REGENT

ZIP, Watsons

Brief History

In 1913, Trinidad Leaseholds was formed to develop oil properties on the West Indies island of Trinidad. It soon built a refinery there, but lacked dedicated sales outlets, so in 1930 it acquired a small independent distributor of petrol in Britain, Burt Boulton & Haywood, which used the Regent brand name. After the War in 1947, when pooling arrangements ceased, Trinidad Leaseholds and Texaco (which had been operating in Britain since 1916) agreed to merge their interests under the Regent brand. Within twelve months, Texaco passed its interest in Regent to Caltex - which became the brand used elsewhere in Europe. During the 1950s it became clear that a UK refinery was needed, so Texaco acquired the Trinidad Oil Company (as it was now called) to end up with a 75% stake in Regent. When Caltex was broken up in Europe in 1967, Texaco replaced Regent at 4,000 or so outlets, with just 147 switching to Chevron, its former partner. After more than 35 years of disuse in the UK, the Regent name was revived for use at stations supplied by Texaco authorised distributors from around 2004, and is currently used in preference to Team Spirit or Proteus.

Maps: Regent

Regent maps are relatively uncommon, possibly reflecting low sales at its rather downmarket service stations (and the fact that its maps were more expensive than its competitors').

The map left is from a very rare series of six regional touring maps of England and Wales. Probably from 1953, they are noteworthy for showing many points of interest described in a full gazetteer on the reverse and having 20 small town plans in the margins. Each section's cover is a different colour, but the maps inside are a quite simple design at 6 miles to the inch.

These sheet maps were not sold for long as they cost four times as much as the clearer Esso maps. For the rest of the 1950s, Regent sold a single spiral bound atlas of Great Britain at 10 miles to the inch. The country was covered in 30 small sections (including two for London) arranged so that each sheet was about 0.2" wider than the one before, for easy access to the required page. All maps were drawn by Geographia and only the 1960 edition (far right) was dated. A fourth design is reported to exist with a Regent banjo pole sign on the front cover. The first edition cost 2/6d; later ones a shilling more. There are actually significant variances within each edition; later first editions cost 3/6d, were laminated in cellophane and had a different rear cover. The second edition comes with two different maps of London - a simple planning map and a more detailed street map of central London. The third edition is superficially similar to later second editions, although the Regent logo is shown on a black square background. The final edition (above right, coded 1960) includes examples of (short-lived) motorway signs. The middle two editions are described as "road maps" and the first and final as being a "road atlas".

	The final spiral atlas and the first sheet map (left, estimated at 1961) used a design almost identical to that of Caltex maps from Europe in the same period. Britain was divided into two sheets, each at 9 miles to the inch, and sold for a shilling. The later example (right) comes from approximately 1964 and uses a design unique to Regent. All the Regent sheet maps and atlases on this page were specially prepared for the company by Geographia Ltd.
	From around 1965, Regent moved to a series of five sectional maps at 5 miles to the inch (except Ireland). Most commonly found in the dull, bluey-green covers, their final version showed both Regent and Texaco logos on the cover and referred to "Regent Oil Company, a Division of Texaco Ltd". However the Texaco logo was only used in this format in Northern Ireland; the version in mainland Britain lacked the star.
	Although Regent maps of Ireland are missing from British series, this 1958 map (with cartography by Orell Füssli) carries both Regent and Caltex logos. It may have been produced for distribution in Northern Ireland (where it is thought that the Regent name was used), or it may have been for mainland British distribution. A Caltex version of the same map can more commonly be found. Image courtesy of Richard Horwitz After 1968 both Texaco and Chevron sold maps in the UK. Regent had no other European operations, although it did run a small chain of service stations in Eastern Canada, and maps from the Canadian branch can also be found.

Russian Oil Products (R.O.P.) distributed petrol within the UK during the 1920s and 30s at a slight discount. However after the War, the Soviet Union was in no shape to provide secure supplies, and R.O.P. was sold to Regent in 1948.

R.O.P.'s petrol used the ZIP name in the 1930s and for three years from 1936 free maps were produced by the company. The 1936 version (left) had the rather plain cover shown and was supplied in an envelope of the same design. In 1937 (right, front & rear) a small format cover showed the oil producing areas of Russia between the Caspian and Black Seas where the crude oil came from.

A 1937 map of just Scotland can also be found with the cover design showing the Caspian oil region. This has inset maps of Glasgow and Edinburgh which, uniquely, indicate the location of ZIP filling stations.

Maps: Watsons

Watsons Petrol Distributors Ltd was a franchised "jobber" for R.O.P./ZIP, based at Preston in Northwest England. They produced a version of the 1937 map (right) with a different cover, and all references on the covers (including inside) changed from "R.O.P. ZIP" to "Watsons R.O.P. ZIP". The actual map, by Geographia, is identical to the more common version. After the war, Watsons became the sole distributors of Fina products in Wales and the West of England.

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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 2000-8