Yes, just Wissington, Bury St Edmunds, Newark, and Cantley remain. Cantley was the very first beet processing factory in the UK. For a few years after Peterborough closed the silos were retained and used for sugar storage. A couple of years ago at Hindles we worked with Turners in supplying sugar to Kelloggs at Trafford Park. Turners would collect sugar at some of the Tereos factories in France then take it to Newmarket, we would then trunk night and day from Newmarket to Bolton, then shunt from Bolton to Trafford Park to blow off the sugar. Usually 3 tankers a day 7 days weekly. It was a very good job, wished that we still did it, although I couldn’t quite work out the economics of it with all the movements involved. Also every tanker had to be washed out after it was tipped. Surely it would have been cheaper for Kelloggs to buy from a UK producer? But as I posted earlier the sugar market is subject to all kinds of tariffs, dealing and trading. If there were production problems at Kelloggs loads were cancelled and I recall on one Monday morning I had 13 loaded Turners’ sugar tankers in our yard. We usually had one or two spares in case of Kelloggs requesting a fourth tanker on some days.
cargo:
And some spilled sugar:
s200.photobucket.com/user/geoffr … x.mp4.html
I guess the place must have been swarming with wasps and hornets! Interesting videos!
Back in the 80’s and 90’s my dad used to pick up 20ft boxes with bulk Danish sugar in for a company called Dansukker from Grimsby Docks and deliver them to cake, pop and sweet factories:
Rowntrees York
Rowntrees Halifax
Terry’s York
UB Halifax
UB Manchester
Sun-Pat Heyde
Squirrel Horns-Liverpool
Barr’s Atherton
Britvic Tamworth
Pandora Mansfield
Bassett Sheffield
Trebor Chesterfield
Mr Kipling Barnsley
Lyon’s Wakefield
I used to love him doing that job, he would always be bringing home freebies from his days work. He also used to bag up any left over product from before stripping out the plastic bulk bag and frame from the container. He never sold it but would give it to the neighbours / family / or other drivers in the yard (in exchange for whatever they could offer) usually bacon or butter.
I would go with him every chance I got and back then he would always see the BSC and Napier-Brown lads at the same drops and would flash and wave each other on the road. Lucky if you get acknowledged from your own stable mates now!
ako444:
I used to love him doing that job, he would always be bringing home freebies from his days work. He also used to bag up any left over product from before stripping out the plastic bulk bag and frame from the container. He never sold it but would give it to the neighbours / family / or other drivers in the yard (in exchange for whatever they could offer) usually bacon or butter.
He must have made dentists happy in your area!
We used to deliver into many of these but also some factories around Blackpool but as usual I cant rememember the name
Many used to give away sweet to stop theft, on the basis that eventual you would get fed up, sick of them so stock did not get stolen and so all was accounted for
ako444:
Back in the 80’s and 90’s my dad used to pick up 20ft boxes with bulk Danish sugar in for a company called Dansukker from Grimsby Docks and deliver them to cake, pop and sweet factories:Rowntrees York
Rowntrees Halifax
Terry’s York
UB Halifax
UB Manchester
Sun-Pat Heyde
Squirrel Horns-Liverpool
Barr’s Atherton
Britvic Tamworth
Pandora Mansfield
Bassett Sheffield
Trebor Chesterfield
Mr Kipling Barnsley
Lyon’s WakefieldI used to love him doing that job, he would always be bringing home freebies from his days work. He also used to bag up any left over product from before stripping out the plastic bulk bag and frame from the container. He never sold it but would give it to the neighbours / family / or other drivers in the yard (in exchange for whatever they could offer) usually bacon or butter.
I would go with him every chance I got and back then he would always see the BSC and Napier-Brown lads at the same drops and would flash and wave each other on the road. Lucky if you get acknowledged from your own stable mates now!
Sniffy:
We used to deliver into many of these but also some factories around Blackpool but as usual I cant rememember the nameMany used to give away sweet to stop theft, on the basis that eventual you would get fed up, sick of them so stock did not get stolen and so all was accounted for
ako444:
Back in the 80’s and 90’s my dad used to pick up 20ft boxes with bulk Danish sugar in for a company called Dansukker from Grimsby Docks and deliver them to cake, pop and sweet factories:Rowntrees York
Rowntrees Halifax
Terry’s York
UB Halifax
UB Manchester
Sun-Pat Heyde
Squirrel Horns-Liverpool
Barr’s Atherton
Britvic Tamworth
Pandora Mansfield
Bassett Sheffield
Trebor Chesterfield
Mr Kipling Barnsley
Lyon’s WakefieldI used to love him doing that job, he would always be bringing home freebies from his days work. He also used to bag up any left over product from before stripping out the plastic bulk bag and frame from the container. He never sold it but would give it to the neighbours / family / or other drivers in the yard (in exchange for whatever they could offer) usually bacon or butter.
I would go with him every chance I got and back then he would always see the BSC and Napier-Brown lads at the same drops and would flash and wave each other on the road. Lucky if you get acknowledged from your own stable mates now!
Delivered to all of those mentioned by ako444, except for Sun-Pat, but plus quite a few more! Lyons Wakefield was a pain as it was a very low-pressure blow. Had to carry a spare can of diesel as the donkey engine on the blower would run out!
The only ones in Blackpool I can remember were Burtons biscuits, Duckworth and Bevan before they moved to Southport and a rock factory whose name escapes me now.
Steve
Steve
here’s the last picture from the Martin Phippard batch.
I remember one of you mentioning the condensation in a Foden cab. But what about condensation inside the suger tanks? Didn’t it make the sugar to stick to the sides? Did you regularly need to climb inside the tanks to clean them?
Froggy55:
0
here’s the last picture from the Martin Phippard batch.I remember one of you mentioning the condensation in a Foden cab. But what about condensation inside the suger tanks? Didn’t it make the sugar to stick to the sides? Did you regularly need to climb inside the tanks to clean them?
Surprisingly, you got very little crust inside the tank which was removed by washing out. Open the front hatch, raise the tank to the full height, lower a spray head into the tank and turn on the hot water, Wash for at least 30/40 minutes, until the water coming from the back was clear and no taste of sugar, close the top hatch and run the blower until the body was hot and no sign of moisture coming from the back.
You had to wash each time you changed the grade of sugar or if the tare weight indicated there was something inside - in any event at least once a week. Tates had specialist hygene staff who occasionally got inside to hygene everything manually, but this was something the drivers were not involved with.
Steaming out the liquid tanks was much simpler and was normally done after every load.
Steve
Thank you for these very accurate explainations!
It looks much simpler than to unload sand by -15° when it had been loaded damp, and spent a night in the tipper. I had a memory of such a thing when I carried sand from Paris to a horse course in Switzerland in 2003; half of it (24 tons il all) had to be scraped with a pick-axe.
Most of you will wonder why we bothered carrying sand on 500 kms. The Fontainebleau area yields quarries that produce flour-like sand, used in industry and for horse racing-courses. It’s carried by truck and train all over Europe.
Sometimes the sugar could be quite hot when they loaded it. This caused condensation and as Steve says, you got a thin crust coating the inside of the tank. There was always a little bump of sugar left where the air blew over it when you were empty. I can only remember washing out half a dozen times in two years but used to poke at it with a garden trowel every week.
Sugar was easy to blow when you got the hang of it. I used to listen to the pipe. If it was pinging, I knew the tank was empty or I was blowing all air and no sugar and wouldn’t be empty for hours. If the pipe was woofing, I knew the pipe was on the verge of blocking- up. Plenty of sugar but not enough air. Hang a spare pipe clamp over the pressure release valve and get an extra two psi.
Every place you delivered to was different. Some were an easy discharge; up and over into a silo. Others might have a hundred yards of pipe running to bin on the other side of the factory. One could take half an hour; others could take 2 and a half.
Now that I have posted my last sugar tanker picture, I haven’t much to add to the thread I started 10 days ago. Nevertheless, I insist in thanking all of you for your contributions. Sugar transport in Australia, tank cleaning, etc…
Just a last question. According to Steve’s answer, I understand hot air could be blown inside the tank for drying purpose; how was it heated? Fuel burner?
No heaters, not in our case anyway. The air came from a compressor powered by a donkey engine mounted on the front of the trailer chassis. Blow at full revs with the throtle open and the air soon got hot enough to dry the tank.
Regretably, I only have two photographs which show one of our dry tanks, neither particularly good and both taken when I took part in the LDOY in 1986.
You can see the blower arrangement mounted on the front.
Steve
A really big donkey engine! The same size as those which were fitted on concrete mixers. Maybe an air-cooled Deutz?
Big 4 cylinder water-cooled diesels with a big rad on the far end. It’s a long time ago now, but I seem to recall something about them being Perkins.
Steve
cargo:
A mixed bag:
Take note of the Bedfords with dog.
s200.photobucket.com/user/geoffr … p.mp4.html
Hi Cargo, I enjoyed that old film clip and it now has me wondering if the shot starting at two minutes was taken on The Bruce Highway about 10 k’s north of Apple Tree Creek. 
I don’t know if you have ever heard of W.S. (Bill ) Oliver’s story “Sugar in the Blood”, his life working for C.S.R. Commonwealth Sugar Refinery’s in the 40’s/50’s and 60’s. It’s 3x C.D.'s available from the A.B.C. Shop or they might even have it you local library. It lasts for over three hours so it’s ideal if you are on a bit of a road trip. 
Regards Steve.
Back in the mid-70s, when BSC was expanding and started the BRS fleet of 20 Leyland Buffaloes with Murfitt tanks; all the talk was that it would be the end of the dead lion and the bees. But somehow, T & L has survived through all the changes. Maybe “Out of strength came forth sweetness” should be changed to “Out of strength came forth sweetners”
cargo:
Hi Cargo, I enjoyed that old film clip and it now has me wondering if the shot starting at two minutes was taken on The Bruce Highway about 10 k’s north of Apple Tree Creek.Regards Steve.
No mate that’s just South of Gin Gin, older highway of course. Road has completely changed now, no rail line anymore just a rail museum.
Trucks pulled from Wallaville Mill up that last incline, then rolled down over the rail line into Gin Gin then turned right heading off to Bundaberg. Even though it’s a silent movie I can hear that old Beaver’s air clutch as he drops from 6th to direct just at the camera.(wipes tear from eye)
The Commer following had the 6V53 GM engine swap.
Dreadful quality movie, video’d from the 8mm movie projector onto the fridge door.
The collection of snips, (truck following truck) is at the roadworks for the “new” road at Gregory River, halfway between Bundaberg and Isis mill. The Bedford parked in the creek is the old Gregory River bridge. That’s an Army convoy in the background. LHD trucks and a narrow bridge, someone had to go over the side.
The bit taken through the car’s windscreen (passing Percy Corn’s Commer) is along the Sharon straight heading North from Splitter’s Creek.
Most of the other’s are through the cane fields on the Port road.
Overturned Seddon was at the By-Wash, Kendal’s Flat in Bundaberg.
Overturned AEC was on the Port road. Tractor driver (Stuey Tallon) didn’t hear/see the truck and turned across in front of him. Truck driver swerved and rolled but still cut the tractor in half, crushing tractor driver’s leg. He came good, eventually.
Although Henry Tate and Sons and Abraham Lyle and Sons amalgamated in 1921, and Silvertown and Plaistow Wharf refineries were less than a mile apart, when I worked out of there over 30 years ago as far as the staff were concerned Tates was Tates and Lyles was Lyles and ‘never the twain shall meet’!
I understand that although both refineries were sold to American Sugar Refining in 2010, the name of Tate and Lyle has survived and somehow continues to prosper.
A history of T&L called ‘Sugar and all that’ was written in 1978 by Anthony Hugill and makes very interesting reading for those who may be interested in it. I believe it is still available from several sources on t’internet.
Steve
PS - you may get the impression that I enjoyed my ten years there: I did - it was a good, steady job run in the old-fashioned way where the customer was king. I was quite sad when the contract ended.
Ste46:
Froggy55:
0
here’s the last picture from the Martin Phippard batch.I remember one of you mentioning the condensation in a Foden cab. But what about condensation inside the suger tanks? Didn’t it make the sugar to stick to the sides? Did you regularly need to climb inside the tanks to clean them?
Surprisingly, you got very little crust inside the tank which was removed by washing out. Open the front hatch, raise the tank to the full height, lower a spray head into the tank and turn on the hot water, Wash for at least 30/40 minutes, until the water coming from the back was clear and no taste of sugar, close the top hatch and run the blower until the body was hot and no sign of moisture coming from the back.
You had to wash each time you changed the grade of sugar or if the tare weight indicated there was something inside - in any event at least once a week. Tates had specialist hygene staff who occasionally got inside to hygene everything manually, but this was something the drivers were not involved with.
Steaming out the liquid tanks was much simpler and was normally done after every load.Steve
Hi Steve.
Almost never on the the Dry Tanks (only after welding etc ) but often done on Liquid Sugar Tanks if they had been used on dark products or Lyle’s Syrup & once done the hygiene man had to sign off the tank before it could be used.
Cane was a much more stable/predictable product in food production (or used to be the case) and the visible dusting/glaze that you see on many cakes/sweets had to be cane, but beet was often used on the inside mix.
Tate’s finest liquid sugar was T1001 (clear) so if loading again no steam out needed if within the permitted time frame & going down the grades no problem, of course coming up was a different matter (at least a steam/inspection & sign off by the hygiene man)