VUP812L the first of a series of Seddon Pennine pantechnicons we put on the road. (Seddon’s passenger chassis) driven the first 5-6 years of its life by the late Eddy Ramsey (known by all of us as old Eddie) VUP812L was also one of the last vans designed by Arthur Rathbone whilst he was a long serving employee of Marsden Coachbuilding Ltd before he left to co-found Vanplan Ltd.
VUP was built (Unlike all others at the time) without a tail-lift, with walk in tailboard & shutter, drop well and wheelboxes 34ft long making it for a few months our biggest rigid van. We had a stretched SB & a KF both at 33 ft long. We later had 2 Seddon Pennines built to maximum legal length of 36ft. However these were a little too long for some use but at 34 foot with the front axle set back and a shorter wheelbase they were easy to reverse into some very tight spaces.
YUP had been built primary for large removals or smaller removals that could be filled up with part loads. It also used it from time to time on new furniture and on times it was used for carrying Tricity Cookers & Fridges (Thorn EMI) or Courtaulds Yarn it would usually be loads from 30ft long Bedfords transhipped onto it so we could use the additional space for part loads, or outward loads to pick up removals from down country northern bound.
Eddy Ramsey started his working life when he left school at 14 and got a job for Elders-Walker the glazing contactors in Durham and at 21 he joined J.G. Johnson & Sons the Durham City Removal Contactors as a driver where he worked until we bought them out in about 1966. He then came to us where he spent the remainder of his career. One of the vans we bought with Johnson’s business was a 1961 Morris 7 tonner which had been supplied new to Johnsons by ■■■■ Barret-Atkin who then in the early days of his long career was Commercial Sales Manager of Turvey’s Sunderland. It was delivered to Johnson’s as a chassis cab and believe it had a Sauber diesel engine. Eddie was so handy that he himself built a huge luton body on it. (So high it wouldn’t go into our Marmaduke street Garage. We had a fit when we first got it as the engine was showing virtually no oil pressure on tick over but Eddy assured us he could nurse it along for another 30 to 40,000 miles, but needless to stay we didn’t keep it long and sold it to North of England School Furniture at Darlington and replaced it with the next Bedford -Marsden we had being built.
Eddy would be approaching 60 years old when we took delivery of VUP812L and had been working for us about 8 years. With such a long career in removals the kit he carried with him of not only tools for dismantling wardrobes, taking out windows & doors down to countless mechanical tools he could use to repair most vehicle problems he encountered that other drivers would be calling in for recovery but also a French Polishing kit. He said he used this on the van on the rare occasion a piece of furniture may have been scuffed so that it was perfect when it went into the house. We never had one complaint about any of Eddy’s work. He also had these massive soaps that after every job he scraped along the van floor. In those days the floors were still tongued & grooved flooring & the soap filled in the gaps ‘It makes the van smell fresh & helps boxes slide easily on the floor’ he said and before anyone remarks it didn’t make the floor slippery under feet.
One job he did with VUP which in his eyes was just a regular piece of work was a removal for Karl Kenmire (One of the Kenmire Furniture manufacturing family of Spennymoor who lived in a very large house (With one of the famous Kenmire Oak staircases & galleried first floor) in North Close Kirk Merrington to Switzerland. It was one of quite a few overseas removals Eddy did during his years with us. & quite honestly it had crossed my mind until I was asked to be a guest Speaker at the Spennymoor Rotary club.
I gave my talk and Frank Kenmire , Karl’s Brother was a Rotarian and had been given the task of giving me the ‘ Vote of thanks’ He started out by praising his brother’s removal, which as I have said I had forgotten.
Frank continued the new house was in a quiet area in the alps and Eddy who was driving the van couldn’t get near because the van was sliding in the snow. Without getting flustered he parked the van in a safe area & got himself a taxi & returned in about an hour with a set of snow chains & calmly jacked up each wheel, put the chains on & drove up to the house to unload.
When I recounted my experience to my dad he caught Eddy when he next returned into the transport office & said what’s this about you hiring chains in Switzerland, you never told me. Eddy replied ‘I didn’t need to it was just part of the job & I put my expenses in & got my money back.
To be continued
