CLEVELAND PETROLS was the trade mark of The Petroleum Storage and Finance Corporation Ltd independently operating in the North East of England in the 1930's. The company is perhaps best known for its pre war brands of "Cleveland Discol" - an alcohol fuel. This was a blend of distilled alcohol (ethanol) and refined petrol and was regarded as a superior petrol. "Discol" was the trade mark of the Distillers Company Ltd. The other well known brand was "Cleveland Benzole Mixture". Benzole was a mixture of a coal-tar product and petrol and which was first commercially produced between the wars by various companies and sold under a variety of trade names. In 1938 a controlling interest was taken in Cleveland by the Anglo-American Oil Company Ltd (Esso from 1951) when it purchased 51% of the company. It further extended its holding in 1954 to 88% and by 1958 Cleveland had become fully owned by the Esso Petroleum Co Ltd. Cleveland continued to trade under its brand name through its nationwide network of garages but by the early 1970's Esso re branded those garages into its own network and the Cleveland name disappeared.

The company's early petrol pump globes were of a lozenge shape, they also had pill shaped globes, and later, a mixture of square and oblong globes together with attractive winged globes plus a box globe. The oblong Cleveland Guaranteed globe seems an oddity but from examination of Cleveland advertising, Cleveland Petrol Stations had banks of petrol pumps adorned with a winged globe followed by a pump with an oblong globe as is shown in the adverts opposite. Globes were originally blown in glass but towards the end of Cleveland's time they were produced in plastic.

During the second world war all petrol was "Pooled" - brand names disappeared. February 1st 1953 saw the end of wartime "Pooled Petrol" regulations in Great Britain and oil companies could now market their own brands of Petrol. The adverts illustrated below, dating from 1949 - 1953, show that Cleveland was keen to keep their brands in the public eye. Cleveland took a modernistic approach to their advertisements although their globe designs had not basically changed for 20 years or so.