W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

harry_gill:

Carl Williams:

LR Man:
Hi Carl, hope you are well.

I have always wondered who owned this Scammell before it went into showland use. I first thought it might have been Siddle C. Cook, but I think the registration is too new. Could it be the ex Pickfords Scammell you sold to a showman, maybe re-registered or registered as it had always been used on trade plates as it was a brake down wagon? It looks like the one you had without the crane an possibly the wooden body work has been panelled over.

I took the photos in the early eighties at a showmans yard in Coxhoe.

Regards, Mark

I suppose, Mark that could well be it. I sold it to Colin Noble who lived in his caravan (although probably a millionair) in Coxhoe when not on tour.
We had a boxvan Bedford SUP…M which no doubt you will remember, which was registered new about the time I sold it to Colin. It never had been registered till we sold it, always used on trade plates. Colin would not have had the facilities to obtain Trade plates & would have wanted it to be taxed as a showmans tax rate. So no doubt he would register & tax it. I don’t think Q plates had been thought of in M reg days which is obvious from the age.

I remember those front mudguards plus the Towing plate & headlight possitions match. Colin would not have needed the lifting gear as all he would use it for was pulling vehicles out of the muddy show sites & from memory of how they loaded he probably would have needed the space on the back to carry things. So I might not be Columbo but the evidence seems to identify it

It was made new 1937 & from the photo looks the part

Best wishes
Carl

Hiya,
Pump a drop of fresh diesel through the old Scammell, bung a charged
battery on and I’ll dare bet the old girl would crack up, they would go
forever and I remember seeing one that hadn’t been started up for 26
years given just that treatment and it started and was driven away out
of the undergrowth and onto a lowloader.
thanks harry, long retired.

Hi Harry
The only problem was that one only did 19mph. You wouldn’t get through much work in a week at 19MPH

But I would love to see some of these ‘Expert’ drivers of today, particularly these ones that were on that eddie Stobbard program try to drive it

Best wishes
Carl