Fry's Garage, which has served petrol in Tintagel for
over 80 years, has filled up its last tank. During my chat with John & Tony
Fry, they told me that Fry's were the first to serve petrol in Tintagel,
originally in petrol cans from the rear of what was Fry's Private Hotel (today
Tintagel Hotel). In the 1880s, Fry's used to run a
horse drawn charabanc from Tintagel or Boscastle, toCamelford & Bodmin. In 1903 they purchased Clifton House and changed
it into Fry's Hotel. At that time they also leased the Wellington Hotel in
Boscastle and the Wharncliffe Arms Hotel in Tintagel. Apparently Fry's used to
have a butchers shop in Fry's Hotel and the slaughterhouse was at the rear. In
1926, the site next door to Cook's Newsagents was developed and a garage built.
Here the vehicles were serviced including their own fleet of buses. The repair
of their own coaches continued right up to the closure of the coach business at
the end of 1998. Petrol pumps were installed on the new site in 1930 and at that
time you could buy a couple of gallons of petrol for 1s9d!. The pumps were
originally hand operated and a lot of effort was needed to serve a gallon of
petrol. The busiest time for the coach business was in
the 1950s and 60s because there were not so many cars on the road in those days.
Fry's ran a daily bus service to Plymouth, had coach trips to many parts of
Great Britain and organised Coach holidays to Scotland, the Lake District and
the Yorkshire Dales. Every week supporters of Plymouth Argyle could travel, home
& away, to all their matches. During and after the war the popularity of the
cinema meant that at least one, and many times two, buses travelled to the Regal
Cinema at Delabole every Wednesday & Friday evenings. Mystery Trips used to
pack at least one coach in the 40s & 50s but this died out in popularity
with the advent of more people owning cars. John (Bumper) Fry, John and Tony's father, was a
wonderful character and a very good footballer. He played at centre half for
Tintagel and on many occasions for Cornwall. Football was in the blood and John,
who played for Tintagel, Camelford, Wadebridge & Newquay also played for
Cornwall at centre forward. Tony was also an excellent footballer, playing for
Tintagel & Camelford and was first reserve for Cornwall on one occasion.
Tony retired from football early at age 32, but John played on till he was 42,
finally playing in goal for Tintagel.When 'Bumper' Fry retired, John, who joined the company in 1947 and Tony
who joined in 1944 straight from school, took over the business and it continued
successfully up to its closure. In latter years the school bus service became an
important part of Fry's Coaches, and Fry's have a proud record of always
delivering the children safely to school. When I served on the Tintagel Parish Council in the 60s and
70s, Fry's always provided free bus transport to the citizens of Tintagel to the
annual ‘Mrs Whitehouse Christmas Party’, held annually in Camelford. Tony recalled on one occasion a party of Young Farmers
requesting that the lights be turned off inside the coach. Whether or not this
had any effect on the outcome of this action, but all the couples on the coach
were eventually married to each other.
The end of an era has come for the Fry family and for the people of
Tintagel who have relied on Fry's for their petrol. No longer will you be able
to fill up with Shell, National Benzole, Esso or BP, the nearest petrol station
now will be in a neighbouring village. Sadly John & Tony Fry both died in
2003 & they are missed from village life
Tintagel people owed the Fry family our grateful thanks for their coach and petrol service they provided for over 120 years.
A Great loss to Tintagel
Original Article
Was Written By David Flower and printed in the Camelford & Delabole Post 5th
October 2000
