Some good memories there lads. Gave me a good chuckle. Keep them coming.
As previously mentioned, Frank Houghton, the Yorkshire, fleet engineer was an awkward old git and very acidic. We used to have a pretty, slim, youngish woman on the switchboard. One day, Frank was very stressed and things weren’t going according to his plan. All of a sudden, he rushed out of his office and up to the switchboard sliding window in a very angry mood. I heard him shout at her- " Listen! I’ve told you before. If you don’t put my calls through first, I’ll come in there, turn you upside down and drop it in soft!" I was an innocent 17 year old and was quite shocked to say the least.
On another occasion, one of the garage supervisors who’s name escapes me ( thin face and glasses?) came in through the back door from the garage lent in through the same girl’s window and said, " Morning Spanner face, will you put this call through to Stan Bains." She said she would but asked him why he had called her spanner face. He replied-" 'Cos every time I look at you, you tighten mi nuts up!"
How things have changed. You daren’t even call a women “Luv” now for fear of complaint. A sad state of affairs don’t you think?
Frank “small man syndrome” Youngish lady on the phone 
.
Man with pale face black rimmed Specs I think was the Short lived MOT inspector (a taffie)
Do you remember Jean The wage’s lady I would wish for my money to be wrong every week just so I could go and gaze at Jeans more than ample chest.
O the dreams of the young and foolish apprentice 
Hi Young Vic here from the Traffic Office. Yes that is a very young me looking out of the Ancliff Traffic Office window!!
Wirlinmerlin was my boss before he went to Saudi.
Good to see so many names from the past, I loved working with the drivers - So Many Characters!!! Truly good days!!
Is John Rudd still around? Top Man was John, maybe my Number 1 Driver!!!
I have some pics that will post on, unfortunately they are of vehicles and not the drivers.
Anyone who’s known me in the past please get in touch.
When I started at Ancliff there were only 2 Scania units in the fleet!!!
Young Vic!
Well I never. Have you put any weight on since I said good bye the end of March 1980?
If I remember rightly, you lived with your mum and dad, just across the road on that new estate.
What ever happened to M. Harrison? Is he still going?
And what about the dark haired fellow who was Malcolm’s left hand man? ( his name was Dave Francis). He went to work for that tanker company in Altrincham. He moved out to Chester and was interested in Clay pigeon shooting. I lost touch with him in about 1986.
I did manage to keep in distant touch with Larry Gilsenan and even met up with him in the Church Pub Flixton some 6 years ago. Since then I’ve called him a couple of times and e mailed him but it was like trying to kick start a broken clockwork mouse. Maybe he was trying to tell me something!! ( Larry! Can you hear me? Over!)
I also kept in touch with Jimmy Goodwin the yard foreman. I’d known him since the age of 17 when I first started at Ancliffs. He was a jack the lad. I think he married about four times, one of them twice!
I remember going to see him when he was about 80.( Perhaps 20 years ago!) After living unhappily on his own for some time, he had met and married a ■■■■■ wench and was very happy. ( Although his family wasn’t!!) He asked me at the time if I could get him some cheeky videos as his prowess was failing a touch! ( I did him the honours but he said they didn’t work!! Oh well!)
Like you, I have many memories of that place and, as you say, there were some very interesting characters.
Vic,
As a PS to the above, if you want to see what I go up to after leaving Ancliffs, go to the section " Old time lorries, companies and drivers" and look for the two sub sections- “Trans Arabia/S. Jones of Aldridge:A few pics”…and…“Taseco.TMS Saudi Arabia. From 1983”
It might entertain you for half an hour or so!
Regards,
M.
Hi werlinmerlin & young vic.Larry Gilsenan came to work at Sadler Tankers has transport manager at Oldham around 1980/81 and in 89 became a director when he and management from Thornaby had a management buy out.I worked for Larry has traffic/quality manager until CPL bought them out in 1999.In 2000 Stiller group then bought the tanker business off CPL and myself and Larry went to work at Stiller in Stockton on Tees for 12/18 month.He then went on to run his own driver agency for a few years and he is now semi retired and doing a couple of days a week at the local tesco,I last saw him around November last at an ex workmates funeral.
Hi,
Thanks for that “Larry” update.
Last time I spoke with him he was going into hospital to have his gall bladder removed and I’ve never heard since. Obviously he is still vertical, fit and well but, like a lot of us, attending too many funerals! Mind you, I suppose we should only complain about that when it’s our own!!!
If you should bump into him please give him my regards and best wishes.
Thanks, Wirlinmerlin ( aka Martin.)
another blast from the past .
when I left there was only two Scania Small rounded front that you could open like a barn door , I think they became the 81s when the cab changed to the slated lift up front grill
Like you say happy day’s I know J Goodwin (name) but Sammy Allport was the yard forman . He allways had the racing page in his pocket and no scalp under his flat cap. 
Jim Goodwin was foreman when I was 17 (50 odd years ago). I think he retired at 65 and then went to work for Colclough engineering which was situated in a big old house on the banks of the ship canal only 5 or 6 hundred yards on the left from Ancliffs, up towards Trafford Park.
I think he was replaced by Freddy Hallows ( ex driver) who was doing that job when I left in 1980. perhaps Sammy was foreman in between? I remember him well, especially his jaunty, ex soldiers walk and his big gapped, tombstone teeth.
Freddy Hallows used to live in Partington but I did hear he retired to Rhyl and lived in a caravan. I tried to locate and contact him in the 80’s but to no avail.
Merlin do you remeber Sammy Allport going to the bookies up near the nags head pub to pick up his winings from the horses
When he got back he had called in at the Co-op Garage and bought a ford consul and still had some change . 
No I can’t say I remember that but I remember everybody sucking on the "onion juice(?) tanker and I was told not to use it neat but mix it with 50% petrol.
I also remember going out each morning when the milk tanker ( Driver Roy McKee) came in to collect a jug of thick creamy milk from out of the top whilst he was fuelling up.
We also used to carry some kind of perfume essence which I think was for the soap industry. Just one tiny drop would de odourise your car for months. Jimmy Goodwin was a fan . His cloths reeked of it. Even if you couldn’t see Jimmy, you could tell if he had recently been anywhere near!!
Antifreeze was another product which was a good bottom line drain off. I sold 3 gallons to a friend of mine for 3 pounds ten shillings and the bar steward has still never paid me to this day!!
When I was 17 or 18, they used to send me, on my own, in Jimmy Goodwin’s brown Morris 1000 to the post office at the Nags head to post the drivers cash wages in registered envelopes. It’s a wonder I was never robbed!!
Wirlinmerlin:
No I can’t say I remember that but I remember everybody sucking on the "onion juice(?) tanker and I was told not to use it neat but mix it with 50% petrol.
I also remember going out each morning when the milk tanker ( Driver Roy McKee) came in to collect a jug of thick creamy milk from out of the top whilst he was fuelling up.
We also used to carry some kind of perfume essence which I think was for the soap industry. Just one tiny drop would de odourise your car for months. Jimmy Goodwin was a fan . His cloths reeked of it. Even if you couldn’t see Jimmy, you could tell if he had recently been anywhere near!!
Antifreeze was another product which was a good bottom line drain off. I sold 3 gallons to a friend of mine for 3 pounds ten shillings and the bar steward has still never paid me to this day!!
When I was 17 or 18, they used to send me, on my own, in Jimmy Goodwin’s brown Morris 1000 to the post office at the Nags head to post the drivers cash wages in registered envelopes. It’s a wonder I was never robbed!!
I remember the perfume - it went into washing powder, Levers on the park, although we never carried it at Pickfords we used to get gallons of the stuff when palletts (45 gall drums) it came in on were damged, i used it for years in the car
Harp lager - we had our own stillage pipe, jam, sugar, Whisky, once the carbon had settled it was drinkable, wine, washing liquids, chocolate, and loads more, all from within the park after delivery when the tanks were in for washing
They are the Scania that I new in the picture above .
As well as the shopping list which was a bit changable depending on the time of year .
AAAAAH The milk tank far from half fat more double cream ,and the milk motor was allways hard to get it round corners
Stan Bains had the work shop menders try allsorts to make it easy to steer nothing helped
Yes I remember that steering problem.
Every time Roy McKee came back into the yard he would moan and groan about how hard the ridged Atkinson was to steer when loaded. We just thought he was a wet lettuce and didn’t believe him when he said he sometimes had to stand up to steer hard left or right. In the end, just for a bit of piece and quiet, Stan Bains took it out loaded, for a short spin. When he came back, his face was redder than usual. He was amazed that Roy had managed to drive it on the road at all. As you say, they messed with it in the garage but Roy was never happy and I think he asked to come off the milk. Whether that was because of the truck or the midnight starts I don’t know.
Talking of steering, I remember we had a very fat driver who wore glasses( can’t remember his name) and I think he had a hair lip. Anyway, he had a bad habit of steering with his forearms, hands draped down between the steering wheel spokes. Supposedly, he hit a big pot hole and the steering wheel was violently wrenched from his forearm grip and broke both his wrists.
We had another driver called Greenhalgh. He was a tiny, child like fellow who lived in Partington. The lads nick named him " Tightshoes", not because he was mean but because, if you saw him coming the other way, you could just see his head above the level of the dash and he had a perpetual strained look on his face. ( I don’t think this look was anything to do with the milk tanker!!)
There was another driver who had a slightly deformed foot. His nick name was “the limping liar!” I might be wrong but I think he fell off the top of a tank and seriously hurt himself.
Another driver who’s name escapes me but who was slim, very smart and with heavily brill-creamed hair was on regular nights on the Crosfields powder job. He would regularly ring me up in the middle of the night to say that his truck was broken down. Later I was to hear that he was always checking up on his misses. One night he didn’t turn in for work and it transpired he had hung himself at home. That was an unexpected shock!
Driver with heir lip was Dave Valalie (spelling?) went to live in Todmorden He was a BLT driver I new him from me being eight year old BLT was in lower broughton then .
Tightshoes If I am on the same guy was Albert Soudet (Spelling?) His wife got him shoes that were to narrow hence these shoe are tight but he did not tell the wife.
How about Arthur Weaver drove a Acid tank he was as strong as two or three men .
George Mornders George was badly burnt when the bolts on one of the pipe flanges broke and sprayed him with costice/oleum ( pyrosulfuric acid.) He was very lucky to be with us after that . I met him In oldham in the 80s driving his own motor I think .
Arthur Weaver, Alfi Davies, Alex Reid were all originally on those rubber lined acid tankers but the tanks were getting old, the rubber linings were failing and the subsequent leaks were becoming beyond economic repair. I think it was at this time that Ancliff moved away from the acid job and moved more into the powder game. In the early 60’s we had a rep called Jack Bell, an ex driver, who was keen on pushing forward with powder vehicle contracts with ICI. His company vehicle was a big Morris Oxford. As you say, Arthur Weaver was a massive and very strong bloke yet softly spoken and seemingly mild mannered. Nobody said boo to him! I don’t remember what happened to him when the acid finished but Alfie and Alex ended up on the powder for a good while.
Nobby Clarke from Wythenshawe. I think he had a built up boot. ( and a very nice daughter!) I’ve seen a picture on here of him standing near the wash bay.
Albert Saudet once told me that he liked to play a trick on other drivers on Shap. He would pick up a roadside lady of the night on his way north up Shap and would wait until he saw the lights of a wagon coming down like the clappers, towards him, in out of stick overdrive. He would then have the lady in question bare her chest and just as the speeding oncoming truck drew near, he would switch on the cab light. He found it highly amusing to watch in his rear view mirror as the red lights of the disappearing wagon seemed to veer all over the place. Could be true knowing Albert! Through the traffic office window he was also always going on about the “■■■■■■■■■” and telling me to bring ten shillings and he would take me out on a visit to a den of iniquity(!) (My word there not his!! Have to be careful on here with the censors!.) As a gauche 17 year old I didn’t know what he was talking about which caused him much amusement.
I remember Georgie Maunders. A quiet bloke with slightly gingery fair hair.
Do you remember the Watts tyre man? He was a short, fat fellow who always seemed to be in blue overalls and wellingtons and would come from Warrington to do tyre repairs. He seemed to be there for years.
What was the name of the tank cleaner and his mate who used to start at 6am and do 12 hour shifts, seemingly 7 days a week. They both lived somewhere up in the hills near Todmoredon and always looked as though they never got any sleep. Which I don’t suppose they did doing those hours!
Arthur Weaver Mild mannered just fits him ,One guy in a plant that Athur was tipping at was taking the P out of Arthur in front of some girls in the rest area ,
Arthur reached over the table to get a good grip of shirt and skin to bring the guy to the other side of the table and offered to hid his Teapot where the sun don’t shine the guy never said a word about Arthur again.But Arthur was a gentle giant.
" Georgie Maunders. A quiet bloke with slightly gingery fair hair". That was Georgie another nice guy
The Watts tyre guy was part of the fittings he was there that long .
One of the tank cleaners that was on the night shift to start with and changed to days after Billy Partridge was killed in a tank and this guy got a wiff of the same gas was
Anthony Ratcliff (Tony) a smallish guy AKA MR Punch due to the size of the chin did live In Todmorden and was my Brother in law .
Tony is no longer with us due to Throat Cancer we lost him mid 90s .He was allways game for a laugh and loved a beer or ten he once asked Stan Bains for a bundle of WAGS to wipe out a tank from that day he was known as WAGY and would answer to it when shouted.
I can see the other guys face and think the name was Brian but no sir name comes to mind, He never had teeth in his head just the gums