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 second photo (below) shows the plane had been moved to sit alongside the Burton Garage with three of his children (Dorothy, Valerie & Brian) playing alongside.
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.
8 Comments
Lorraine Neale · 02/23/2023 at 12:16 pm
I love this article, Jim packer was my great grandfather and I heard lots of interesting stories about him.
Amanda Read · 02/23/2023 at 9:02 pm
Thank you for commenting, Lorraine.
Pomme Homme · 03/18/2023 at 4:27 pm
There is more information about Jim Packer, his life, his death and his aircraft to be found at http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=15780.15.
As to the Latvian aircraft in the photograph, this is a VEF I-12 of 1937. Whilst I cannot say how it ended up with Jim Packer in Burton, I’d hazard a guess that it was one of the many aircraft that he collected in the 1940s. The prototype I-12 visited the UK in 1937, as did another example in 1939. A company called Rollasons, at Croydon Airport, was appointed as distributor for the I-12, adapted for the UK market, and in summer 1939 an example was offered for sale by DRP Engines, at Gatwick Airport, for £750, but it was not sold in the UK. With the outbreak of war, probably not being suitable for impressment into RAF service, it is likely to have been placed in storage for the duration and acquired by Jim Packer during or shortly after the war.
Amanda Read · 03/19/2023 at 5:40 pm
Thank you for this information and the link – lovely to have it all drawing together.
Pomme Homme · 03/23/2023 at 12:29 pm
A little more on the Latvian VEF I-12. In 1946 it was discovered at the former Hanworth Air Park (close to London Heathrow Airport) minus its outer wings and engine. Subsequently it is recorded as having been dismantled but still being in the UK on 25 May 1947. Unfortunately it is not said when or by whom it was dismantled or where it was on that date. But as the above photograph of YL-ABS seems to show it minus its outer wings and engine but not dismantled, I’d hazard a guess that it was acquired by Jim Packer, and transported to Burton, between January 1946 and May 1947. Does the source of that photograph have any idea when it was taken? I wonder whether it was Jim Packer who dismantled the aeroplane and, if so, what became of it after May 1947. Maybe it was part of the garage clearance sale after Jim Packer’s death?
Chris Bennett · 03/30/2023 at 10:01 am
Thank you for the additional information on the aircraft. There are still members of Jim Packer’s family in the Burton area and I will ask if they have any further information to share
Pomme Homme · 03/30/2023 at 2:32 pm
Thank you, Chris. I’ll look forward to hearing whether Jim Packer’s surviving family members can add to this topic.
I did have brief contact with Jim Packer’s grandson, Martin Neale, but that was over two years ago and I’ve heard nothing from him since.
In the 1940s Jim Packer appears to have been an inveterate collector of old aeroplanes and airframes. So far, I have identified the following pre-war aeroplanes which are said to have been in or passed through his hands at various times:
G-EBVD D.H.60 Cirrus Moth
G-EBWU Avro Avian
G-ABJX Klemm L.27
G-ADDL De Bruyne Snark
G-AEHI B.A. Swallow
G-AFDL D.H.91 Albatross
G-AISW Piper J-3 Cub
YL-ABS VEF I-12
The Avro Avian and the Klemm L.27 have interesting histories. They must have been airworthy in 1944 because they are seen flying in the 1945 film ‘The World Owes Me a Living’ (starring David Farrar and Judy Campbell). Jim Packer is said to have acquired them from the film production company, British National Films, but he did not register them in his name and subsequently that trail goes cold. The Cirrus Moth was registered to Jim Packer in November1945, but is said have moved on to Rollasons, at Croydon Aerodrome, by 1948. Of the De Bruyne Snark, it is said that it survived a 1940 bombing raid on its hangar at Croydon Aerodrome and subsequently was transported to Burton Garage, where it was stored in the open until about 1947 and thereafter was destroyed. The BA Swallow was registered to Jim Packer from August 1944 until July 1948, when the Air Registration Board cancelled its registration as ‘being scrapped’. The Piper Cub was the aircraft in which Jim Packer lost his life when it ditched at sea, off Ostend, in December 1947. The Albatross is dealt with elsewhere on this website and the VEF I-12 is dealt with above.
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