THE people of Fivemiletown are well served by the one-stop-shop in Crawford’s Filling Station.

The red shed is filled with a wide variety of confectionary; however, the lifeblood of the business are the fuel pumps on the forecourt outside.

John and Mae Crawford are proud to work and serve the local community, with the iconic red filling station just one part of the business they operate.

The filling station runs alongside and in addition to the fuel distribution service the pair opened in 1987, with Crawford’s Fuels leading the way in fuel distribution in Fivemiletown for more than 30 years.

The fuel distribution has John up early on many mornings as he works to keep the local community warm.

John and his wife, Mae, began leasing the filling station with its old-fashioned pumps in 1986. They then purchased the filling station and yard off Master McKee in 1995, whose daughter had previously run the filling station before George and Mae took it over.

One previous owner was the Rev. George Knott, who ran the filling station before training to be a clergyman.

With the shop’s place in Fivemiletown life for many years, John remarked that he found papers for the filling station from long before he was born, with the shop’s golden-oldie status in the community making it a true landmark of the town.

Speaking of his time at the helm, John said: “It was just a garage and three pumps when I took it over.”

The filling station has modernised now as it is one of the few filling stations across Tyrone and Fermanagh with a fully operational 24-hour pump.

The small building itself has a very unique history, as John explained: “The shed was built with railway runners from when the train used to run along here, and is held together with the steel of the tracks and a lot of old timber [from when it was first built].”

The Clogher Valley area still has echoes of railways from the Clogher Valley Railway line which operated between 1887 and 1942.

Parts of the former railway line can be seen throughout the area, with former railway buildings now being used as commercial units.

Before Covid-19, the filling station was known for being a popular socialising spot for farmers; hopefully those days will return soon when society recovers from the pandemic.