Hi, You lads are certainly bringing back some fond memories for me, my uncle got me into lorries when I used to go with him in his Comma two stroke out of what was then Hinchcliffs at Alport near Youlgrave (Shining Bank Quary), later taken over by Thomas Wards, I started driving a Guy for Toft Brothers and Tomlinson of Darley Dale, when they shut down I went to Matlock Transport, from them to Joseph Hoyles who ran out of Tofts old premises before Matlock Transport took it over, I then worked for an owner driver from Mansfield who ran to the Middle East for Redcliffe Roadways for two years before starting on my own, to start with I ran fluorspar into Glebe Mine at Stoney Middleton then did local quarry work out of Tarmac and a bit for B.J.Waters carrying coal. Started on my own with a Leyland Reiver and finished with a Volvo F10.
I remember Norde very well making the rubber suspension , I heard all the stories of the first lorry they built, how powerful it was!! Norde moved from Darley Dale to somewhere down near Northampton I think.
I remember the Steal Peech and Tozer lorries continuously running though Bakewell from Dowlow or Steetleys at Buxton to the steel works in Rotherham, one lost his brakes and crashed into the shop at the bottom of the hill just before the town center in Bakewell.
Steve