Grant's garage in Nairn was family concern for nearly 70 years
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A GARAGE workshop and filling station in Nairn which has been run by the same family for nearly 70 years has changed hands.
PJ Grant’s workshop in Forres Road, part of the A96, has been sold to Ross’s Garage of Culloden, and the filling station and forecourt to a private businessman.
The garage closed three years ago on the retiral of brother Ian and George Grant, whose father Peter took over the business in 1953 from Norman Malcolm.
The business first opened in the mid-1930s and Peter Grant, who ran a garage in Carrbridge then the Harbour Inn at Burghead, moved to Nairn when he bought the business in 1954 and built a bungalow there for his family in 1956.
Ian (81) said the time had come for him and his brother George (79) to retire.
“We have thoroughly enjoyed running the business with lots of loyal customers and staff,” Ian said.
“At one time we had a fleet of 10 lorries, and our main work was bulk haulage including collecting the draff from Brackla Distillery. We had the workshop and garage and the filling station and
we also supplied building materials so it all kept us busy.
“We didn’t really have time for sports and other things because we were too busy running the business.”
Mr Grant said he had seen many changes in the haulage industry over the years, particularly with the tightening up of regulations and the introduction of tachographs to vehicles.
There have also been changes to the A96, immediately opposite the garage, where a new railway bridge was constructed and an old toll house at the corner of the Grantown Road junction was demolished for road widening.
One event Mr Grant recalls resulted in three of their fleet of lorries being seriously damaged in the 1980s.
“A BP tanker was coming down through the old railway bridge too fast, climbed the embankment, and landed on the top of three of our lorries which were parked up.
“Fortunately, no one was hurt. The tanker driver climbed out through the windscreen. I remember my father giving him a right mouthful. But it was over a year before we got things sorted out with insurance companies for the damage to the lorries.”
Ian wished Ross’s Garage well in its new venture.
