Ford dealers

zscort · Post by **zscort** » Fri 14 Mar, 2008 7:51 pm

Hi All,Can anyone remember what the Ford dealer on the ring road in Lawnswood was called? It was where the Texaco station is now.Also does anyone know when Hayes of Horsforth shut? That was on the Old Ball roundabout, it's now a chinese take away and video library. Once again, any photos would be much aprreciate, I found a picture of Hayes on Leodis but it only shows the junction before it was a roundabout.Thanks Again

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 3:32 pm

The Ford dealer on the Ring Road was Tate of Leeds.The main branch was on Balm Road in Hunslet and the one on the Ring Road was a satellite dealership with just a small showroom and workshop.If I remember correctly they had to close it when the Ford dealership at Guiseley (Brown and Whites?) was taken over by Benfield as it was technically in their catchment area.Now of course, Benfield have branches on Kirkstall Road and Torre Road as well as Guiseley and Tates are no longer Ford dealers.There used to be lots of other small Ford dealers in Leeds too - does anyone remember Hartley Motors at Cross Gates for example?

Croggy · Post by **Croggy** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 6:05 pm

Oh yes, Hartley Motors, I think there is one of those 'hand' car washes on the site now.

kierentc · Post by **kierentc** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 6:33 pm

Croggy wrote: Oh yes, Hartley Motors, I think there is one of those 'hand' car washes on the site now. it is, and before that it was one of those car credit placesthere was another branch of tates on the other side of the a64 but a bit further down to where the abc cinema used to be. we used to park in their underground car park when we went into town, as my dad used to work for fordhttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... ULLpicture here

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 7:12 pm

The Ford dealers I remember in Leeds were Tate of Leeds, Brown and White and Ringways. There was a Ford dealer in Morley Carr of Morley - but they were Ford of Germany, Australia and Canada dealers.One of my customers bought two Ford Fairlane (?) cars from Carrs, they were big beasts like American cars, but right hand drive because they came from OZ. I remember one of the directors telling me that just after the M62 opened he'd been to see Leeds U play at Villa Park and done it in 1 1/2 hours in one of these cars.

raveydavey · Post by **raveydavey** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 9:17 pm

kierentc wrote: Croggy wrote: Oh yes, Hartley Motors, I think there is one of those 'hand' car washes on the site now. it is, and before that it was one of those car credit placesthere was another branch of tates on the other side of the a64 but a bit further down to where the abc cinema used to be. we used to park in their underground car park when we went into town, as my dad used to work for fordhttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... ULLpicture here That was their original premises, before they moved down to Hunslet

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 15 Mar, 2008 10:22 pm

raveydavey wrote: kierentc wrote: Croggy wrote: Oh yes, Hartley Motors, I think there is one of those 'hand' car washes on the site now. it is, and before that it was one of those car credit placesthere was another branch of tates on the other side of the a64 but a bit further down to where the abc cinema used to be. we used to park in their underground car park when we went into town, as my dad used to work for fordhttp://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIde ... ULLpicture here That was their original premises, before they moved down to Hunslet Tates main place was behind North Street in the seventies. Tates also had premises in Hunslet. They were also JCB dealers (as were many Ford dealers - the original JCB was based on a Fordson Tractor) their showroom and workshops were at Bruntcliffe, next to the school

Nick_Stevens · Post by **Nick_Stevens** » Sun 16 Mar, 2008 9:11 am

I think I can can contribute to this thread. I was employed by Tate of Leeds from leaving school in 1980 until 1986 when I was made redundant. I worked for the truck division at Balm Road. This was a huge dealership with over 30 bays and inspection pits. This ceased to be a Ford Franchise when the company decided not to invest in the new Iveco dealership and Arhbolds of Morley and Trimoco of Garforth (formerly part of Brown and White - eventually moved to Dolly Lane nearer the city) then became the remaining official Ford Truck dealers.The garage was retained although many staff left or were made redundant. The truck side eventually became the maintainence division for the commercial side of Freeway hire the rental company located at Balm Road. At that time (1988?) the outer walls and roof of the main workshop were removed (the salesroom had disappeared in late 1985) this meant no "rates" to pay on the remaining structure. The mechanics then moved in to a substantially smaller workshop with only 7 bays.As far as I am aware the West Park site closed as a result of poor sales rather than catchment areas though. As I recall there were overlapping areas anyway with Tate at Hunslet, Trimoco (Brown and White) on Roseville Road, Hartley Motors at Crossgates, Carrs of Morley and Magnetic Motors at Water Lane as well as Brown and White at Guiseley. At the time many car dealers in Leeds went to the wall - including another Ford retail dealer (Magnetic Motors on Water Lane), BL dealer Lookers on Kirkstall Road, Chrysler dealer Cox of Leeds and BL dealer Arnold G Wilson bith on Regent Street to name but a few.Hartley Motors was a firm favourite with Ford Motorsport - regularly used by the Works Rally Team as a service provider and location on local rallies and the RAC.Friends of mine worked at Magnetic Motors and I recall that, in the final weeks, many cars went on road test with a full boot as the stores dept. was emptied into a variety of hired vans and trucks!!Tate of Leeds is still a registered company with offices near Tadcaster (where Thomas Tate trains his race horses!)

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sun 16 Mar, 2008 10:30 am

Nick_Stevens wrote: BL dealer Arnold G Wilson bith on Regent Street to name but a few. The area of Regent Street was something of a "motor district2 of Leeds though up to the seventies - and Tates were quite close. West Yorkshire Road Car also had a bus garage nearby.

Nick_Stevens · Post by **Nick_Stevens** » Sun 16 Mar, 2008 10:45 am

Forgot about Ringways.I worked in "The Trade" for 11 years and in that time many garages went to the wall.Forgot about the West Yorkshire Road Car garage too and the original Appleyards at Sheepscar