Remember the Birdseye vehicles , always liked these and wished i had got a few more pictures of them , i know they went on to buy Dafs after the fords but i saw a scania once in there colours anyone got any info about the birdseye fleet?
berore the buy out of Carryfast by our directors,we were part of the Lever Brothers group,as was Birdseye IIRC.nice Transcon. 
roadcruiser:
Remember the Birdseye vehicles , always liked these and wished i had got a few more pictures of them , i know they went on to buy Dafs after the fords but i saw a scania once in there colours anyone got any info about the birdseye fleet?
Leylands & Fords were the mainstay of the Unispeed (contracted to Birds Eye) fleet at Lowestoft, amongst other depots. If I remember correctly the Volvos were based in Grimsby. Walls Ice Cream ran the DAFs from Gloucester & the Scanias were theirs too. This was all before BRS/National Freight took over the transport.
Picture of Birds Eye Transcon
At Gloucester they used to have 8wheeler AEC’s which when in the workshop would be stripped down to the chassis and rebuilt. They were fine until sent down to Cornwall where some of the corners were too tight.
Now they have
In the late fifties and early sixties Fridged Freight of Diss had a couple of Mercurys painted silver and blue on contract for Birds Eye and four-in-line trailers to go with them. The boxes were taken off later and Norwich coachworks used them when they built the trailers for the six wheel units they put on the road 1968 onwards. When you caught the light right you could read the Logo and see they were two boxes joined up then painted over.
I remember the Unispeed Marathons well. It seemed they came to grief frequently in the Diss area, one on the bends at Roydon White Hart and one on its side in a field in Stanton. They didn’t hang about, but they seemed to keep the Fords on the road. Very nice they looked too. When I figure it out I’ll post a pic of a Wyatts Mercury on the bank at Yarmouth in Birds Eye colours. Jim.
After BRS took on the transport at Birds Eye Walls they supplied ergo AECs and Guy Big Js to the Gloucester factory. After the lorries had done their stint at Walls they were introduced into the general haulage fleet. As I recall, the AECs went to Gloucester depot while we took about half a dozen Guys at Forest of Dean. Our Big Js continued in service in the Wall’s blue colours which caused some consternation when bunkering fuel at other depots until we pointed out the BRS fleet number & the driver’s official paperwork.
Thanks for all the replies guys ,and some great pictures there too , i didn’t realize the Daf 3300 were mostly from Gloucester, I can remember seeing them around the Cambridge area sometimes, but it was mostly the big fords , with the odd Leyland roadtrain as well,guess the marathons had gone by then i also saw a scania artic in Birdseye livery a p113 or p93 , maybe it was a one off. I think the last fords were b reg’s and with depots at Lowestoft , Gt Yarmouth, Grimsby ,Kirby , and Gloucester there must have been quite a sizable fleet. Reading all the comments makes you realize the wealth of knowledge that is out there
Cheers guys …
Gloucester, the largest ice cream factory in Europe, 
had it’s own workshop which dealt not only with the trunking fleet but also the wholesale vans, (Gloucester depot was next to the ice cream factory) our sausage and bacon vans and the last stop me and buy one trike still being operated by Walls. (Mr Knight was well into his 80’s then and still pedalling). I would imagine it also pulled in vehicles from other depots.
In the early 1980’s, Unispeed (Birds Eye) ran a lot of Marathons most of which were sleeper cabs.
One Lowestoft based Marathon they had was a day cab with a prototype ■■■■■■■ 10 litre 250 engine.
(we know this now but, didn’t at the time)
The engine was on pre production development and was gaining real time miles.
The driver was given no information on the engine and was told in no uncertain terms not to tilt the cab.
He was given a very early ‘brick’ mobile phone and was told to call ‘this number’ if anything went wrong. He was told, just wait until the correct repair crew arrived and not to get anyone else to look at it.
This was over a year before the engine was launched to the public.
Regards.
Stirling.
Stirling 9509:
In the early 1980’s, Unispeed (Birds Eye) ran a lot of Marathons most of which were sleeper cabs.
One Lowestoft based Marathon they had was a day cab with a prototype ■■■■■■■ 10 litre 250 engine.
(we know this now but, didn’t at the time)
The engine was on pre production development and was gaining real time miles.
The driver was given no information on the engine and was told in no uncertain terms not to tilt the cab.
He was given a very early ‘brick’ mobile phone and was told to call ‘this number’ if anything went wrong. He was told, just wait until the correct repair crew arrived and not to get anyone else to look at it.
This was over a year before the engine was launched to the public.
Regards.
Stirling.
Almost right Stirling, however: Most of the Marathons were day cabs with TL12 engines, except one (as you state above). The last three were the first & only Marathon sleepers they had. XUR92S, XUR93S & my old chaps lorry which was the one pictured a few posts above XUR94S. These three all had 250 ■■■■■■■ engines & these three were full production models.
According to my records i believe Birdseye operated the following,
LGS 208 V - LGS 225 V FORD TRANSCONTIS
TGS 689W - TGS 698W FORD TRANSCONTIS
WBM 451X -WBM 470X FORD TRANSCONTI
DBH 268X - DBH 274X FORD TRANSCONTI
AGS 30X - AGS 39X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
YMJ 685X - YMJ 694X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
JNK 730Y - JNK 745Y FORD TRANSCONTI
A48 MBM -A50 MBM FORD TRANSCONTI
A954 LVH - A983 LVH DAF 3300
A202 LHD - A231 LHD DAF 3300
A226 NHD - A255 NHD DAF 3300
A191 OVH - A194 OVH DAF 3300
A288 GGS- A297 GSS DAF 3300
A152 ORO-A161 ORO FORD TRANSCONTI / LEYLANDS
A519 SNM - A533 SNM FORD TRANSCONTI
B648 XGS-B657 XGS FORD TRANSCONTI
B842 WPP - B853 WPP FORD TRANSCONTI
B489 VGS - B508 VGS FORD TRANSCONTI
Exel took over the distribution after this and the distribution operation changed dramatically…
I wonder did many of their trucks survive into preservation be a nice collection if you had them now.
roadcruiser:
According to my records i believe Birdseye operated the following,
LGS 208 V - LGS 225 V FORD TRANSCONTIS
TGS 689W - TGS 698W FORD TRANSCONTIS
WBM 451X -WBM 470X FORD TRANSCONTI
DBH 268X - DBH 274X FORD TRANSCONTI
AGS 30X - AGS 39X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
YMJ 685X - YMJ 694X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
JNK 730Y - JNK 745Y FORD TRANSCONTI
A48 MBM -A50 MBM FORD TRANSCONTI
A954 LVH - A983 LVH DAF 3300
A202 LHD - A231 LHD DAF 3300
A226 NHD - A255 NHD DAF 3300
A191 OVH - A194 OVH DAF 3300
A288 GGS- A297 GSS DAF 3300
A152 ORO-A161 ORO FORD TRANSCONTI / LEYLANDS
A519 SNM - A533 SNM FORD TRANSCONTI
B648 XGS-B657 XGS FORD TRANSCONTI
B842 WPP - B853 WPP FORD TRANSCONTI
B489 VGS - B508 VGS FORD TRANSCONTIExel took over the distribution after this and the distribution operation changed dramatically…
i worked out of gloucester brs for 13 years and did do a bit on birds eye now and again .this was an agency drivers attempt at coming off the M4 to go south to brooklands on the M25…as you can see ,he did not make it! 65 mph on the tacho card!. it was dragged back to glos brs and left for a few days for all the ice cream to melt and run out.what a smell.
steve1311:
I wonder did many of their trucks survive into preservation be a nice collection if you had them now.roadcruiser:
According to my records i believe Birdseye operated the following,
LGS 208 V - LGS 225 V FORD TRANSCONTIS
TGS 689W - TGS 698W FORD TRANSCONTIS
WBM 451X -WBM 470X FORD TRANSCONTI
DBH 268X - DBH 274X FORD TRANSCONTI
AGS 30X - AGS 39X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
YMJ 685X - YMJ 694X LEYLAND ROADTRAIN
JNK 730Y - JNK 745Y FORD TRANSCONTI
A48 MBM -A50 MBM FORD TRANSCONTI
A954 LVH - A983 LVH DAF 3300
A202 LHD - A231 LHD DAF 3300
A226 NHD - A255 NHD DAF 3300
A191 OVH - A194 OVH DAF 3300
A288 GGS- A297 GSS DAF 3300
A152 ORO-A161 ORO FORD TRANSCONTI / LEYLANDS
A519 SNM - A533 SNM FORD TRANSCONTI
B648 XGS-B657 XGS FORD TRANSCONTI
B842 WPP - B853 WPP FORD TRANSCONTI
B489 VGS - B508 VGS FORD TRANSCONTIExel took over the distribution after this and the distribution operation changed dramatically…
paul binns nicely restord transcon is ex Birdseye
wideboybob:
0i worked out of gloucester brs for 13 years and did do a bit on birds eye now and again .this was an agency drivers attempt at coming off the M4 to go south to brooklands on the M25…as you can see ,he did not make it! 65 mph on the tacho card!. it was dragged back to glos brs and left for a few days for all the ice cream to melt and run out.what a smell.
Blimey what a mess , Looks like A191 OVH , i m guessing that was written off…
I used to see the transcons as they ran to birdseye Eastbourne up until early/mid '80’s when they shut the plant down. I moved a lot of the machinery when I first started my driving career, nearly all went to Gloucester.
Regards,
Mark.
half of the gloucester plant is now a buisness park.my missus worked there in the water ice dept for 15 years.there was a scania 110 day cab shunter when i first went there.
brookie:
I used to see the transcons as they ran to birdseye Eastbourne up until early/mid '80’s when they shut the plant down. I moved a lot of the machinery when I first started my driving career, nearly all went to Gloucester.Regards,
Mark.
Interesting comment about Eastbourne mark , i was aware they had a plant somewhere on the south coast , apparently they made gateau and sponges there , do you know if there were any artics based at Eastbourne, or whether they just called in to collect product from there?