Mark Wibberley investigates a long established local business
Many local people will not be aware that behind a stone wall by the Morrisons roundabout in Stamford, next to St Leonard’s Priory, lies Priory Autos, the largest body shop in the area. You may have seen the occasional reasonably priced car for sale outside or the recent new red sign, a more modern look than the old script, but unless you’ve needed your car repairing, few will have seen the premises.
Having been there 25 years it’s not exactly spanking new, but with age comes experience, and Nigel and his team have the latter in abundance. With his son Adam in the business for the last 19 years plus Phil and Jimmy aboard too, they can fix up and paint virtually anything. And they do....from windsock stands and masts, show machines and display stands for Cummins to family hatchbacks, classic cars and restoration jobs.
In the workshop was a representative mix of cars – basic re-spray on a Corsa, a 3” dent beaten out of a Renault Scenic plus new door and side re-spray, and just completed bare metal re-spray on an Austin A35 pickup. It’s through the classics I met Nigel – he’d done work on the world-significant SS Jaguar collection of Gladstone Carriages, the wedding hire folks in Oakham. With their low bake oven and paint mixing shop, with a full set of solvent and water-based paints and panel beating skills, increasingly rare these days, they’ve taken cars apart, welded in new floors and panels, painted them up and put them back together again.
Nigel owns ‘several’ classic cars – he was deliberately vague on numbers, being an inveterate collector, though admitted to the Green Goddess and 1941 Dennis fire engines that were displayed at the Stamford Car Show in August. He’s also put his hands up to a Super Snipe and recently added a Rolls Royce to do weddings with – though the fire engines have also done nuptial duty.
Adam also added that they do a lot of work for Cooks VW next door, so apply their skills to a wide range of cars up to the very latest, with much of it being insurance work after accidents. “What all our customers receive is a clear explanation of what we will do and our best efforts to take their car back to pre-incident condition. We rarely advertise as word of mouth and recommendation keeps us busy. And we are adding a sales area in the spring, with a few first time buyers’ cars at modest prices.”
Priory Autos are at Priory Road, Stamford, PE9 2EU, Tel: 01780 756605