Steve
Beatty’s father went to America in 1910 and his
mother, Kate, joined him the following year. They married and then lived in
Boston, Massachusetts.
Steve’s father Michael worked in a warehouse and he and his wife returned to Galway in
1920.
Steve was born a month later in The
Cladagh, Galway, on May 25. Steve’s father bought a small lorry and started his
own business transporting pigs, sheep and flour. He later put a seat on the
back of the lorry and would carry passengers around the town.
Steve had previously worked as a mechanic
in Galway but his boss had had to make redundancies. Being single, Steve and
another man were let go.
He left Ireland in 1939 and arrived in
Coventry September 15. He found digs at 2 Rolloson Rd. and went back home in 1947 for
his honeymoon.
Due to the petrol shortage after the war
there were very few cars and therefore few jobs for mechanics. He got work
driving in Coventry for £3/10s and £8 if he worked nights. After 2 years in the country Steve became
eligible for National Service in the British Army but was exempt because of the
work he was doing. Another brother, Johnny was also called up and
served in Arnhem.
Steve transferred to Leicester in June 1945.
His brother Martin, who had been living in Coventry, had then moved over to
Leicester. He wrote to Steve saying that things were better in Leicester and to
come over.
Martin saw an advert for a flat in a post
office on Mere Rd and Steve got the ground floor flat in a 3 storey house at 37
Mere Rd.
He remembers needing a reference to get the
flat and had one with him from his old boss in Ireland.
Steve got a job night driving for a
transport company and then started doing car repairs. By 1947 he was selling
cars and building up his own successful business.
In 1954 Martin bought a piece of land at 88-92
Sparkenhoe St and they set up the Beatty Brothers’ forecourt selling cars.
He also bought a workshop at 1 Evington
St. which was two terraced houses knocked together. He lived opposite at
No. 2 Evington St. and could walk through the back door and into the office.
The piece of land had been the site of 2
houses bombed in 1941 which had lain disused for years. (Steve recalls that the
council in Coventry were much more efficient when it came to clearing rubble
from bombsites.) It took 104 lorry loads
to take away all the old brickwork, rubble and rubbish that had accumulated.
Steve and Martin cleared the land and used it to display and sell used cars.
Local people were very grateful that they had cleared the land, erecting a
fence and putting up flower boxes!
The Beatty brothers built a car showroom in
1959 which could hold 30 cars with 14 cars in the car park. Steve describes
himself as first “in the overalls”, in the workshop. Martin was Managing
Director and Steve had a quarter share in the company. Because of the shortage
of cars he would later travel around to car auctions in Hull and Lincolnshire
looking for cars to sell. They sold the business in 1988 and Martin
retired back home to Galway but was in bad health. Steve retired although he carried on dealing
in cars for another 9 years: he says he feels very lucky to have been able to
keep working as he did.
The brothers later became a Fiat Agency but
it seemed that the public weren’t ready for foreign cars.
Steve and his wife Julie, nee McGrath, lived
at 2 Evington St until he retired from the motor trade in 1956. They were
married for 61 yrs. Julie was a nurse at The Towers Hospital and had come from
a family of 9 children.
Martin had two daughters, Maureen, and
Rosemary.
Steve and Julie have two sons: James and
Geoffrey. James, born in 1947, went to Scared Heart and Gateway. Geoffrey, born
1961 went to Sacred Heart and City of Leicester School.
Steve’s two sisters came over to Leicester
because their brothers were here. Nora (married name, Robertson) bought a house
in Aylestone for £3000 in 1950 and Ann (married name, Parker) lived at 92 Victoria
Park Rd. for 30 years
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