An independent garage has closed after almost 100 years as the lease has run out and the landowner is selling up.

Archie Shorter, 83, long-standing boss of The Green Garage in Walmer, Deal, says he is very sad to see it shut.

The family business in Station Road is estimated to have carried out more than 20,000 MOTs since the early 1980s and also specialised in maintaining classic cars.

Mr Shorter said: “It has been my life for 44 years.

“I used to always look forward to coming into work every morning.

”When someone brings a car in and we repair it, what I want to see is them getting their car back with a smile on their face.”

Mr Shorter took on the business with a partner, the late Brian Olby, in the early 1980s. Mr Alby retired in the mid-2000s and Mr Shorter became the sole boss.

Mr Shorter, whose son Wayne, 55, also worked there as a mechanic, said: “From the time I took over the premises I have not changed a thing. The inside still looks the same as it did then.

“But there are fewer and fewer independent garages like mine. In Walmer and Deal 30 years ago there were at least 30 - now there are only three or four.”

KentOnline reported earlier this year how another family-run garage, B D Motors in Whitstable, was closing after 53 years as the lease was not being renewed and the site could be turned into housing.

Mr Shorter says The Green Garage has been in the same family for 100 years and the owners now “want to move on”.

“They are getting to the age where they want to do something about it, so that’s why we’re packing up.”

Mr Shorter says car maintenance has changed a lot over the decades because vehicles have become so much more sophisticated.

“Mechanics are now modern technicians with diagnostic equipment,” he said.

“If they were given a car that was 30 to 40 years old now and opened the bonnet they would hardly know what they were looking at.

“In the old days it was all hands, touch and look.”

Mr Shorter, who turns 84 in November, is retiring completely but will keep up his hobby of riding and repairing motorcycles. Wayne will take a few months off and then look for a new job.

By Friday the closure announcement had led to 88 comments on the Deal Local Kent History Facebook page.

Mr Olby’s son Phil said: “A great loss. I used to man the petrol pump whilst on my summer school holidays.”

Claire Ebden said: “End of another family business. Happy retirement Archie and good luck to Wayne whatever you may get up to next.”

Jane Langstaff wrote: “We really appreciated your services over the years. Proper skilled mechanics and the old garage smell of proper classics.”

The business was launched in 1928 by Ernest Kennett under the name E Kennett Junr as a repairs garage, haulage contractor and taxi service.

Mr Kennett was fined £15 in 1936 after being found guilty of having no licence for a small aircraft he kept in his garage.