marktaff:
Paul John:
marktaff:
Paul John:
Hi all. I enjoy reading this thread. Just looking at Ellis Morgan’s Bedford there and I believe they were mostly used on fibre glass work out of Pontypool.
I was looking at the address and phone numbers! Ellis Morgan of Pengam, with a Bargoed telephone number and then a Blackwood address. In the early days they were on Fairview hill down a lane behind a row of houses. Almost impossible to find if you didn’t know they were there.
John, the viva van was a Bedford HA officially, but as you say we called them viva vans. I don’t think you could fit a lorry spare wheel into the back of it, great little service van though.Paul
Hi Paul…yes I always thought the same about Ellis Morgan…Pengam…Bargoed and Blackwood…yes like you say a mojority of there work was on the fiberglass along with Fox’s
Hi Mark. Not sure how well you know that part of the Valley’s where Ellis Morgan were based. Pengam was the small village they were based at, Blackwood being the nearest town. Back in them days the phones were tied to the exchange. Bargoed covered quite a large area from Deri down to Ystrad Mynach with Aberbargoed, Britannia and all small villages included. Confusing if you weren’t from around there.
Fox of Cwmbran were a well known company at one time known as Fox the Mover. Iirc Fox and a few other movers got caught up in a price fixing deal with the army in Crickowal. Home of the Welsh Guards. It was a scandal at the time, and Fox seemed to take the fall.
Not sure if it was Ellis Morgan’s grandson or great grandson was a decent trials bike rider. I remember supplying him with a 307 Merc courtesy of the very generous Gabe Harding, owner of Gulliver’s Self Drive Hire of Cardiff to go up to Scotland to compete in the International Six Day Trial.
Please excuse the miss spelling, dam American computer auto corrects, well sort of!Paul
Hi Paul…yes I know that area pretty well and how close together the villages are…yes i also remember the scandal at that time with the Army work…the fibreglass contracts put most of the Gwent boys on the map back in the day Paul…I think Fox’s had 20+ vehicles on that contract…the Morgan’s lad with the trials bike…did he have anything to do with the business back in the day Paul ?
Regards Mark
Hi Mark. To be honest I am not sure if he worked in the business or not. This was back in 1991. I met his aunty who did work in the business a few years later, she never stopped talking about him! He was probably in his late teens then.
Hi John, how about those hills? A few steep ones around there. I can not believe back in the late 70s/80s getting off the M4 at Risca and traveling up to Rhymney through Ponlanfraith, Aberbargoed, New Tredegar etc. All those hills and bends, another lorry or one of numerous double deckers coming the opposite way would more than kill your momentum. Even going to the Midlands, down Black Rock slowly then on to the old Raglan Rd. No good speeding, had to respect the road, especially with heavy loads.
I have in the past, not now though done city routes here in Florida on LTL less than truckload or multi drop pallet deliveries like yourself. Here we use 53ft box trailers with single or tandem axle tractors. Depending on the route up to 200 miles a day 15/20 stops. Before I switched to line-haul [night trunk] I would leave with 24 pallets, sometimes more if they would double stack and return full as well. I was as fit as a butchers dog back then.
Regards Paul