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See Homepage. This page: A receipt following work undertaken on a vehicle belonging to a Shropshire farmer in WW2.

John Dowley & Son Motor Specialists.

Astley, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Alas no mention is made in this receipt of which vehicle's axle was repaired by "John Dowley & Son Motor Specialists", during WW2 (February 1941). I think the customer, Mr W. Ashton of Brockhurst, Wem, Salop, was a farmer, so the axle could equally have belonged to a trailer, a commercial vehicle, a farming implement or a car.
John Dowley's address is given as The Lilacs, Astley, Shrewsbury, so not far from the farmer's property in Wem, Shropshire. In addition to being a "Motors Specialist", and being able to supply "All leading makes of cars", tyres, and spare parts for cars, he also stocked a wide variety of metals and was contactable by telephone at Hadnall 232. As a contractor to H.M. Government at the time, it was clearly a large and well-established business. Perhaps with certain metals being in short supply during the war, he'd diversified into vehicle repairs for a time?
John Dowley at Astley nr Shrewsbury
Mr Dowley would continue with his metals stockholding business well into the post-war years, from a site located at nearby Upper Battlefield just down the road from Astley, Salop. Other records found online confirm that he also ran a scrap metal business as part of his overall operations.
More old items of ephemera like this that relate to the motor industry in byegone times, can be found in the Motoring Collectables section of Old Classic Car.

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