Bel Royal Motors has been a family owned garage from day one in 1926 when, instead of going into his father’s business, Philip Le Marquand, the shoemaker’s son, took the brave decision to move into the motor trade at just 23 years old. His father told him, “It’s a passing fad! Very soon motor cars will be finished but people will always want shoes.”
Philip purchased the Perkin’s Forge at Bel Royal Corner and opened Bel Royal Motor Works as a garage and general engineering workshop. The site was originally a forge and a house where Philip and his wife Vida lived with their daschund Ponto. Their home is still at our showroom and now houses our offices.Where our Kia cars are now displayed was once Vida’s vegetable garden and her front door is still visible in our showroom. In the early days Philip worked around the clock, if he was still busy at dinnertime Vida would cook his meal and slide it to him where he worked underneath a car.
