The building which now is the home of the 'Shahnaz Indian Restaurant' at the bottom of Cheddar Gorge has had a number of uses since being built in the 1900's by Burnell Brothers. Operating first as a garage, the building was home to thirty tractors for a food production scheme started during the first world war, and the Burnell Brothers; Arthur, Leonard, William and Lawrence and their sister Flossie were supplies of petrol to the British Army.

Behind the garage was a generator which provided the villages first electricity supply, and two gas engines which provided the villages domestic and street light gas, made from anthracite on the premises.

As tourism took off the garage became home to the Burnell Brothers fleet of charabanc coaches, and car bodies were made there with the aid of local carpenter John Scourth.

From Burnell Brothers, ownership of the building past to Doug Gough, the grandson of the discoverer of Gough's Cave, Richard Gough. It was then sold to a Mr Nicholson who owned Regal Cinema in Wells and he ran it as a garage, before it was taken over by his son James Nicholson, who ran it as a garage offering car sales, petrol and showed vintage motor cars.

He then turned the building into a shopping centre with individual stalls, along with the Penny Farthing Cafe and eventually the garage was sold off in different lots to wholesalers Charles Of Cheddar and Shaun Abrahams, who opened a gift emporium. Abdul Hashim, better known as Hash, opened the Orchid Indian Restaurant in the cafe premises.

As all the other businesses relocated to other sites, the premises were bought who with his brother Salim, as chef, then spent four years giving the old neglected garage a remarkable new lease of life. The £750,000 conversion of the Burnells Garage into the Shahnaz Indian Restaurant, a 140 plus seats Indian Gourmet Cuisine establishment, bringing the building firmly into the 21st century. The building re-opened on Festive Night 2006. A wine bar on the ground floor sits where the cars use to fill with petrol, and an open plan restaurant is on a new floor installed above, where the Burnell Brothers once kept their ledgers.

Our thanks go out to Rose Tinknell and Graham Burnell for their help in compiling this article. Read our local review