The first three photos on this page were taken in 1938. The man with the moustache is Edward Marsh.
 (David Cove collection.)

There's been an oil storage depot by the Aire and Calder Navigation at the end of Fleet Lane since at least the 1930s. Its situated on land close to the site of Fleet Mills which had a history of corn milling going back to medieval times. The large mill building which was also used for the "fulling" or cleaning of cloth, chert grinding, and pottery manufacturing, was destroyed by a fire in 1924 and stood derelict until it was demolished in 1967. A small community of workers lived in cottages adjacent to the mill which have also been pulled down.

The land on which the oil depot stands is owned by British Waterways and was originally tenanted by the Regent Oil Company which was taken over by Texaco.    

More recently the depot has been run jointly by Bayfords and the British Fuel Company under the name Fleet Storage Ltd. They took over the lease from Texaco in 1975 after the depot had been closed for a period following an alleged Customs and Excise fraud by some Texaco employees.

Fleet Storage Ltd and Whitaker’s Barge Company own Whitfleet Ltd which operate barges carrying oil from Immingham to Fleet. Each vessel is equivalent to over 20 road tankers. 

 

Edward Marsh at the gate with Fleet Mills and houses in the background.

Two "Albion" tanker lorries. The Albion company's logo was "Sure as the Sunrise" which is the casting on the radiator top with the name Albion embedded centrally in it. The registration plates indicate they were registered in London in 1938,  probably at the Texaco head office.

The River Aire in flood in 1947.