Lythgoes Lime Trucks and Spreaders

I should come clean and say that I am not a driver - but our company Adam Lythgoe Ltd is 100 years old this year and, for many years, we operated lime quarries and fertiliser plants, moving products to famers all over the country and utilising owner drivers, contract lime spreaders and even coastal ships to do this.

We never actually owned our own vehicles, although most of those that we did use, we helped finance - provided the vehicles were painted in our liveries.

In our peak year, we moved almost 700,000 tonnes of lime and, if you met a dust cloud on your travels, the chances were that it was our lime causing it!

In the very early years, we moved the horse manure out of Manchester by barge, supplying farmers along the canal routes.

Anyway a visiting haulier mentioned Truck.net and said that our name had been included on the forum.

I’m very proud of our family business and have, in my office, several photos which I hope might be of interest to some of the older generation of truck drivers who may have worked with us over the years.

I hope that you find them of interest — and don’t mind me posting on this thread.

In the very early seventies, I worked at our Widnes Plant and will have loaded some of your then vehicles. I also worked as Warehouse Manager for Flockvale Distribution at Risley for a couple of years on the Hoover Contract and then another couple of years at Candy Domestic Appliances as Logistics Manager at Bromborough, so may have met a few of you.

Here at Widnes, we have David Lythgoe Ltd, a chemical storage and handling operation and so some of you will no doubt visit from time to time. My eldest son James is the Logistics Manager here, aided by Archie & Baxter (his two labradoodles).

So, although we don’t haul ourselves, we will work with some of you.

Cheers and have a Great Christmas / New Year.

David

Hi, Dave 154 , Those were fantastic pics ,Dave i remember a lot of those motors round N/ Wales coming out of Minera the BMC TRADERS DODGES in the late 50s early 60s ,I dont think Lythgoes had many of there own lorrys ,Most were owner Drivers and small firms all on Contract licences i new a few of the firms and Drivers many happy memories they say the good old days they were hard days ,? Cheers BARRY

b.waddy:
Hi, Dave 154 , Those were fantastic pics ,Dave i remember a lot of those motors round N/ Wales coming out of Minera the BMC TRADERS DODGES in the late 50s early 60s ,I dont think Lythgoes had many of there own lorrys ,Most were owner Drivers and small firms all on Contract licences i new a few of the firms and Drivers many happy memories they say the good old days they were hard days ,? Cheers BARRY

David are you the same Lythgoes that had all the steamers and steam drivengallopers
I now they were from around the Warrington area

Now here,s a blast from the past, I was a plant and transport fitter and when I had completed my National Service and returned to my former employer, after six months there I decided to chase the ‘big’ money and in 1964 started as a fitter for Adam Lythgoe at the Shadforth Quarry near Durham. long hours, 7 in the morning till 7 at night Mon to Fri and 7 till 5 Sat and Sun, and if anything broke down, work through the night to fix it. all for about £20’ big wages then. Little Geordie from Newcastle was the Manager, and we has a clapped out 54RB, an NCK 304, 2 nine yard Euclids, one with ■■■■■■■ and one with Leyland, and a Weatherill shovel and a powerful primary crusher with ancient pulverisers for crushing the dolomite. I put the NCK arse over ■■■ off the storage heap, and was lucky to get out as the door slid along side the operator position, it was renowned for throwing the travel dogs out of mesh. we got a visit from Adam Lythgoe in his chauffeur driven Roller, dressed in an old trench coat and wellies, he surveyed the damaged jib, uttered a few obscenities and disappeared taking up all of 30 minutes. As I recall no one asked me if I was ok. Today, HSE would have had a field day. Most of the powder was transported to Scotland from Seaham Harbour, the main haulier was John Long from Haswell.

I remember a local chap getting a job as a salesman going round the farms here in South West Scotland he was given a brand new white mini and as minis had just been introduced this must have been 59/60. But I remember they were a well known company then.

ADAM LYTHGO.jpg968×624 137 KB

I remember several lime spreading contractors from the Welsh Borders spreading lime for Adam Lythgoe.
Dennis Williams from Wigmore, Herefordshire was one.
Cheers Dave.

b.waddy:
David are you the same Lythgoes that had all the steamers and steam drivengallopers
I now they were from around the Warrington area

I’m not sure what we had at the time to be honest, apart from the photos and being a mere youth of 59 myself.

My cousin Frank has / had a vintage collection of steam engines, steam organ(s) and merry go rounds and he will know far more than me. I guess these would be the steam gallopers.

5thDragoon:
We got a visit from Adam Lythgoe in his chauffeur driven Roller, dressed in an old trench coat and wellies, he surveyed the damaged jib, uttered a few obscenities and disappeared taking up all of 30 minutes. As I recall no one asked me if I was ok.

Well, apart from the obscenities, it sounds like my late Dad Joseph. He had a chauffeur around that time.

Oh - are you okay?

erfguy:
I remember a local chap getting a job as a salesman going round the farms here in South West Scotland he was given a brand new white mini and as minis had just been introduced this must have been 59/60. But I remember they were a well known company then.

We had several mini vans at the time, often driven by ladies with pH testing kits for testing the farmers’ fields for acidity. First the test results and then the salesmen.

Lovely photo!

To Dave54. Nice one. The answer is Yes Im fine but I do have one or two physical scars but no mental ones, is it too late to claim?

5thDragoon:
To Dave54. Nice one. The answer is Yes Im fine but I do have one or two physical scars but no mental ones, is it too late to claim?

Would you settle for a week’s wages @ £20?

when i was young ,(1949/50) my dad worked for a buxton company converting war surplus half tracks to lime spreaders . many still had a/a guns minus breech block and loose live ammunition in the lockers . this was gathered up and taken to the local raf bomb store for disposal . back to the thread , i think that adam lythgoe loaded lime from ben bennet’s quarry at stoney middleton , used to see them when out with dad in the lorry . fast forward a dozen years and i was working for hill head quarries who ran a small fleet of gmc 6x6 spreaders and later beswicks lime works 4x4 bedfords spreading quicklime . i enjoyed the job , working out the best approach to spreading on the hill farms , but left as the work was seasonal and i had a young family .looking at the photos i would guess that the spreading gear was the rotary drum type with the extenders , very good so long as we remembered to lift the extenders when going through the gates between fields . cheers , dave

Dave 54, looks like we have got a parallel sense of humour.

Remember them well. I was brought up on a farm in the 1950s and my dad had Adam Lythgoe spreaders come to lime the fields. Lime spreading seemed to be the fashion for farmers back then.

Hi, Dave 154 ,I didnt make anything of names being conected but remember all your cousins steam locos and steam rollers, he had quite a colection ,I used to go to malpas, Bishops castle,and many more and his colection stole the shows including his lowloaders ERF WITH 240 Garder engins Volvo f 10 s a very smart fleet turned them out well ,Cheers Barry

5thDragoon:
Dave 54, looks like we have got a parallel sense of humour.

No it’s just that the rates of pay here haven’t increased much!

Oh I’ve found a great advert from 1956 which I’m far too technologically challenged to post - so I’ll get my son to do it next week.

I’m glad that you’ve found these photos interesting. They just gather dust here which seems an awful waste.

“Gathering dust” (quote) Well isn’t that what you do Mr. Lythgoe? Jim

Not since we gave up quarrying in the late sixties, when Foot & Mouth almost wiped us out.

Mind you the fertilisers that we made were powder, so I guess we produced a lot of dust after that too.

I can remember when I lived at Seaton Burn as a young lad after the war finished Their was a local Haulier did work for A/L, On the lime jobs He was called Wilson Handyside, He was a great fellow in his heyday , He is long gone now (RIP) Wilson, But I must say that you were one of the all time greats when It came to doing a bit of hard graft, He ran some Ex Army Canadian Dodges, He went on to run a few tippers, But he ended his days working for Orrel & Brewster Transport Hawks Rd Gateshead on night trunk, Regards Larry.