Wellington family taxi service that gave town a lift
It's metal, it's heavy – and it evokes a lifetime of memories for Margaret Wood. It is the sign which for generations was outside her parents' business, Brown's Taxis in Wellington.
And when her widowed mother finally retired after running the firm for many years, Margaret had the sign as a cherished keepsake. On one side the original phone number, 343, is painted out and the later four-digit phone number painted over the top.
Black and white photos and an ancient scrapbook, which was compiled by her father, are also among her memorabilia – recalling the days of a business which was well known in the town and further afield.
Margaret's father William Brown founded it, probably around the late 1930s. In the early days it was just him with his motorcycle and sidecar.
Yet while Margaret, from Hadley, has a host of memories, there are not, sadly, so many of her father. She said: "I was only six when he died in January 1951. He was in his late 40s and had polio."
He spent time in an iron lung at Copthorne hospital but died after an illness lasting 10 weeks.
"My brother was just five months old when daddy died. And then there was my sister as well, who was four. It was rather a hard time for my mum," she said.
She added: "My grandfather Edward Brown, my dad's dad, apparently started a taxi and funeral service in Ironbridge. My father helped. Then dad moved from Ironbridge and came to Wellington to set up on his own.
"We lived next door to the Majestic. I think the address was 62 New Street. I think B&M is there now. He did weddings, funerals and taxis. He also did maternity calls, so if anybody went into labour he used to take them into hospital.
"My mother Mary went to work as a driver for my father when he came over to Wellington. Then they married, and she continued to drive."
Mary's maiden name, incidentally, was Rogers and she came from Poynton, near Shawbury.
The business, as Margaret remembers it, had about eight cars and a hearse.
"There was a Rolls-Royce hearse, a Rolls-Royce car, Humbers, an Armstrong Siddeley, and then she had Rovers."
After the death of William, Mary continued to run the business.
"I went to an orphanage school in Wolverhampton because my mum couldn't keep running the business and look after a small baby and my sister as well.
"Being the eldest, I went to The Royal in Penn Road. I think nearly all of us who attended there were a one-parent family or had no parents at all.
"From when I can remember it, we had two full-time drivers, and then part-time drivers. She was very, very lucky. If there was a fireman off duty, they used to come and do part-time driving for her. The police used to come and do it. We used to have some drivers from the Midland Red as well. She was well known.
"On one Christmas Day she took somebody up to Manchester to catch a plane. It was sandwiches for dinner that day.
"In those days there were no buses running over Christmas and she used to take the staff into hospital, and to the post office to work. It was very rare that we went on a weekend break or anything like that. It was 24/7 – it was their life."
The Brown's Taxis story ended when Mary Brown – by then remarried and Mrs Mary Matthews – retired, which seems to have been around the early 1970s.
She said: "They wanted to pull down the house as part of the redevelopment of New Street." The business was taken over by Philjo Motors and some of Brown's vehicles were sold. "The hearse went to an undertaker out Newport way."
The firm, which was strictly speaking not a taxi firm but a private hire firm, established a good reputation and is still fondly remembered. "If you mention Brown's Taxis to anybody they say: 'Ooo, I remember them.' Her cars were immaculate.
"Mary died in June 2002 at the age of 89. Margaret had done some driving herself.
"Mum always had a navy mac and a little peaked navy cap. For weddings, she always had white overalls.
"She was only a short person. How she used to drive these big cars with no power steering, I don't know."
