling green, but with an excellent view of the garage in the background.

 
Photo ayrshirehistory.com
Photo Anne Tavern

Left: A view similar to the right hand image, with the garage and the Sorn Hotel as it states on the side of the building. Petrol is priced at £1.30 and £1.32 a gallon.

Right: Taken in early 1982, shows the ICI Petrol on sale. By this time petrol prices had started to rise, and ICI petrol was a good price compared to the bigger Esso and Shell companies. The garage at one time attracted folks from other villages to fill up. Petrol is priced at £1.48 and £1.50 a gallon.
There is now a large block of houses on the site. The woods in the background were cut in March and April 2001.

 

On the left of image three can be seen the Paraffin tank that used to sit there. The tap on the tank was held shut at night by a flimsy chain or something, and a very small amount of flow used to come out. Local kids used to use this to light their fires in their camps or dens.. (So I'm told..lol)

 

 

 

 


The last of the garage in about 1990, being cleared, tank dug out, and now on the site are four houses in a block. These images have been in the SORN IN THE 80'S and 90'S page since last year.

 

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SHELL GARAGE

Photo Margaret Morton   
Photo Hughy Harrison


Mortons Garage above was the shell garage, and is still a motorcycle business. The image on the left shows Jock's Lodge in the courtyard, which was demolished in the 60's. On the right, Jim Robertson is seen with his shining red mini, but it shows the shell sign in the background. The school clock tower at this stage is in it's original state, although it looks as though work has just started on the design change. It also looks like rain towards Muirkirk!!



Photo Cumnock Chronicle
Photo Rosina Mabon

Left: From Cumnock Chronicle, 1976, as an example of NOW, compared to an older image.

Right: Looking from Morton's yard across to the Greyhound Inn as it was at the time. 1960's, or even 50's??

 

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Sorn Village photographs

Sorn home page