Cecil James Packer (1910–47) & Burton Garage

Author: Chris Bennett

This article will primarily focus on providing some information on a couple of photographs which have been circulating around the village for a number of years. They provide an unusual scene but perhaps when you read further into this article you can appreciate this was more typical of the day in this small Cotswold Village.Mr Cecil James ‘Jim’ Packer’s parents (Reginald & Annie) owned the old Post Office and Shop during the 1910s. The family came to own Burton Garage (now Nettleton Engineering).
Jim was the proprietor of Burton Garage in the 1930s and 40s which it seems became what is described as an Aladdin’s Cave of aircraft memorabilia, fairground items and other mechanical bits and pieces. Jim also held a pilot’s licence and owned his own plane, which he flew across to the continent on many occasions.The photograph below shows the remains of a 22 seat passenger De Havilland DH.91 Albatross G-AFDL named ‘Fingal’ was one of five such planes owned by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) During the war in 1940 the plane was on regular flights between Croydon and RAF Whitchurch, South of Bristol and further afield. Similar planes were used to transport VIPs, including war officials such as Winston Churchill and royalty.

De Havilland DH.91 Albatross G-AFDL ‘Fingal’

This plane developed engine problems and crashed near Pucklechurch, all seven passengers and five crew survived uninjured. The plane was badly damaged and never flew again. It was eventually towed back to Burton by Jim, and initially parked directly outside the Old House at Home pub, Burton.

The third photograph (as below) shows Jim along with two of his children sitting on the balcony above the garage in the 1940’s.

The fourth photograph (as below) also shows the front of Burton Garage at a time when the contents of the garage are being ‘sold off’, hence the large number of people looking around and enjoying some refreshments from the mobile catering van from the company called something like ‘? Square Meal’ The van was not a permanent feature and only brought in to cater for the large numbers attending the sale of the property  

The fifth photo (as below) shows another aircraft Jim brought back to Burton. It would appear from records this was built in Latvia and flown to England in 1939, just as World War II broke out. Believed the plane was place in a warehouse in England and apparently disappeared! what was it doing in Burton?

Apparently, Jim had several planes over the years, some to fly, and some salvaged in storage at a farm in West Kington.

In 1946 the following article entitled ‘The Flying Snake’ was reported in several newspapers
Flying his Piper Cub, Mr Cecil ‘Jim’ Packer of Burton saw a snake slither on to the front seat and had to make a forced landing. Jim said “I tried to smother the snake with maps, but only angered it, and it coiled around the rudder bar, hissing and shooting out its forked tongue. I made a forced landing on rough ground near Marshfield without using the rudder and then hooked the snake out of the cockpit with a stick”

Apart from his business interests in the garage, Jim also owned two cottages in Marsh Lane, the shop (now Bow Cottage) and a garage on the A46 at Pennsylvania.
The origin of this village name is uncertain, but it may have been named after the US state by local quakers who historically had a significant presence in that area

Sadly, Jim died in a flying accident over the English Channel in 1947 at the age of 37yrs.

 What happened next at Burton garage?

It is thought the garage was sold to a Mr Hunter from Castle Combe, who in turn sold it to a company called Stratton, letting the building to contractors working on the M4 motorway. During this time the Clark family had a transport business operating on Hillside. One of the brothers, Gordon Clark, eventually also became the owner of the Burton Garage and continued to use it as a garage as well as a carpentry workshop.

Brothers Doug & John Rawlins from the Giddeahall area then bought the building and named it Burton Engineering, specialising in the repair and maintenance of agricultural vehicles such as tractors and combines. John Rawlins (at the time of writing) remains the owner of the property which now houses a steel and metals fabrication business at the rear as well as the present vehicle garage at the front of the property.

In the early 1970s Tim Derrick had been running an agricultural machinery business from a Nettleton building, moved to rent space at the front of the garage, operating his business Nettleton Engineering, again primarily working on agricultural vehicles but moved on to other motor vehicles as it is today. Tim began to provide MOT vehicle inspections from 1979.  Also, up until 2001 Tim had a contract with the local Police to provide recovery services to vehicles involved in collisions and general breakdown services.

 

Nettleton Engineering: the garage in 2021

Acknowledgements

Jim Packer is the father of Burton residents Adrian and Peggy Packer, and we are grateful to them both for providing some of the photographs and background information.

We also acknowledge the assistance of Tim Derrick of Nettleton, the current owner of Nettleton Garage, and Viv Clark.

This blog was published previously as an article in The Bugle, as part of its Historical Burton series, and was written by Chris Bennett.