"A massive Thank You for your help with the Peugeot, your customer service was 'second to none' and i will recommend you at every opportunity." "Your staff were very helpful, explained what was wrong, the whole lot was done in one day at a reasonable price. Great business, good staff, thanks!" "A very professional service, courteous and polite manner, excellent service, competitive prices. I will certainly be back next year!" "When garages are often getting a very bad press, it's good to find one which you can completely rely on! A first class, very courteous service from Gary and his staff." "We are very grateful for the efficient service we received and the caring attitude of Mr Phil Harrison. We will be recommending this Autocentre and certainly using it in the future." "A huge thank you to Mark and Andy at Croxdale Sunderland for an amazing service! We've two cars and wouldn't go anywhere else!" "Its reassuring to know that when it comes to servicing and repairs our vehicle is in professional hands.

Thank you and all the staff, just keep doing what you do!!" "The staff were very helpful, fixed the brakes same day for amazing price, I had other quotes,your price was the best by far. Will definitely use you again, recommended!" "Really impressed with the service at Darlo today.  Car is now running like a dream! We will be using you again, cheers guys!!" "The guys at the Darlington branch are wonderful. I've used Croxdale for the last two MOTs and the customer service from Les especially is wonderful." "I would just like to thank you very much for your lovely manner and kind services, I will definitely be back to this branch!" "The service is excellent, the staff are all very pleasent and I'm always contacted before they start any work to advise me what the cost will be." "We always go to Croxdale as they are the best in our area. We would not go anywhere else. We bring both of our cars here." "The MOT and Service on my Lexus was excellent. None of the usual garage 'blab'.

Will definitely use you again and tell others about my experience." "A huge thank you for looking after my car for 10 years! I will be using you 'micracle workers' for the remainder of my driving life! "A really fast friendly service. Brian and his team always go the extra mile to make the job as cost efficient as possible. "Excellent customer service, Phil is always massively helpful. Can't recommend them highly enough!" "Great service from everyone at the sunderland branch. Honest, reliable garage with great customer service. "I would like to thank the staff at Croxdale Newton Aycliffe for an efficient and friendly service on my motorhome, thank you." "A very pleasant visit. Thank you very much for the good price. Service was excellent, very friendly and the time was taken to explain everything to me." "Thank you for the great service from Phil at Chester Le Street, very friendly and helpful, will definitely use the company again!" "Car broke down on the day we needed to be in France!

Brilliant service and speedy turnaround fix from Andrew + Team at Consett - we made it! "Work was completed on time called as promised. I felt they were interested in my custom. Would recommend, good service." "I took my grandads advice on going to Croxdale and he was right - very friendly staff and great prices, no more getting ripped off! "I can not speak highly enough of Les and Jon. I recommend Croxdale to all of my friends and colleagues and will certainly be returning, a big thank you!"Used Washer And Dryer Ann Arbor "Absolutely first class service from Les the Manager and Craig who fIxed our car. Burmese Cats For Sale In GeorgiaCar was repaired in the most AMAZINGLY quick time!"Chenille Bedspread Craft Ideas

"Once again everyone at Croxdale were excellent during our recent Motorhome Service and MOT, many thanks to all the team."An elusive airship was attracting attention in early 1909; and after a period of arrant scepticism, belief was gaining ground that the rumours had substance. In addition to a news item listing places in the south-east where the phantom dirigible had been sighted, there was a leading article on May 14th entitled: “A theory has been advanced to me in explanation of the mysterious airship which has been seen flying in the neighbourhood of Peterborough. It is that the War Office has succeeded in constructing a really efficient airship and is experimenting with it in the dark to keep its existence and capacity secret.” The next day a Berlin correspondent of the Daily Express reported that German expert opinion held that it was ascending from a German warship in the North Sea, upon which it landed again after each flight. Another report in that issue notes that during movement of troops in Gyppeswky Park, Ipswich, “the other night”, it was seen frequently.

It was said to be oblong, making a noise like a motor car, moving at great speed and carrying a searchlight. So far only one farmer had seen it in daylight, but its nocturnal activity was considerable. On May 17th the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire had investgated a PC’s report and decided it was “a balloon carrying lighted Chinese lanterns”, ie, a hoax. ‘An Irish Vision’ was the headline for the report of an airship seen over Belfast moving towards the Irish Sea – and interestingly a brilliant light was observed in the sky shortly afterwards. Such phenomena never exist in isolation, and an editorial column on May 19th linked two seemingly disparate mysterious activities: “While some of us have been wasting our time and emotions over phantom airships and elusive airplanes, a method of invasion more sure and deadly is, perhaps, going on under our feet. A letter arrived today stating thus: While crossing from Hamburg on Saturday night, my interest and suspicions were aroused by hearing sounds of what I judged to be subterranean excavation while passing over one of the shallows to the north-west of the Dutch coast.

The sounds were quite like running drills and were very audible, as the sea was quiet and calm. This information I volunteer in order the Government may sake inquiries into the matter.” That same day the paper reported a night sighting of a broad cigar-shape, making a whistling sound and lit by two lights, over Cardiff. This incident’s developments were reported the next day in the famous Caerphilly Mountain incident, involving Mr Lethbridge and the fur-coated ‘foreigners’. The Northern Daily Mail’s account of the incident concludes, “He was frightened, and so seemingly were the foreigners, for they jabbered loudly, jumped into the scareship (sic) and sailed off.” A journalist was taken to the encounter site and marks were found on the ground. Slips of newspapers found on the spot show that almost all contained references to airships of the German Army. There was also a red label with instructions written in French, and a military term on it is called a “sinister touch” by the correspondent, noting that it would have been more impressive had it been in German.Yet looking book retrospectively over almost seventy years a number of aspects are month comment here:

After such massive publicity, May 21st was no disappointment to readers either. A football shaped object speedily crossed Dublin Bay despite no wind, and a cyclist reported that near Dublin he saw a cigar-shaped object with two lights in front. At which point enter Percival Spencer’s theory. He owned a company manufacturing airships. Within the past year he could trace two five-man airships sold to a firm in the eastern counties, and another to a man in Cardiff (where the publicised sightings were made. Conveniently or not, Mr Spencer took the opportunity to broadcast that for £250 he could provide more such machines. More dampening followed with the announcement by the Admiralty that the ‘airship fender’ was one of their gun targets, used in practice, which had become detached, and credibility took another knock with a piece from the Cowes (IOW) correspondent of the Daily Chronicle: “I have interviewed today a prominent official of the Isle of slight county asylum who expressed the opinion that the mysterious airship was a myth of supposed eyewitnesses who were bordering on ‘aviation insanity’.

It is a nightly occurence that the inmates insist they see airships racing around the asylum and will describe their appearance in graphic terms. They are always accompanied by lights and a whirring mound.” At which point the ‘sinister’ label takes a knock: “The red label bearing an instruction in French which might have referred to the use of a motor tyre valve has been recognised by the Michelin company as a label attached to a brass pin which is affixed to the inner tube of their motor car tyres. The word ‘obus’ which is French for shrapnel also means valve plug. This disposes of the supposed significance of the discoveries made on the spot where the airship was seen.” Nevertheless reports were made that day of a Monmouthshire sighting, and for several nights residents of Small Heath Birmingham had seen an airship, believing a local inventor was making trial trips. Starting with the words “A sensation was created in the neighbourhood of Dunstable…” a report tells us on may 26th that a bamboo framework, powerful lamps and other wreckage was found plus a document stating that any finder would be paid £5.

Upon sending a telegram the airship wreckage was removed, and the airship was said to belong to the British agents of a continental motor company and used for advertising purposes. But the same issue of the Northern Daily Mail includes a piece entitled “Wearside Resident’s Story”. It seems to echo the phenomenon of wished for occurances happening to meet a psychological need: “Sunderland people have of late had grievance because of the absence of airships which would insist on hovering over their district. This feeling of injury has, however, now been removed since that section known as Southwick had yesterday an airship story of its own to gossip about. But in no jocular spirit are those who swear they saw the flying machine.” This light in the sky had illumination radiating, and it chose to project it on a new Roman Catholic church above which it manouvered for three to four minutes before speeding off at tremendous speed. The stewardess of Southwick Club and others corroborated the account and said the noisy object was an airship with car.

On June 5th an account of an airship over Jarrow Slake, on Tyneside, recorded “at times the object would be motionless and aj;. others would dart in different directions” (hardly dirigible behaviour). By June 14th the paper was disclaiming the mystery of the Tyneside appearance, and said that a company was making experimental flights with the airship. True to form, someone came up with an all-encompassing bid to nix the tale and take personal credit. A Dr M B Boyd claimed that he had spent eight years perfecting his airship, though it had only been built for one year. The report however fails to answer most points, some of the discrepancies being: Dr Boyd’s claims are reminiscent of the self-proclaimed inventor from Worcester, Massachussetts, who became the focus of many press stories on the 1909 US flap, described in John Keel’s Operation Trojan Horse. Tillinghast boasted of taking his invention at least 300 miles non-stop at 120 mph. An early investigative reporter found fourteen men working at a secret shed near Worcester, Mass. but he was unable to confirm or deny the presence of an airship.