Knights of Beccles

The June 1992 edition of "The Waveney Life Magazine" includes a quaint little story written by local Beccles man Bob Aldous about the first car he bought in 1929. "It cost just £25," Aldous writes. "We called it 'the covered wagon' although in fact it was a 1925 Jowett 7 h.p. [horse power] car. The purchase was made from the late Mark Knights of Beccles in 1929."

1925 Jowett, owned by John Denton of Yorkshire

"I handed him [Knights] the money and asked him how to drive it! That was no problem, he said, pointing out the gears, the clutch and the brake. He bade me jump in and drive off! Well, after all, there were no such things as driving tests in those days..."

"After the first week I reckoned I was a pretty good driver. So, on the Saturday morning I drove along London Road in Beccles at a smart lick. It hadn't at that stage occurred to me that you should slow down before taking a forty-five degree turn.

My visit to the garage that morning was, to say the least, a little unorthodox. 'The covered wagon' entered through the showroom window! Neither I nor the Jowett sustained any damage, but it didn't do the window much good nor some bicycles which were on display..."

Mark Benedict Knights was born in 1895 in Beccles and was the son of Alfred James Knights and Henrietta (nee Spendlove). The Knights family lived at 16 Alexandra Road in Beccles and Alfred was a Tailor by trade. During the First World War, three of Alfred and Henrietta's sons served:

Alfred John Spencer Knights - R.F.A 2nd Air Mechanic

Ernest Knights - R.F.A Signaller

Mark Benedict Knights - R.F.C Corporal

On the 1911 census returns Mark Benedict Knights was listed as an Engineer's Apprentice. Some time after the First World War I believe he took up a business partnership with Laurence Durrant. Mark married late in life to Olive Gertrude Rayner, in 1932. They had at least four known children, three daughters and one son.

I found the following in the London Gazette, dated 2 January 1951:

NOTICE is hereby given- that the Partnership
(heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned
Laurence Arthur Durrant and Mark Benedict Knights
carrying on business as Motor and Agricultural
Engineers at Beccles under the style or firm of
DURRANT-AND KNIGHTS has been dissolved by
mutual consent as from the 1st day of January, 1951,
so far as concerns the said Laurence Arthur Durrant
who retires from the firm. All debts due to and
owing by the said late firm will be received and
paid by the said Mark Benedict Knights who will
continue to carry on the said business under the same
style or firm.—Dated this 28th day of December 1950.
L. A. DURRANT.

M. B. KNIGHTS.

It was after the dissolution of the business in 1950 that Mark Benedict Knights applied to the Beccles Town Council for development of the existing business:

(20 March 1953) Beccles & Bungay Times newspaper: SALTGATE FILLING STATION: An application by Mr M Knights of Old Market Garage for development of the Saltgate frontage with petrol pumps came before the Town Council. He agreed: 1.) To stop using the two pumps in Old Market. 2.) No adverts on Saltgate. 3.) The wings should be planted with suitable trees instead of flowers. 4.) The main wall on the west side of the building be constructed of good quality red facing bricks and carried 3 feet above the eaves of the building.

Mark Benedict Knights died at Northgate Hospital in Great Yarmouth in 1964, aged 68.

Mark Knights business advertisement in
Beccles Official Guide, late 1950s