Byatts of Fenton - Triumph Car Dealers 37

Byatts of Fenton are the feature business in my 37th article about Triumph car dealers.

Byatts of Fenton advert from Motor 30 May 1962

Long established business was selling Vauxhall cars in the 1920's. A Prince Henry restored by the firm was presented to the Vauxhall works collection in 1955 by Tom Byatt Ltd.  Originally sold in April 1923 to Norman Edwards, the pottery manufacturer, of Stoke-on-Trent the car was used until 1955.

Week long Show and Service Week promotions were held by the firm at their Victoria Street, Fenton premises assisted by staff from Standard Triumph HQ were held 1st to 5th June 1959, 24th to 28th June 1963, 27th to 31st January 1964 and 3rd to 7th January 1966.

Byatts of Fenton Ltd Autocar 4 February 1966 Triumph 1300 advert

Byatts closed down in the 1980s and Evans Halshaw took on the premises and business. The company Byatts of Fenton Limited was dissolved 14 August 1990.

New Paint Spray System

A Triumph Herald immediately after emerging from the spray booth after being resprayed by the Paint-a-Car system at Byatts of Fenton. In the rear (left) is another car masked in preparation for a re-spray.

Byatts of Fenton, Stoke-an-Trent, added the new Paint-a-Car system to their facilities for car owners in 1964. The Stirling Moss Paint-a-Car system, offered a complete re-spray for only 19 guineas, irrespective of the size of the vehicle.

The Paint-a-Car system, was introduced into Britain from the United States, was brought over by Stirling Moss and Canadian businessman David Kaplan.

Quick, drying acrylic paints used enable one coat to be sprayed over another immediately, and this drastically cuts down the time factor. Three to four coats of high-gloss acrylic paints were used, and the finish was guaranteed for three years against fading, peeling, blistering and hazing.

A choice of 101 colours, and the high-gloss finish needed no polishing, the special rapid-drying paints weredeveloped in the U.S. and Canada during the previous seven years. The system introduced specialisation and through expert planning and direction was said to result in a reduction of operational costs. It represents a breakthrough in reducing the high cost of body work repairs, particularly those involving slight accident damage.

Some adverts

1976 advert

Autosport October 1968

Not just Triumphs

As can be seen from the advert above Byatts of Fenton sold other brands of car. Of particular interest they held the franchise for the Swallow Doretti sports car.

Truck bodies etc

Tom Byatt (Engineers) Ltd lorry body

Bakelite truck bed flooring by

Inexpensive and durable jointless floor covering for commercial vehicles, based on Bakelite polyester resin, was produced by Tom Byatt (Engineers) Ltd, of Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent. The flooring was designed to protect the original floor against injury and, in addition to being waterproof, offered a high degree of resistance to abrasive loads. The vehicle shown carried flint and felspar for over ten months. Such loads would have worn out a normal 18 s.g. metal floor in about three months. With no loose edges to impede free passage of contents, the Byatt flooring proved particularly effective on all types of tipping vehicles and was approved by the Board of Trade for use in calibrated bodies. This
paragrapg is based on material from the MoDiP BXL collection.

Triumph car dealers in the Stoke-on-Trent area

I have several dealer directories of Standard Triumph cars. For the Stoke area consisting of the 5 towns of Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, Longton and Fenton I have extracted some information here.

1951:
Tom Byatt Ltd, Victoria Street, Fenton
John Pepper (Hanley) Ltd, 63 Piccadilly, Hanley
J C Sherwin & Sond Ltd, Market Square, Hanley
Newcastle (Staffs) Motor Company Ltd, Brunswick Street, Newcastle
Peppers Garages Ltd, Grosvenor Garage, London Road, Newcastle

1955:
Distributor
Tom Byatt Ltd, Victoria Road, Fenton.
.
Dealers
J Alcock, Walley Street Garage, Biddulph. 'Phone: Biddulph 3174.
Ashlands Garage Ltd., Hartshill Road, Hartshill. 'Phone 4884.
Bedingfield & Gater Ltd., Waterloo Road, Cobridge.
'Phone 2210.
Hanford Garage Ltd., Stone Road, Hanford. 'Phone 49037.
Maiden & Ellis, High Street, Wolstanton. 'Phone 84684.
Norman & Birch, 25/27 Marsh Street, Hanley. 'Phone 29460.
North Stafford Motors Ltd, Furlong Road, Tunstall.
'Phone: 87765, 84172/3; Night, 87366.
T Shenton, Ash Green Garage, Trentham. 'Phone 49028.
F Spicer & Sons, Florence Garage, Stone Road, Longton.
'Phone 33642.
Station Road Garage (Stoke.on.Trent) Ltd, Station Road.
'Phone 4711.
Super Motor Services Ltd., Anchor Road, Longton.
'Phone: Day, 3302; Night, 39365.
J Swift, Belgrave Garage, Lightwood Road, Longton.
'Phone: 39114

Plea for information

If you have any more information or recollections about this garage, 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 face book page: Triumph Car Dealers.

Link to my Triumph Car Dealers Flickr gallery of images I have found on Flickr.

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

Picture credits: 1976 advert Kevin Lane on flickr; Tom Byatt (Englnd) Ltd lorry body image by Mick Walsh on facebook; Byatts of Fenton Ltd Autocar 4 February 1966 Triumph 1300 advert image from my collection.