John's Chipperfield's Memory Lane looks back at the history of family-run Forge Garage, which could be under threat.

THE Forge Garage at Kidlington has been repairing and servicing customers’ cars for more than 60 years.

For more than 50 of those years, it has been run by members of one family – Fred Beckley and his son, Alan.

We were reminded of their valuable contribution to life in England’s largest village by some sad news – a threat to the garage’s future.

Plans have been announced to build up to six homes on their site off The Moors.

The family-run firm plans to carry on as normal as long as it can – and may find it has more time than it expected.

For the company working on the housing scheme for landowners Oxfordshire County Council was none other than the disaster-prone Carillion.

And as everyone knows, Britain’s second largest construction company is no more, having collapsed under the weight of a £1.5bn debt pile.

The garage was established on the site in the early 1950s by Peter Batcham.

His choice of name, Forge Garage, was no surprise as the land had been home to one, if not two, forges in the past.

Fred Beckley took over the business in 1961. He grew up in Iffley and worked as a mechanic with the RAF in Burma during the Second World War

After the war, he worked for Laytons and Morris Radiators before setting up on his own.

He ran the business for 22 years before dying of a heart attack in 1983, but by then, the business was firmly established.

His son, Alan, had joined him after leaving Wolvercote School in 1965 and he took control after his father’s death.

Now Alan’s son, Mark, is the third generation of the family in the business. Derek Woolford is the garage’s other employee.

Today, the garage occupies one of the former forge buildings and a former barn, a relic of the site’s previous history as a farm. The former farmhouse is also nearby.

Work on repairing and servicing vehicles is continuing as usual, with thoughts of the housing scheme firmly on the back burner.

Alan Beckley, 70, tells me: “We’re not sure what is happening, but we will just carry on as long as we can.”