Saturday, April 09, 2016

Harry R Fisk and Kitchen Bros - Triumph Car Dealers 8

This is the eighth in an occasional series about Triumph car dealers in the UK.
Harry R Fisk - Fisks for Rover rear window sticker
Harry R Fisk - Fisks for Rover rear window sticker

Harry R Fisk Ltd - Norwich

Harry R FIsk Ltd - Triumph car dealer
Harry R Fisk - Triumph car dealer image 1
Harry R FIsk Ltd - Triumph car dealer image 2
Harry R Fisk window sticker - Triumph car dealer image2
Harry R Fisk were listed in 1968/69 as a Triumph dealer based in  Stoke Holy Cross at  Norwich Road Garage, NOR SSW.

Still trading as a an Austin Rover garage in 1987.  The garage building were taken on by Averill's Garage.  Alan Marsh, married Monica Fiske in the mid 60's. He became manager of the garage when Harry died in 1964. Ownership was passed to him when Monica sadly died in 1995. He leased the site to David Averill for 3 years, and then sold the site to a developer.  Alan Marsh died in 2004 of motor neuron disease.

After writing this article I found an article online at  http://www.poringlandarchive.co.uk/stoke-holy-cross/norwich-road which includes several more images.

Fisk's Garage - showing the rear of the workshop's in 1959/60 and vehicles inside awaiting repair.

Fisk's Garage vehicles in for repair
Fisk's Garage vehicles in for repair

Fisk's Garage rear of workshop 1959/60
Fisk's Garage rear of workshop 1959/60
Two old invoices from the garage images by Derek Bales.
Harry R Fisk invoices from Poringland Archive
Before the garage was knocked down.

Fisks forecourt 1998
Fisks forecourt 1998
The demolition in 1999..
Fisks demolition 1999
Fisks demolition 1999
The site of this garage is now occupied by houses.  Fiskes Court, replaced the garage, pictured in August 2011 by Mike Fordham.
Fiskes Court, Norwich Road
                                                         

Kitchen Bros - Diss


Kitchen Bros of Diss - Triumph car dealer
Kitchen Bros of Diss - Triumph car dealer sticker
Kitchen Bros of Diss - Triumph car dealer advert

Not listed in the 1965 or 1968/69 dealer booklet. Listed in 1974 as being based at Bedford Garage, Victoria Road, Diss with proprietors called DH and RR Kitchen. The advert above dates from 1977 and was scanned from Diss Town Guide 1977/78 by Spottedlaurel.

The 1965 and 1968/69 Triumph car dealer list shows: Brockdish Service Station, Brockdish, Diss as a dealer.

After Derek Kitchen died in 2008 his rusty old Standard 12 was sold at auction for just over £500.00.  The Standard 12 was said to be a one-off, possibly built for the 1933 Motor Show.  Derek Kitchen was a former partner in the Kitchen Bros business.

Kitchen Bros Wurlitzer organ

The garage was known as a place to go to a Wurlitzer organ concert. The Organ is since at least May 2011 said to be in storage in Northampton.


In 1964 David Pawlyn embarked on restoring the organ. He had heard that the Paramount Cinema, Newcastle, was to discard its fine Wurlitzer, a large three-keyboard, 19-rank organ which had been installed in 1930. Together with Graeme Wright he approached the cinema’s owners, Odeon, and managed to buy the instrument in its entirety.

Over several weekends it was dismantled, packed up and moved into storage. Eventually it was sold to the Kitchen Brothers at Diss, Norfolk, who ran a motor showroom and garage. Pawlyn spent many months restoring it and reinstalling it in the garage showroom, where it sounded almost as it had in the theatre, albeit with a little more reverberation. The organ premiered in its new location on 15 October 1972.
Kitchen Bros Organ music album cover
Kitchen Bros Organ music album cover

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about these garages, photos of window stickers, dealer badges or sill plates etc please let me know. I can be contacted via the comments to this post or on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stephen.weblin

Further information and sources

Link to the other articles in this series.

Link to facebook page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr group .

I have a collection of Standard Triumph car dealer directories: http://vitessesteve.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/triumph-car-dealer-directories.html

Picture credits: Harry R Fisk Fisks for Rover rear window sticker photo posted to flickr by Nivek.Old.Gold; Walter Gunston concert ticket.  Spottedlaurel on Flickr for Harry R Fisk image 2 + the Kitchen Bros images. Phil Overton on Facebook for Harry R Fisk image 1; Fiskes Court by Mike Fordham; Kitchen Bros Organ music album cover image from https://www.discogs.com/Geoff-Stephenson-At-The-Organ-Of-Kitchen-Brothers-Garage-Diss-319-Wurlitzer/release/7764124.

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