Barretts of Canterbury: 28-30 St. Peter's Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2BL

All the painstaking work that had gone into restoring no 26 St.Peters Street was tragically undone in December 86 when Oscar Rudolph, who ran the 'Frogs' restaurant there, committed suicide by setting the ground floor on fire and then driving his car through the front of the building.

The sixties and seventies had been times of enormous change in the motor industry when many of the British manufacturers came together as British Leyland, and this had to be reflected by their dealers. By 1980 we had been encouraged to put all the brands we sold - Austin, Morris, Rover, Triumph and Jaguar into one showroom, but by the mid-eighties Jaguar had been privatised and so started a new process of separate showrooms again!

The chosen area for the Jaguar dealership was then being used as the used car centre in Pound Lane. To give Used Cars a new home the Schweppes distribution depot in Broad Oak Road was purchased in 1986 and converted into a used car centre. The new Jaguar showroom, workshop and parts facility was finished in 1987 about six months after Jaguar had launched their new XJ6 saloon.