Spardo:
gnasty gnome:
During the mid-80’s, i was working for Bill Kelly out of
Langley Mill, Derbys; the cowboy to end ALL cowboys!This sounds to me very like Jock Kelly a stocky Scotsman who I knew in the
1960s when he was driving a Leyland 4 wheeler for Midlands Storage in West
Hallam.I later heard of him becoming a, rather dodgy, OD and seem to remember that
he was in league with someone else, but can’t recall the details. Perhaps you
or someone else can fill in the gaps.Salut, David.
Sounds just like Bill! He ran various motors to the Middle East, then ended up in a ramshackle yard off Cromford Road in Langley Mill. After several changes of name, the firm ended up as L.E Kelly International Transport, running a motley collection of vehicles, mostly one test away from Geeson’s scrapyard!. The ones I remember were the Sedd-Ack already mentioned above (FLA 4T) which had a day cab and 290 Roller, usually driven by a real character called Derek Hayman; an ERF sleeper with a 240 ■■■■■■■■ and two DAF 2800’s, one of which was on a regular run to Spain, driven by a guy called Fred I think. The other Daf was usually driven by a chap called Roger Hursthouse, who I believe now works for Raleigh.
Bill often bought things at auction purely on impulse; I remember once he came back with a Bedford TM tractor because he’d seen one once with a Detroit engine and thought they all had them; his face when he got it back and found a tired old 500 Bedford under the cab was a picture! There was also a little DAF 2100 day-cab tractor unit, which was so small it looked totally ridiculous with a load of Stanton pipes tacked on the back, but a lovely little runner provided you avoided hills steeper than one in 20.
Bill’s “gofer” was a bloke called Ron Dyer; the drivers used to say that you would always know when he wasn’t telling the truth, 'cos his lips moved! Everything was strictly cash, of course, and you got paid when Bill got paid by West’s, if you were lucky!
It was all illegal as hell, of course, the trucks were normally taxed private or farmer’s goods, we used to recut tyres nearly down to the metal, etc, but I do remember that Bill was a stickler for good brakes, more than can be said for some of the other cowboys.
Only had one row with Bill that I remember, and strangely enough it’s pertinent to the origin of this thread. A driver called Kenny Hopkins had broken down at Watford Gap, rang Bill and told him the prop had sheared. Bill went ballistic at me (I was then the fitter) and accused me of omitting to check the prop bolts. When I went down to recover it, I found that the whole mainshaft had sheared BEHIND the prop, most likely caused by the driver getting his gears mixed up! When I got the wagon back to the yard, I stormed into Bill’s office, threw the still-bolted prop on his desk and marched out without saying a word. Five minutes later, he stormed into the workshop, we exchanged pleasantries for a good ten minutes (don’t think either of us repeated ourselves), it ended up with the usual “you’re fired” from him and the usual “stuff it where the sun don’t shine” from me; went in the next morning, the subject was never mentioned again!
Eventually, Bill got out of transport, one jump ahead of the tax-man as usual. He dabbled with van hire for a bit, then I think ill-health got the better of him.He was a rogue, yes, but a likeable one; he got me out of more than one scrape, and I have to say I’ve worked for worse men in my time.