Hi Sandway, it’s a shame that Ian hasn’t joined Trucknet as it sounds like he might of had some great memories of working for firms around the Manchester area. I can’t remember anybody called Mick Downes who worked for Dow but there was a guy called Mick Clews who lived in the Macclesfield area and on one of your posts I thought that you mentioned that Ian might of lived in “Macc”.
On the post above I should of said that I started going through all the ports, docks and harbours where I had shipped out of, delivered to or cleared customs over the years, while I was trying to find out which port it was where that photo was taken.
It’s something that I have never really thought about but after I had jotted down all the places that I could remember at the time I was surprised to see how many ports I had actually visited and I have a feeling that you might of visited more than one or two on your travels.
So I have decided to mention the ones that I can remember along with some of the customers who Dow pulled for.
Hull, when shipping out with North Sea Ferries to Euro port/ Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, Belgium.
Great Yarmouth, loading at Norfolk Line / Falcongate with oil pipes for Diyarbakir, Turkey.
Ipswich, shipping out on The North Sea Ferries freighter which only took twelve drivers to Rotterdam. The rest of the cargo was unaccompanied Ferrymasters trailers.
Harwich, sailing on the Prinz Line ferries to Hamburg and Bremerhaven West Germany. We often used Prinz Line if we were going to Poland or if we were transiting East Germany.
Ramsgate, sailing on The Sally Viking Line Ferry to Ostende, Belgium.
Dover Eastern Docks using Townsend Thoresen ships to Zeebrugge and Calais.
Portsmouth, Brittany Ferries to Saint Malo, France.
Gdansk Shipyards, Poland, clear customs and deliver with loads for International Marine Paints from Gateshead.
Schiaffino Line from Ostende/ Belgium and Dunkirk France to Dover.
Boulogne France, Townsend Thorenson to Dover.
La Coruna Spain, clear customs at the port with Massey Ferguson tractors.
Civitavecchia Italy, clear customs and deliver James Halstead floor coverings from Radcliffe Manchester.
Taranto and Bari Italy, clear customs and tip in the docks with Courtaulds textiles from their Greengate, Middleton warehouse and their factory in Coventry.
Venice Italy, tip and reload with The Royal Ballet props and scenery, had to stay there for about ten days.
Zadar Yugoslavia, deliver railway lines from the British Steel Corporation in Stockton on Tees which were loaded straight onto a ship that was going to Pakistan.
Split Yugoslavia, deliver Massey Ferguson tractors from their Urmston factory in Trafford Park which were loaded onto an Iranian ship.
Belgrade Yugoslavia, port on the River Danube where we used to do customs and offload into their warehouses with goods from the Courtaulds factory in Greenfield, Flint, Deeside and I.C.I. chemicals from their Heywood distribution centre.
Pancevo south of Belgrade on the River Danube where we used to load light bulbs from the Tesla Light factory and clear customs in the docks just down the road. If you started loading at 7 a.m. you always finished customs by mid day. All the loads went to an old woollen mill on Huddersfield Road in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
Piraeus docks/Athens Greece, cigarettes from Rothmans in Spennymoor, County Durham and International Paints at Felling near Gateshead. The cigarettes used to go straight into the bond on the docks and the marine paint used to go to the dry dock which was near by.
Volos Greece, carpet making machinery from Cobbled Engineering, Roman Road, Blackburn that had to go out to one of the Greek Islands. Cleared customs and off loaded on the quayside.
Izmir Turkey, deliver Leyland parts from Lancashire, Ford parts from Daventry, Perkins engines from Peterborough and Courtaulds textiles from Spondon near Derby.
Izmit docks Turkey, 40 foot lengths of pressed steel from the British Steel Corporation in Stockton on Tees. They were used in making truck wheels which were loaded straight onto a Libyan or it might of been a Egyptian ship.
I have recently tried to locate on Google Earth where most of these factories in the U.K. were where we loaded from but sadly it looks like some of these companies have now disappeared.
Regards Steve.
DOVER DOCKS. 1
DOVER DOCKS. 2
DOVER FROM THE CLIFFS. A
DOVER DOCKS. 3
EUROPORT, HOLLAND. SUNDAY MORNING.
ZEEBRUGGE, BELGIUM. NIGHT SAILING.
VENICE, ITALY. ROYAL BALLET TOUR.
VENICE.
