Hall's Garage hosts open day to celebrate 70th anniversary

A family owned business in Morton is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.

Hall’s Garage in Folkingham Road is marking the occasion with an open day on Saturday.

The event, which starts at 10am, will include the launch of a new vehicle, the Tifosi GT.

The business has been in the Hall family since 1948 when Charlie Hall bought the land on which it is located.

Charlie’s son Steve Hall and his wife Lynne took it over in 1983.

“So this year marks a number of milestones,” said Steve.

“It’s our 70th anniversary - 35 years that my dad had the business and 35 years that we’ve had it; my father would have been 100 years old if he were alive; and we’re also launching the Tifosi GT.”

Steve, 65, said Charlie had been a founder of Jubilee Garage in Bourne before purchasing the land in Morton and moving his family into Brook House on the property.

“He was a motor engineer and started on his own working from the site doing reboring and cylinder head work, services which we still offer,” he said.

The youngest of seven children, Steve was born in the house and practically grew up in the workshop.

“I was the one who stayed on,” he replied when asked how the business had ended in his hands. “Although we all worked in the garage at some stage, except for one my sisters, everyone else went off and did their own thing.”

After taking over the full time running of the business, Steve realised that in order to survive he could no longer operate simply as a village garage but would need to specialise in order to attract customers from further afield.

He settled on MG’s, a decision made by the fact that he owned one and also because customers were already bringing them to the garage to service.

Steve quickly gained a reputation for his quality work and word soon spread. Over the years the Hall’s Garage name has become synonymous with the MG brand and the business has exported restored vehicles around the world including to the US, Netherlands, Cyprus and Germany.

“I always fancied an MG,” said Steve.

“They have a wide appeal and are such reliable cars and are relatively easy to repair.”

In 2013 Hall’s Garage bought a company called Tifosi.

“It manufactured kits that would allow you to change an MG Midget into an Austin Sprite and we’ve developed that concept further,” he said.

Hall’s currently sells two models, the Tifosi Rana and the Tifosi SS.

“On Saturday we’re launching a third model, the Tifosi GT,” said Steve.

Proceedings start at 10am and go on until 4pm.

For more information visit Hall's Garage