The petrol pump that could talk: A new arrival on Wearside in the 1980s

The first talking petrol pump’ in the North East arrived in town in 1987.

Filling up at Foxcover - with a friendly voice

It happened at the Foxcover filling station in Durham Road, Middle Herrington.

The idea was to prevent motorists filling up with derv instead of petrol by mistake.

“This is a diesel pump” intones a male nasal voice, when you remove the nozzle.

“Are you sure your vehicle requires diesel fuel? If not please replace the nozzle and select another pump.”

Four nozzles instead of one

It was BP’s first hi-tech site in the North and another would eventually differentiate between leaded and unleaded petrol.

The busy Foxcover station was also the first to get BP’s Quadro Pumps’ with four nozzles per terminal instead of one, which cuts down waiting.

The changes were introduced with a champagne opening but that was only the start of the fun.

A four-day celebration of the new technology

Four days of celebrations were held at the Durham Road filling station to mark the changes.

Others included the return of some very traditional garage services including real forecourt service, ie oil, water, tyre checks and windscreen cleaning.

Tell us if you remember the talking petrol pump.

You’re nicked - by a 7ft cardboard police officer

Elsewhere, cardboard policemen were being trialled in two Washington stores for the first time.

The 7ft 6ins imitation bobbies, complete with warning notes, were trialled to see if they could help reduce the shop-lifting rate.

Sunderland’s crime prevention officers pinched the idea from their Swedish counterparts, whose cardboard policemen helped their shop theft rate plummet dramatically by 70 per cent.

Tell us more

The idea to try them on Wearside came about after a member of the public sent a newspaper article to Northumbria Police about the success of the scheme in Koning, Sweden.

“There have been the obvious jokes about the cardboard policemen. But it is a worthwhile idea in trying to divert people away from crime, ” said Inspector Bell.

Share your memories about life on Wearside in 1987. Email [email protected]