NMP Now to go back in time, despite what is on the front of the photograph this is a copy of an original from Jack Henleys collection.
A photo I would date from the very early 60s of Aec 1 LKK , this would have been either Loftys or Sootys motor taken up the top (as we knew it down in downtown Paddock Wood) at Spelmonden on the companys estate.
As far as we concerned down in Paddock Wood there was up the top yard and down the bottom at Spelmonden as the A262 cuts through part of the land.
Up the top where the photograph was taken shows packhouse , hop picking shed , cold stores and just creeping into the shot to the left is the lorry shed obviously where in the early days the fleet was parked up in there , where you can see the Aec you could go round to the back of the buildings and there was the place where the Goudhurst based drivers would park their Lorries.
The estate was the Spelmonden Estate Company Ltd in Spelmonden nr Goudhurst which was owned by Jacks father Percy which grew arable crops fruit and hops , Percy was a very big noise in the hop industry in his day.
Down the bottom half at Spelmonden was the estate office which at the time would have been run by Percy and Brian (Jacks brother) Jacks office the oast house for drying the hops the vehicle workshops and also Percy and Audreys (Jack and Brians parents) residence.
In the early days going right through to the early 80s Jacks office would be at Spelmonden some 7 miles away from the Nerve centre in Paddock Wood , it seems rather strange looking back but Jack wasn’t exactly an operational man nor were his people skills towards employees that good !
however it worked fine especially for those down in Paddock Wood as Jack wasn’t there to interfere even though he had every right to.
Jacks strong points were in the vehicles how they worked as he had a great mechanical knowledge and of course his business skills it was often said Jack had the midas touch along with being a good negotiator with suppliers and customers.
In the early 80s an extension was into the warehouse down in Paddock Wood and a new office was built for Jack along with new offices for accounts,
but Jack still kept his office at Spelmonden!
Throughout the companys history from the late 50s to 1994 when he sold the business the workshops were always based at Spelmonden where all servicing and maintenance took place , even the Rochdale depot lorries had to come down to be serviced at Spelmonden this wasn’t too much of a problem as a Rochdale lorry would come all the way through on the night trunk , if it was for a Rochdale based journey man he would be sent south with a load and be given another motor for a couple of days and work out of Paddock Wood until his was done.
As far as Jacks maintenance standards were they were second to none as a vehicle went in the workshop it was closely inspected nothing was left to next time even if they thought it would last it was done immediately it wasn’t unheard of for a vehicle to be off the road for 2 to 3 days just for a service.
As far as mots were concerned we had a set bookings down at the Hasting test centre every Friday morning for a vehicle and trailer and on some occasions additional booking for trailers.
The mot prep vehicle would arrive on the Friday prior and a driver would steam clean it off , as far as was Jack concerned it was a waste for a fitter to steam clean with their talent (truth was it was cheaper to get a driver to do it than a fitter) we had 2 or 3 drivers always prepared to do this and it was additional overtime for them as they would have been on the road early hours sunday morning (what with produce being our work early supermarket runs on a sunday) so they were off the card for the following weeks work to commence.
Once the vehicle was steam cleaned it was parked up on the Friday and wait for a fitter to finish his work , the mot prep was normally started Saturday morning or if not by first thing Monday morning then the fitter would have 4 clear days to work on it and take it to test on the Friday morning, as stated previously nothing was left untouched by the workshop staff.
Sorry for the long ramble this morning Good luck Chris Lawrence
