BRS Seddon was based at Walsall depot.
Pete.
131DBU Photographed at the Seddon factory in Oldham, note the Piccadilly 261 radio station sticker at the top nearside of the windscreen!
I went over to Malta for the New Year and while I was there I got talking to a driver who had worked in the Seddon factory at Oldham in the 70s. He said and probably understandably that the workers there were on good money and thought they had a job for life. He left when redundancy was offered and got a good deal and began his continental driving career. He went back quite a few years later and stopped outside the factory on an overnight and told me many of the old staff he worked with were still there. He said he got talking to one of his old mates there and said he was driving abroad but the bed in his lorry was really bad to sleep on . His mate said hang on a minute went back in and brought him a brand new bed from the Iveco cabs they had started fitting. He went on to say every cab that came over was fitted with a bed but they were being used as dustbin lorries so they were throwing the beds in the skip !!!!!!Now this old driver was now selling dressed up time share holidays so I dont know how true it was but he seemed quite sure it was true… I didn`t buy a time share though the robbing … 
ramone:
I went over to Malta for the New Year and while I was there I got talking to a driver who had worked in the Seddon factory at Oldham in the70s. He said and probably understandably that the workers there were on good money and thought they had a job for life. He left when redundancy was offered and got a good deal and began his continental driving career. He went back quite a few years later and stopped outside the factory on an overnight and told me many of the old staff he worked with were still there. He said he got talking to one of his old mates there and said he was driving abroad but the bed in his lorry was really bad to sleep on . His mate said hang on a minute went back in and brought him a brand new bed from the Iveco cabs they had started fitting. He went on to say every cab that came over was fitted with a bed but they were being used as dustbin lorries so they were throwing the beds in the skip !!!!!!Now this old driver was now selling dressed up time share holidays so I dont know how true it was but he seemed quite sure it was true… I didn`t buy a time share though the robbing …
Re- the beds, try and do that these days!
I did not Know Seddon had a normal control chassis. I had never actually thought about it either (!), but they obviously made at least one… But I note it is LHD. Export only?
That model was the Seddon Mk 12NC although an export model it did find its way onto the home market too. It came in Artic and Rigid form, with slightly over an 8 Ton payload at 12 Tons Gross. Franky.
moomooland:
0
I like the starting handle hole in the front,very optimistic!
David
5thwheel:
moomooland:
0I like the starting handle hole in the front,very optimistic!
David
Gardner engine I guess, all our Gardner engined Fodens had handles right up to the S80 models in 1974 and I bet there is a pile of handles still at the quarry workshop.
Pete.
A resize and brightening of the photo shows its a single drive, the Mk II cab had just been introduced when this was registered Bradford area Dec 1962 on, it has the early type of air vents fitted. I haven’t seen that style of bumper before though, it is always difficult to know what powered Seddons range at this period they didn’t always fit an engine badge to the grille, she’s looking a little care worn so this could be around the mid 60’s, nicely roped and sheeted too. Franky.
Frankydobo:
A resize and brightening of the photo shows its a single drive, the Mk II cab had just been introduced when this was registered Bradford area Dec 1962 on, it has the early type of air vents fitted. I haven’t seen that style of bumper before though, it is always difficult to know what powered Seddons range at this period they didn’t always fit an engine badge to the grille, she’s looking a little care worn so this could be around the mid 60’s, nicely roped and sheeted too. Franky.
Franky, I would guess that the bumper bar is a owner modification, and I remember that stick-on Chapman Group ‘label’ from the early 1970s.
I’m trying to find a photo of a Spillers Seddon Eight-wheeler tanker if anyone comes across one.
Seddons were not something that featured in my own professional landscape in days gone by. I once went to see if there were any jobs going at a small Nottingham firm (Hutchinson’s or Huskisson’s?) who ran Seddons but never drove one until I became a self-employed car dealer after leaving Stirland’s.
To supplenent my lack of Arthur Daley expertise I worked fairly frequently for Stirland’s on a casual basis and they once had me fetching some trailers in from East Anglia with a trade plated, primer painted, Motor Panels tractor that they apparently kept for the purpose.
The drive was ok but nothing out of the ordinary to dispel my ignorant belief that they were the poor relations of British lorry makers. I remember being amazed that it was them, rather than the rumoured Fodens, that successfully absorbed Atkinson. That was after quelling my amazement that my beloved Atkis should need absorbing. 
This thread has dispelled a lot of that view and I now see them in a new light. A manufacturer of a premium truck at a less than premium price. (I am especially impressed by the power steering on the 8 leggers, essential in my view in reversing a drawbar the ‘proper way’ rather than nosing it blind. 
