robaustin750750:
Im Robert Austin and if anyone is still interested as this thread was a few years ago, we still own this tanker. My dad died 6 years ago and we still have it. If you was to google or go on youtube the mk2 mondeo advert you will see this lorry is used in that original ad. After they used it (and covered it with some sort of paint to change the colour) it took the lacquer off the cab.
Does anyone know who currently owns the tanker (reg DTB210)? I’m trying to track it down for my Grandfather as I believe that my late Great Grandfather used to drive it.
Hello all. Following the sale of the Roger Austin Collection in 2021, DTB 210 is now part of much smaller Scammell collection in the south-east and it’s back on the rally circuit. In May 2022 it participated in the Scammell Centenary Road Run around Watford and the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society’s London to Brighton Run.
I am presently writing an article about the lorry for Old Glory magazine and it would be nice if we could publish some pictures from when it first joined the preservation circuit in the '70s and '80s. Additionally, I would be very eager to see more pictures of other Cowburn & Cowpar tankers.
If you have some photos of either which you’d be happy to let us use, please message me and we’ll see what we can do with them. Any help will be much appreciated.
Zack Stiling
I can well remember W H Cowburn & Cowpar’s Scammell artic tankers delivering chemicals to the Courtauld’s works in Flint and Greenfield (North Wales) when I was a kid in school in the '60’s, they also had some Fodens too - but it was the bonneted Scammells I remember vividly with their maroon paintwork and white roofed cabs with “WHC&C” proudly proclaimed on the headboard and on a roundel on the cab door - as a kid, I used to think Trafford Park, Manchester 17 was some exotic far off location!
After an early drop-off at Courtauld’s Greenfield Works, Cowburn drivers would sometimes call in at the Crosville (bus) Depot at Flint for a hearty breakfast for which the ladies in the depot were famous for!
There was another (unfortunate) ‘connection’ concerning WHC&C and Crosville when a WHC&C Scammell skidded and collided with the rear of a Crosville 'decker on the 'Quay Hill outside the Swan pub and demolished the rear platform of the bus just a few seconds after the conductor went to collect a fare at the front of the bus from a passenger who had just boarded and doing so, the conductor avoided certain death. Lucky miss for that guy! I wonder if the ladies at Flint depot cooked breakfast for Cowburn’s driver breakfast the following morning?
I have seen a 1938 registered Scammell - DTB 210 of WHC&C on the rally circuit (although not for some time), does anyone you know if there are any photographs of Cowburn’s lorries? I would love to see some of those big beasties again!
Cheers R.
I think someone will be able to find a Scammell photo from them.
This is a nameplate off one of the narrowboats used.
Cheers Wheel Nut. WHC&C had quite a fleet of canal boats.
One of their main customer was Courtaulds Limited, manufacturers of artificial fibres, using a cocktail of chemicals, with factories initially in the Midlands which had immediate access to the canal network and which WHC&C used for the movement of their chemical products from their Trafford Park works.
When Courtauld’s expanded with other factories, for example, in North Wales at Flint and later at Greenfield, which were not immediately accessible to the canal system, in the early 1930’s, WHC&C decided to use motorised road transport.
Their first vehicles were normal-control Halley’s which were produced on Clydebank, when Halley’s went into liquidation in 1935, Scammell’s were favoured and exclusively used until the mid-60’s when Fodens were also introduced into the fleet which lasted until the 80’s when the grandson’s of the founder, (William Henry Cowburn), retired and sold out to the Hayes group.
Cheers - R
there was one fully restored (unit and trailer) in a shed at a breakers yard just off the A14 about 10 years ago when i bought an engine from them.
can’t for the life of me think exactly where it is but it was on the left just before thrapston if coming from huntingdon
rapidgem:
Cheers Wheel Nut. WHC&C had quite a fleet of canal boats.
One of their main customer was Courtaulds Limited, manufacturers of artificial fibres, using a cocktail of chemicals, with factories initially in the Midlands which had immediate access to the canal network and which WHC&C used for the movement of their chemical products from their Trafford Park works.
When Courtauld’s expanded with other factories, for example, in North Wales at Flint and later at Greenfield, which were not immediately accessible to the canal system, in the early 1930’s, WHC&C decided to use motorised road transport.
Their first vehicles were normal-control Halley’s which were produced on Clydebank, when Halley’s went into liquidation in 1935, Scammell’s were favoured and exclusively used until the mid-60’s when Fodens were also introduced into the fleet which lasted until the 80’s when the grandson’s of the founder, (William Henry Cowburn), retired and sold out to the Hayes group.
Cheers - R
My old boss from Townson Tankers worked for them as Sub Contractors before they were sold to Sadler Tankers.
Heres a pic of a restored Scammell took in the late 70s
Hope it is of interest.
Cheers Marc
That will suffice for now I think.
It’s interesting that it has taken 50 or 60 years to get back to super singles and single drive axle tyres 
Where was that show? it looks like a Triumph Snag in the background
bubbleman:
Heres a pic of a restored Scammell took in the late 70s
Hope it is of interest.
Cheers Marc
were they all different colours then, the one i saw was the same markings as that but black in colour
thats a beautiful example still on the go as well
Date of Liability 01 08 2009
Date of First Registration 01 06 1938
Year of Manufacture Not Available
Cylinder Capacity (cc) Not Available
CO2 Emissions Not Available
Fuel Type Heavy Oil
Export Marker Not Applicable
Vehicle Status SORN Not Due
Vehicle Colour RED
Vehicle Type Approval null
Thanks for your comments about WHC&C guys. Thanks for the great pic Marc, just how I remember seeing them! - apparently the one in your No 17 -DTB210 did over one and a quarter million miles for WHC&C in a 34 year career with them (1938-72). I used to love watching them swing off the A548 coast road at Greenfield and into Courtauld’s works in the 60’s.
I only remember seeing them in the maroon livery Bigus - I don’t recall seeing them in black.
Another firm I remember at Greenfield and also at Courtauld’s Flints works - (Deeside Mill and Castle Works), were James Nutall of Heywood along with Cowburn’s they would in and out of the works all day long.
Cheers again guys.
After reading the Manchester Liners thread, I Just thought I blow t’dust off this one, anyone else remember this old Trafford Park Co? Any details of WHC&C or pix would be appreciated.
Does anyone know of photos of their plant on Trafford Park or where they where based exactly and what occupies the site now? I know they also ran a fleet of narrowboats, so I’m guessing that they were based on a site somwehre alongside the Bridgewater Canal?
There is some history and details of their narrowboats on:-
mbswallow.freehostia.com/index.php?page=home
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread in the past.
Cheers - R
Here’s one of W H C and C’s Scammells.I can’t remember where the photo came from.I don’t think it was the one that Bubbleman Mark put on that has been deleted.If it is,my apologies.
Cheers Chris, great to see No 13, Bubbleman Marc’s was a colour piccy of No 17 - DTB210 which is the one in preservation. I’m always pleased to see anything on this old firm, their old formidable looking Scammells used to scare the s**te out of us as kids - not to mention the loads they were carrying and what stories we were told about what that stuff could do to ya! 
“Chris Webb”]Here’s one of W H C and C’s Scammells.I can’t remember where the photo came from.I don’t think it was the one that Bubbleman Mark put on that has been deleted.If it is,my apologies.
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Once again I’m not sure where this photo came from but it was probably from a book or one of bubblemans - if it is apologies once again.
A bit newer this one Rapidgem
I remember them well in the 60s and 70s when I was on tankers.They did a lot of Sulphuric Acid IIRC.
Cowburn & Cowper were taken over sometime in the late 80s/early 90s by Sadler Tankers & some of their work was taken on by Tankfrieght (I think). One of the lads in the traffic office was called Graham Richardson who in 2003/4 was at Albion Chemicals Sandbach as Transport Manager.
Cheers Bob nice pix, do u know where / when they were taken?
rapidgem:
Cheers Bob nice pix, do u know where / when they were taken?
The second one looks like The Stray at Harrogate and I’d guess, that it would have been about 1984.
DTB 210 was owned and restored by Sid Unsworth, a retired Police officer in Lancashire. He once helped me out at an event in Southport in 1982 - my Atki had parted company with a shackle pin on the second steer, and he had a spare that he lent me. Amazingly, a shackle pin from a 1937 Scammell went straight into a 1969 Atki!!
It was later to sold to Roger Austin in Northants, and who was then building quite a collection of Scammells - I’ve no idea where it is now.
