W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

[harry_gill]

Carl Williams:
Couple of photos of our Atkinson with Gardner Engine. Bit dirty, particularly as we had an automatic vehicle wash that would wash from front to back including roof of tractor & trailer complete, but in defence that tractor unit had not been back to Spennymoor for over three weeks, changing trailers at our Sheffield depot. At the time we were taking Beds, 3 piece suites, cabinet furniture and flatpacks which had been sorted at our Spennymoor warehouse into areas to deliver to our various depots, which in turn were delivered with smaller vehicles to mail order customers at their homes. This tractor had been picking up trailers which had been shunted down to Sheffield taking onto our London depot, and returning to Sheffield loaded trailers with flatpack furniture which our tractors ferrying trailers to Sheffield would return to our Spennymoor warehouse, to store and draw orders from as the mail order customers bought.

Hiya,
I see your Atki was a bit like mine Carl, the Atki’s I drove usually were prone
to a visit from the knight’s head burglars I had a couple “removed” during my
time on the road also had DOG removed from a Dodge most likely to adorn
some drivers pet pooches living quarters, all “burglaries” occurred whilst I was
overnighting at the Lincoln Farm transport cafe.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

harry_gill:

Carl Williams:
Couple of photos of our Atkinson with Gardner Engine. Bit dirty, particularly as we had an automatic vehicle wash that would wash from front to back including roof of tractor & trailer complete, but in defence that tractor unit had not been back to Spennymoor for over three weeks, changing trailers at our Sheffield depot. At the time we were taking Beds, 3 piece suites, cabinet furniture and flatpacks which had been sorted at our Spennymoor warehouse into areas to deliver to our various depots, which in turn were delivered with smaller vehicles to mail order customers at their homes. This tractor had been picking up trailers which had been shunted down to Sheffield taking onto our London depot, and returning to Sheffield loaded trailers with flatpack furniture which our tractors ferrying trailers to Sheffield would return to our Spennymoor warehouse, to store and draw orders from as the mail order customers bought.

Hiya,
I see your Atki was a bit like mine Carl, the Atki’s I drove usually were prone
to a visit from the knight’s head burglars I had a couple “removed” during my
time on the road also had DOG removed from a Dodge most likely to adorn
some drivers pet pooches living quarters, all “burglaries” occurred whilst I was
overnighting at the Lincoln Farm transport cafe.
thanks harry, long retired.

Well as well, Harry, you must also approve of the dirt, which proved it really had been working

[harry_gill]

Carl Williams:

harry_gill:

Carl Williams:
Couple of photos of our Atkinson with Gardner Engine. Bit dirty, particularly as we had an automatic vehicle wash that would wash from front to back including roof of tractor & trailer complete, but in defence that tractor unit had not been back to Spennymoor for over three weeks, changing trailers at our Sheffield depot. At the time we were taking Beds, 3 piece suites, cabinet furniture and flatpacks which had been sorted at our Spennymoor warehouse into areas to deliver to our various depots, which in turn were delivered with smaller vehicles to mail order customers at their homes. This tractor had been picking up trailers which had been shunted down to Sheffield taking onto our London depot, and returning to Sheffield loaded trailers with flatpack furniture which our tractors ferrying trailers to Sheffield would return to our Spennymoor warehouse, to store and draw orders from as the mail order customers bought.

Hiya,
I see your Atki was a bit like mine Carl, the Atki’s I drove usually were prone
to a visit from the knight’s head burglars I had a couple “removed” during my
time on the road also had DOG removed from a Dodge most likely to adorn
some drivers pet pooches living quarters, all “burglaries” occurred whilst I was
overnighting at the Lincoln Farm transport cafe.
thanks harry, long retired.

Well as well, Harry, you must also approve of the dirt, which proved it really had been working

Hiya,
Ah’ yes Carl, reference the “little rub” about the dirty cab I see you have heard
of my inability to locate the vehicle wash, lol but I never had complaints about
the motor earning money surely you being “the guvnor” would much prefer the
the motor being out earning than sitting in the yard being washed and polished
My answer to the “motor could do with a wash” was I’ll see the yard man about
that, but you could always eat your food off the cab floor or any part of the
inside for that matter, Carl I’m just pleased we weren’t all the same what sort
of a job would it have been, but the job in my opinion is becoming robotic all
doing exactly the same thing, I had the good years, I wouldn’t do it now.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

The van in the centre in Barrett’s Oak tree livery started life identical to its sister to the left, A Bedford KF Vanplan pantechnicon painted in our cream and brown livery.
In the early 1980s we were approached by Barrett’s the housebuilder, who although one of the nation’s largest housebuilders head office was in Newcastle, where it had been established by Sir Laurie Barrett. They had several schemes to help sell homes including part exchange, free legal fees and they had decided to look into the possibility of offering free home removals. We were in the fortunate possition that we had vans returning empty almost daily from every area of the UK to our Spennymoor base, and therefore were able to bring a removal back into the North East for almost as cheaply as we could offer a local removal from say one area of Newcastle to another. I therefore was able to offer a standard price for removals into any of their building sites based all around the North East. It was further helped that many home buyers were first time buyers and so had very little to move. Also they were often attracted by the layout and furnishing of the ‘Show Houses’ so Barretts also agreed that we store a range of new furniture that was used in the show houses, so we clicked a little extra warehousing & delivering this furniture to the new buyers.
It was agreed in with the price we would paint one of our vans in the Barrett livery which would be used almost exclusively into the new Barrett homes, but of course the biggest glut of removals was carried out using our normal W.H.Williams liveried vans.
So a van was chosen to be re-painted in Barrett’s livery. A Bedford-Vanplan. Full credit must be given to the Late Peter Butler who signwrote most of our vehicles in being able to create in perfection their Oak tree trademark and the first duty of the van was to attend a film shot where it was used in a television advert which was widely shown on Tyne Tees Television to promote this new scheme and also be used in the literature given out at the show houses.
Somme three years or so later the Barrett bedford vanplan suffered an accident that seriously damaged the front of the luton and cab. Bringing it back to Spennymoor we decided it would be uneconomic to return it to Vanplan and get them to replace the front end, which was moulded in one piece, particularly as we were very busy at the time and needed the van on the road. The alternative carried out in our workshops over a weekend was to cut the front of the van away & rebuilt the body as a box-van and fit a standard cab front. The result seen in the picture. Our painters painted and Peter Butler sign wrote together with another Oak tree on the front on the Sunday and after returning to us on a Thursday night was back on the road, looking very different on the Monday morning.
Strange as it seemed a few years ago a photo turned up of it in its final years with only the Hatcher cab roof-light, still written as it had been by Peter Butler to give away its orriginal identity.

[carl_williams]

Over the years we ran four Guys. All with Gardiner Engines

Three were Guy Otters with 1700 cu ft luton bodies with 4 cylinder Gardiner Engines. two 1964 reg painted in Courtaulds livery & one in our Cream and Brown livery. Sadly I have no photos. The two in Courtaulds livery were used exclusively in carrying boxes of spun synthetic wool from their Worcester Spinning mill which employed 2900 in Spennymoor mostly to Leicester Notts area to manufactures that wove it into material a large portion of which went on to clothing manufacturers that made finished clothing for Marks and Spencer. That was in the days when M & S made their reputation for quality selling only UK made clothing.

The other 1965 was used mostly on similar work for Courtaaulds with a bit of our general work, inc household removals .This van was painted in our cream & Brown livery.

They were strongly built vehicles getting 26 mpg as compared with our Leyland Lairds & Boxers 12 mpg and our Bedfords 13 mpg, However they had two problems. Whilst the vehicle and engines been built like battleships and excellent parts availability from which we bought directly from Guy at Wolverhampton, who we opened an account with & dealt directly with them. However the cabs were a slightly smaller cut down version of The Guy Invincible cab, which search as I might I’ve never located a photo, and sadly suffered very badly from Cab rot. Not the cab itself which was mostly made out of Fibre Glass & very durable, but worst thing possible it was the frame that rotted, making the cab basically fall onto the chassis.

■■■■ Porter had worked for us a number of years and we had promoted him to workshop foreman, a job which sadly he was not capable of, and he didn’t take kindly to being demoted, so we moved him with an apprentice down to our old garage at Marmaduke Street Spennymoor where he worked with an apprentice to deal with ‘Special Projects’ and so was given the almost impossible task of stripping these Guy cabs back to frame, replacing, repairing and welding the frames & replacing the moulded cabs and components. At the same time we reconditioned the Gardiner Engines. However the real problem had been that when there vehicles were designed the speed limit had been 30 mph & there were very few Motorways. They would do 45mph flat out and no more.

I can remember once or twice passing them on the hill on the M18 struggling onto the M1 obviously down to 30 mph, and it was pitiful. However they were vans in very good condition and did the job making us a good profit thanks mainly to the fuel consumption. We used to give new drivers them to drive and cut their teeth on, or others we wanted to punish.

Things came to a head one night, as my father & me were just about to go home, and a driver rang in to say he’d run out of diesel on ‘Park Head Bank’ (On the main Bishop Auckland Spennymoor road about 2 miles from home) Dad who by then had never drove one of our vans for years asked if I’d like to join him for a ride out & to get a rope. One of the Guys was parked up so he said ‘I’ll take this’ In fairness neither of us realised it was fully loaded & so off we went. Coupling the rope on between the vans, we got back in the Guy Cab and it just would not move, so back to Green Lane & found an old Bedford SB which dad loved and felt at home in. The SB was pulled in front and off we went back no problem.

That was the Guy Otters’ death sentence. On the way back I got ‘I never guessed they were as bad as that’ and within 3 months they were replaced by 3 Bedford TKs

Here is two photos the fourth Guy, a Big J with a Gardiner 6 cylinder engine.

[lawrence_dunbar]

Hi Carl good stuff & Info, The Guy Big J, Has a Glasgow Reg , , Not your usual Durham ones , Regards Larry.

[carl_williams]

Lawrence Dunbar:
Hi Carl good stuff & Info, The Guy Big J, Has a Glasgow Reg , , Not your usual Durham ones , Regards Larry.

No Larry we bought it second hand and a lot older than we usually would have.

Amongst the tractor units we had we had bought 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units 28 ton GTW. In reality we only needed about 24 ton GTW and we had an AEC Mandator & A Foden at hand to use on any heavier loads. The Lynx with their fixed head engines and dodgy gearboxes were a real headache & parts were nigh on impossible to get hold of. We had one Bedford TK and quite a few Ford D series abou 20 ton GVW and we had one Lynx was out of action for about a month or so, so we bought an oldish Atkinson with 180 Gardiner, which was painted over a weekend & in action within about 3 days. It was supposed to be just a stop gap, but the driver who’d been with us over 20 years, didn’t want his Lynx back & so we continued running it. It was cheaper to run than either the Bedford TK or the Ford D series. Talk of using a sledgehammer to split a nut. We therefore decided to buy this Guy to keep it company, which led onto us buying 7 ERFs with Gardner, most replacing D series Fords.

[carl_williams]

The emergence of this photo of our Bedford RL Breakdown taken in Southampton after we had painted out our name on the cab doors and handed it in for Part Exchange for a Scammell (More of this later) decided me to write about our three breakdown trucks. It will come in three segments.
Whilst thinking of what to write it seemed obvious to slot in about our mechanics and maintenance facilities at the time and I hope no one finds it too long winded (Please tell me & I’ll edit part 2 & three) but I think its better to put everything into context & reasoning.
Its hard now to believe until about mid 1960s we could pride ourselves that none of our vehicles had ever been towed, & by God we made up for that in future years. I suppose there were two reasons. The first being we were seeing the retirement of drivers who had worked for us through the war & the 1950s & in the 60s a new breed were coming. Not better or worse for that matter but different.
Up to the 50s and into the early 60s drivers had taken such a pride in their vehicles. Washing them no doubt often in their own time and servicing (Changing Engine oil, filters and greasing) themselves. Even our 1956 Ford 4D which went through head gaskets like diesel always made its way home.
Come the 60s drivers drove. I think it was not only due to attitudes but wage structures that perhaps were more efficient in the sixties.
When I was about 10-11 years old I went into my Grandfather’s House 14 Marmaduke Street Spennymoor (Next to the Garage) & was introduced to a Frenchman. (Or more correct a French born man who had probably about 1910-18 emigrated into England, Spennymoor to be specific) & my Grandfather & he were talking about Ford Model Ts The Frenchman (I cannot remember his name) sounded exactly like Maurice Chevallier with his French accent & until about 1930 had a shop on King Street Spennymoor (For Spennymoor people opposite Bella Dents) I think he probably sold vehicle spares but at the back of the shop he had a workshop where he had conducted his business as a mechanic specialising on repairing Ford model Ts . Which I suppose was quite profitable but had a time limit. He had however repaired my Grandfathers first vehicles. They were talking about that if My Grandfather bought an old Model T 1 ton truck he would make it like new as he could make the engines run like a clock. I wish they had but he died a few months later.
My Grandfather’s first Driver Mechanic was my Uncle Jim or to be more correct my father’s mother’s brother who was my Great Uncle. My Grandfather gave him a job in 1926 (Aprox) and he stayed with us until he retired about 1972. He was an extremely cleaver man, could turn his hand to anything and thorough but extremely slow. As I said all servicing was done by the drivers and he did de-carbonising of engines changed springs etc. Engine reconditioning & changes were done until the early 50s by Adams & Gibbon or Sherwoods Darlington (Usually at their Hurworth premises). I do remember sending engines into British Engines Newcastle and a company named something like Northern Engineering but by then my dad himself would take the engines out, and later got a tremendous amount of help from Jack (Doug) Kempsey who had married his cousin Olga Burt & Father to Alan, Christine and Mark Kempsey.
Dad had joined the Army during the war and been trained by the Army as a vehicle mechanic. He told stories of reconditioning an army Jeep & when asking for a new set of valves been told here is a piece of steel, there is a Lathe over there, make your own. Dad was posted to Edinburgh where he was put in a lady’s house as a lodger whilst travelling daily to the docks to be trained as a Barge Engineer (Although he didn’t know at the time in preparation for the D day landings) This was to be followed by 6 months at the Gardiner Engine factory. He was told although Petrol Engines were King, after the war Diesel would take over & he would get training that would stand him in good stead. He was however invalided out of the Army with his bad eyesight before this could happen.
Jack Kempsey was an extremely cleaver man. He had served his time as a Tool maker and reminded me vey much of a chap who does repairs to cars (Often very technical) on a TV show where they buy cars do them up improve & sell. Jack was a very clean worker who cleaned components before working on them and certainly not a ‘Grease Monkey’ Although he never worked for us used to come along to Marmaduke Street almost every night after work & stay till 7 to 8 o’clock helping dad. Saturday however was the day for servicing the vans & Jack was there almost every Saturday often working to quite late in the afternoon.
Time moved on and mid 1960s dad decided he needed to employ a Driver-Mechanic to do repairs & drive if a driver was off sick etc and we employed George Hardy who lived at Ferryhill. You couldn’t meet a nicer hard worker than George but a hard worker who works so hard and gets through so much work who is very quick & slipshod who forgets to tighten nuts & bolts up can be very dangerous. George came along just before we got our first TK which I’ve already told about. A failure because it was a 4 cylinder & that vehicle started the towing. I don’t know how much George’s slip shod mechanics contributed to the TKs failures but things changed from George’s appearance at Marmaduke Street & the addition of our 4 cylinder TK to the fleet which by that time was almost all Bedford SBs with a 2 ton Morris FG & a Morris J2 Luton.
So the time came for us to recruit our first full time mechanic, a chap called Vic Young. I cannot fully remember what happened to George Hardy but I think he probably went onto driving a small van. Although I was quite young when Vic Young joined us, I learnt a very early lesson. In these days before plating and testing. You cannot, in general trust a mechanic to inspect & repair because the temptation in many is to ignore some problems so they can put off the repair for another day, particularly if they want an early finish on a night for example. Things with Vic came to a head when our Morris J2 luton was pulled in by MOT inspectors and given an immediate GV9, even though Vic had had it in for almost a full day checking it over & repairing 2 days before. With the possibility of a public enquiry into our maintenance Vic was given immediate dismissal.
Looking for a good mechanic dad was recommended to approach ■■■■ Porter who at the time was working for Dents Transport at Tudhoe Colliery. Harry Dent was not known for overpaying and our wage offer was very acceptable but ■■■■ had spent his time at Dent’s working on Atkinsons with Gardiner engines and was very reluctant to change. One of his conditions of coming to us was he would never be expected to drive, no matter how short staffed we were ( This was in the days before HGV licence) and during his years with us he never did.
It was about this time we bought our first Bedford RL (Pictured) It was bought from Vas of Amphill Bedfordshire together with a new crane. Ex-army of course but it was in exceptional condition with low mileage. ■■■■ Porter adapted to army body & modified it suitable for a breakdown & fitted the crane.
To be continued.

[paulycats]

Well Carl, you can be as long winded as you like (for me) always enjoy reading your memoirs. Looking forward to the next installment. Was the pictured RL petrol or diesel? Loved those 5 litre straight 6 petrols, such a sweet noted, smooth engine.
Regards, Paulycats

[carl_williams]

paulycats:
Well Carl, you can be as long winded as you like (for me) always enjoy reading your memoirs. Looking forward to the next installment. Was the pictured RL petrol or diesel? Loved those 5 litre straight 6 petrols, such a sweet noted, smooth engine.
Regards, Paulycats

It was orriginal in every way and low mileage Petrol. More about it to come.

[harry_gill]

Carl Williams:

paulycats:
Well Carl, you can be as long winded as you like (for me) always enjoy reading your memoirs. Looking forward to the next installment. Was the pictured RL petrol or diesel? Loved those 5 litre straight 6 petrols, such a sweet noted, smooth engine.
Regards, Paulycats

It was orriginal in every way and low mileage Petrol. More about it to come.

Hiya,
Carl those six pot Bedford petrol engines when set up properly and in good
condition if an old threepenny bit was perched on the rocker cover and the
engine left at tickover would stay there all day, a bit of useless information
but what the Hell, Carl can’t wait for the next installment, good reading.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

harry_gill:

Carl Williams:

paulycats:
Well Carl, you can be as long winded as you like (for me) always enjoy reading your memoirs. Looking forward to the next installment. Was the pictured RL petrol or diesel? Loved those 5 litre straight 6 petrols, such a sweet noted, smooth engine.
Regards, Paulycats

It was orriginal in every way and low mileage Petrol. More about it to come.

Hiya,
Carl those six pot Bedford petrol engines when set up properly and in good
condition if an old threepenny bit was perched on the rocker cover and the
engine left at tickover would stay there all day, a bit of useless information
but what the Hell, Carl can’t wait for the next installment, good reading.
thanks harry, long retired.

Hi Harry

It was the success of the 6 cylinder Petrol engines in the S type Bedfords of the 50s and their Army equivelent RL that established their reputation that drove the success of the TKs that replaced them. Many people poke fun at Bedfords but they sold by the millions and not many drivers of a certain age can claim never to have driven one

[carl_williams]

First, I would like to apologise for the dreadful photos of the Scammell but that’s all I have. In fact, these photos are part of history. Apart from my zero ability as a photographer, who can remember the Polaroid Instantaneous Camera. Well I had bought one and that is the Camera I used which makes dreadful photo even worse. The idea was you take a photo & out it comes from the camera, wait five minutes & it developed.
Back to the story. We had bought the Bedford RL which had been converted into a Breakdown complete with new Harvey Frost Crane. ■■■■ Porter had been employed as our first Full Time Mechanic.
I failed to mention within weeks of ■■■■ arriving we employed our first Apprentice, 15-year-old Raymond Russell direct from school. In those days to be an apprentice the employee (Or his parents or guardians if he was under 18) & the employers had to sign an Indemnity & apprentices had to attend college one day per week & employers had to pay for them to do so.
Raymond couldn’t cope with college saying he’d left school and didn’t wish to go back to learn English & Maths as he wanted to be a mechanic & to him college was a waste of time. However, he had proved himself to be a determined hard-working employee & with ■■■■ Porter he had the chance to learn so much, so we released him from his apprentice & kept him employed. Over the following years we had many successful young lads take their apprentice with us who qualified & gained very good employment even till today, but Raymond never had any qualifications, but we taught him to drive which continued till he got an HGV class 1, worked in the workshop with a time being our tyre fitter and often driving our subsequent breakdown vehicles. Nothing ever was impossible for him to undertake and he certainly ranked amongst the best employees we ever had. Its sad so much pressure is put on academic training instead of concentrating on manual abilities.
In the 60s we expanded quickly as Spennymoor area found a boom in manufacturing. By the time we left Marmaduke Street the Garage that had been built primary for garaging our vehicles overnight to a workshop employing about 8 Mechanics & apprentices.
The RL was coping in general OK being quite fast with its petrol engine and certainly capable of pulling anything, including our ever-increasing number of antics we were operating. However, road holding left a lot to the imagination & breaking was quite dangerous at times as it was not heavy enough or stable enough to hold the weight of the vehicle it was towing.
One problem that was increasing was our management of the maintenance, paperwork, which was picked on by a visit from Ministry of Transport Inspectors. The garage in Marmaduke Street was totally inadequate but we could prove we were building new premises on Green Lane Industrial Estate, which would be one of the best workshops in North East England, but we needed to get our act in order with proof and record keeping of regular maintenance, drivers fault reports and actions carried out.
Eddie Thornton was workshop manager of Adams & Gibbons Vauxhall/Bedford agency at their premises at Claypath Durham. We discussed our problems with him and he agreed to join us as Workshop manager, working initially in Marmaduke Street until we moved to Green Lane Industrial Estate.
When we moved we still had the RL as our breakdown, and Dad & I discussed what we should do. As a temporary measure we took off the Army style tyres and fitted 900x20 commercial vehicle tyres. I seem to think we managed to fit twin wheels of the rear hubs but looking at the photo I might be mistaken (I think we probably put back its original wheels when we part exchanged it which might explain its tyres in the photo). The tyres did help with more grip, but it simply was not heavy enough. In 1973 when we moved to Green Lane Industrial Estate we had mostly class 3 HGV drivers and we needed a heavy breakdown with 4 wheels, so we could give ant driver it to drive so a 6-wheeler was out of the question.
Dad came across the Scammell in the photo and it seemed to fit the bill. It was for sale by a Commercial Vehicle dealer in Southampton. We were told it had been built new by Pickfords as a breakdown to use for towing their Scammell’s in their Heavy Haulage Division. So, although old (About 1937) the Gardiner Engine was like new.
Dad went down to see it and was given a demonstration of it lifting a massive boulder up a steep hillside with its winch, and although it needed a little tidying up in our body shop it was in very good mechanical order A deal was done with them taking our Bedford RL in Part exchange.
One of our mechanics Ken Armstrong was given the job of taking the RL down & bringing the Scammell back. He told us the ride down in the RL was a pleasure, and it the journey went in good time. About an hour later he rang back again almost crying that the Scammell would only do 19 Miles Per Hour and at that rate the journey back would take forever. I remember him remaking that he was thinking he’d never see his family again. We must take into consideration that when the Scammell was built the speed limit for HGVs was 20 mph & so 19MPH for a breakdown truck would be quite respectable.
I agreed with Ken that if he travelled to Watford Gap I would jump into my car, meet him there and he could travel back home with my car and I would return with the Scammell. I had just got my new Triumph Stag as the photo showed so I recon Ken would be delighted in jumping into the Stag & leave me with the Scammell
To be continued.

[carl_williams]

Ken Armstrong & I met at Watford Gap, with me getting into the Scammell and a happy Ken getting into RUP99M my new Triumph Stag, knowing he’d be home in little over 3 hours.
I don’t know how Ken got himself volunteered to collect the Scammell from Southampton as I suspect it was agreed between my father and him. Maybe he had driven one before.
I don’t know how many readers of this know Croxdale Service Station on A167, but it had been the A1 at this time. Originally it had belonged to Heppell’s and been a BMC car & commercial dealership that mostly sold Nuffield tractors, and had been an Esso service Station. We had first come across Ken Armstrong when he worked for Heppells’ I cannot remember what the problem was but our Morris FG 2 tonner pantechnicon DPT100B had a problem that required work done under warranty and we had taken it there and Ken had worked on it.
Step forward a year or two and Heppells had sold Croxdale service Station to Neil Corner son of the founder of NESS Furniture (Then New Equipment Ltd makers of Steel Style Furniture) which was next door on Croxdale Roundabout. It became Citroen agency & where the FastFit building is now behind the then Petrol Pumps there were two semi detached houses, and as part of his job Ken & his wife lived in there. When Corner’s took over Ken got involved working on Neil’s Racing cars & spent many weekends attending Car Racing events & it is possible at that time he had experience of a Scammell.
I cannot remember the full facts but Ken lost his job at Croxdale Service Station and came to work for us. The effect was he had a limited time to leave the house within Croxdale Service Station but being a qualified CV Mechanic, we helped him get to the front of the housing list as a Key Employee in an expanding business. Ken moved into Tees Crescent and lived there until he died two or so years ago.
I was fortunate that not long before I had attended MOTEC (The Road Transport Training Establishment) in High Ercall Shropshire on a two weeks Drivers Assessment Course and one of the vehicles there was a Scammell new but the having the Famous Scammell Gate Gearbox, and I had taken the opportunity to take a drive. A new vehicle, which really would not be out of place in the Science Museum, so I had a clue how to make the thing go.
About 10-00PM that night my parents not hearing from me decided to have a ride down the A1 ‘To see how Carl was going on’ When they got to Catterick there was a contraflow as they were road building. Not the recent work that had it closed several years & just has finally opened., but way back in 1974 they were at it then. In the distance they could see this massive thing slowly coming towards them with a massive line of traffic following. Yes, it was me with the Scammell.
I believer it was just after Midnight when I pulled into Green Lane Industrial Estate, and I parked it at the far end of our warehouse on ■■■■■■■■ between the warehouse and the exterior fence. That is where I took the dreadful photo and I think it stood for several months, never moving & few looking at it.
We thought it would just need alterations to the diff or other tweets to improve the speed. Dad contacted Scammell at Watford who looked up the specification. Marvellous record keeping when they could trace the build of the vehicle. They told him nothing in the world could be done to make it any faster. It wasn’t as though if you were going down a hill you could knock it out of gear, coast a bit & drop it back in again. I think with the Gate box you would need to stop and start again & build up through the gears. I suspect few ever needed to change a scammell gearbox because they were made to a design that was more in Kin with the Victorian age. The strangest thing was while it was parked there & our only breakdown we never had any need for it. Perhaps the fear of driving it made both drivers and fitters more careful to see they never broke down.
In the Removals and Haulage trade you inevitably meet & make friends with others in the same trade, but few could you really trust because deep down many wanted your work & would stab you in the back but one friend we made who was dead straight was Tom Liddle Stanley. I was very young when I first noticed Tom’s vans on the road. He had from my memory three ERF pantechnicons with bodies by Jennings of Sandbach, built between 1947-1949. They were amongst the best removal vans on the road. When in the late 70s Dad was taken on a guided VIP tour of the ERF works at Sandbach amongst the vehicles on the walls was one of these vans which illustrated the pride ERF and their Sister Company Jennings placed on these vans.
One of our customers was Hardy & Co who had furniture shops throughout the North East. We had had dealings with them since the 1920s and in fact Mr Cohen the original owner had given my Grandfather a rather beautiful Art Neuveau wooden mantel clock for his assistance in locating & negotiating their original Spennymoor premises in Cheapside. And I about 6 or so was in the cab of one of our vans when we went to Tom’s warehouse to collect a load of Vono Beds for Hardy’s shops. Tom had bought a considerable holding of Vono shares which safeguarded this work and, it was the backbone of his business.
Tom’s main work was collecting beds from the Vono factory at Tipton storing them in his warehouse at Stanley to draw from stock and delivering to furniture shops throughout Northern England & Scotland. Tom had three identical brick-built buildings about 6,000 sq. feet each all joined together at the side within what must originally have been a quarry. One was his vehicle workshop & the other two warehouses. His massive bungalow with an office adjoined was in the entrance & what impressed me was a line of about 20 -25 Bedford O model tippers all lined up where I was to understand they stayed for over a year. I was told the story that Tom had these tippers working out of a quarry at a fixed rate per load and there was a bridge the needed to cross which was insecure, so the route was detoured by a mile or so. Tom asked for a price increase & was refused so he parked up the tippers. In 1960 he decided to replace his ERFs and bought a steady flow of 16 Bedford TKs with 1700 cu ft body which were built by Northern Assemblies Black Hill Consett. Licencing was no problem as he transferred to B licences off the tippers.
As the TKs came amongst the orders he placed an order for a TK tipper chassis and had Northern assemblies build a purpose-built breakdown truck, which was hardly ever used. Living on the job Tom didn’t use a car much & used a chap called Don Clegg from time to time as his chauffer when he nipped down to Tipton for Vono board meetings. Although not one of the most expensive cars of the day Tom had a Vauxhall Cresta with White wall wheels so it did look quite impressive.
It was a Don Clegg a small removal contractor from Stanley who originally introduced Dad & myself to Tom & his wife. Don had before starting his removal business been an ‘All in wrestler’ who wore a mask in the ring. He was built like a Gorilla with a neck that was almost as big as an average mans back. He had stopped wrestling after during a match he had grabbed a man by the ear, swung him round to find his ear detached in his grip. Although all this history he was in life a Gentle man. He used to never be away from Marmaduke Street, when we were based there & bought two vehicles off us. A 1953 Bedford SB HTH882 and a1957 Bedford CA Luton Van 938KMM. which had been built & we bought off Locomotors Bedford agents of Uxbridge.
Don had bought vans from several local removal contractors & never painted them. I went to his yard in Stanley once & it was a sight to see. He did use HTH & we gave him quite a lot of work as a sub-contractor It was on one of these occasions when Dad called to see Don on a removal he was doing for us as a sub-contractor. Dan & his young porter were carrying a piano out of the house with the piano at waist height in Don’s arms His assistant was struggling a few inches from the ground and was so relieved to put it down as Don stopped to talk to my dad. After a minute or two dad said ‘Don, wouldn’t it be easier to put it down a bit?’ ‘Oh no’ came the reply, ‘Id just have to pick it up again’ The Strangest thing was the Bedford CA luton van he bought of us. He loved it & every time called and asked could he buy it and n 1964 Marsden’s built a pantechnicon on a Morris 2 tonner FG chassis cab & we sold him it. He never used it just every week he used to polish it.
Another occasion Don called at Marmaduke Street saying he was sick of having to tax his vans & he was off to the Vehicle Taxation office at County Hall Durham to get a set of Trade Plates. Dad explained that Trade Plates were not to be used on vehicles whilst working doing removals etc. and, they were not give out willy nilly. The police had to come & inspect your premises & see you were a dealer or repairer etc.’ Oh, I recon I’ll get them alright’ replied Don pulling from his pocket a wad of notes. I think I have the paperwork here. About an hour or two later Don came back happily with his trade plates & I recon a government employee behind the counter was happily taking home his tax-free bonus that night.
A week or two later he called at Marmaduke Street loaded on his way to Darlington. Dad notices a trade plate displayed on the front but none on the rear. ‘I think your back trade plate has dropped off, Don’ dad told him. ‘Oh no its on another van doing a removal in Stanley’ came the reply
I’ve waffled on enough & will have to make an extra chapter 4 to explain how we bought the Bedford Breakdown off Tom Liddle & how I sold the Scammell

To be continued

[john_west]

Really enjoying your ‘waffle’ Carl, keep up the good work!

John.

[carl_williams]

John West:
Really enjoying your ‘waffle’ Carl, keep up the good work!

John.

Thanks John, I really enjoy recounting old memories & its nice to think there is someone as daft as me to enjoy them

[leylandlover]

I also enjoy your post,s Carl but if you mention Motec again you might have Dennis on your case.

[carl_williams]

When I started these posts about our Breakdown trucks & vehicle maintenance I had thought it would be in three parts, however as I start writing part four, I realise to tell the full story I am going to have to go into 5.
The story so far tells of how Eddie Thornton had left Adams & Gibbons the Main Vauxhall-Bedford agency to join us in a similar position, and how we had met Tom Liddle who ran his Removals Haulage business T.T Liddle Stanley with 16 completely identical Bedford TK Luton vans & a brand new TK tipper chassis which was purpose built into a breakdown truck and hardly ever used.
Over the years we had built a new additional workshop (as with all our buildings 15 ft height clearance) with two 65-foot bays with full length fully fitted pits, which enabled full artic tractor plus 40-foot trailers to pull in & fitters to have full access underneath from front bumper to trailer rear.
Between this and our existing workshops which had been designed with 40ft pits for rigids we built a 3,000 sq. foot vehicle parts stores where we employed a very capable spares manager, Terry Ford to run and operate a Kalamazoo stock system, backed up by everything purchased by suppliers requiring an order form signed by a director. In todays value our spares department housed over £100,000 of vehicle parts.
We built further down the site at the side of the new workshop a new concrete apron to accommodate a new Automatic Wilcomatic Vehicle wash like a giant car wash that could wash a full artic (tractor & trailer) front top sides & rear in less than 10 minutes.
In front of the spares department where our original washing bay had been Crissops who were a Spennymoor business who specialised in Welding and metalwork had built a very large ramp that our vehicles could pull up onto for steam cleaning the chassis & underside.
Even with all this our vehicle servicing was not working in synk. Eddie Thornton was without doubt very qualified at his job & at a main dealership where time was not at a premium excellent at his job, but in a haulage operation where time is prime, and we couldn’t afford vans and their drivers standing outside on the tarmac waiting to go into our workshops to have jobs done. I cannot understand when hauliers don’t have their own workshop with the work under their own control & giving away a huge percentage of their profit to Vehicle dealerships.
The problem was solved that we advertised for a Fleet engineer and Eddie Thornton was moved into the Transport Office where he worked as a liaison between the Traffic department and the workshops, to ensure vehicles were available when required for servicing. He also was excellent at seeing mechanics were paid the correct time for the jobs they did, based on Manufacturers times, which served as an incentive/bonus scheme that rewarded them for quick work. Another duty he took over was dealing with insurance assessors in negotiating our repair fees when Coachskill Ltd our other company repaired our vehicles involved in accidents or did outside work, ensuring we got the maximum return for our work. About 1985 Eddie took early retirement after suffering a major heart attack but I believe in retirement he lived to his mid-eighties.
The chap we appointed as fleet engineer was Alan Henderson from Hartlepool, and although he was not popular with most of our drivers for his attitude telling them ‘Let it develop, when they heard a strange noise, he did certainly shake things up & sort out our vehicle maintenance. His first suggestion that was immediately adopted by my dad & myself was to introduce a night shift 4 x 12-hour shifts per week 2 qualified mechanics & 1 semi qualified, 8PM to 8AM. Their jobs were to inspect 6 vehicles per night for defects. They did not have to do any repairs just vehicle servicing & inspection. Obviously small defects like light bulbs were replaced.
When Alan Henderson came in at 8.AM as the night shift was finishing he could review ay defects and decide if they needed immediate attention, & if so they were held back from leaving until repaired by day shift or booked in on their return, so we suffered the minimum off-road time. By this time, we had 50 plus trailers which were dealt with by dayshift as they often sat around waiting for tractor units & drivers. As I said Alan Henderson’s ‘Let it develop’ attitude annoyed drivers as often when they broke down they wold say ‘I told him about that months ago & it was left till it developed & I broke down’ As I said strange during the few months we only had the Scammell as breakdown truck, we never had a breakdown.
Meanwhile at T. T. Liddle during the late 60s Tom sold out to P & O their Company Storemasers. He was to remain as General Manager. He invited us over & showed us two new Bedford TK lutons they had bought and showed us a massive new warehouse they were building on their site. We had a chat & bought two of his original TKs. It must have been before Courtaulds opened in Spennymoor as we would have used them on their work, but they were too low & a little small for a lot of our work. We painted them in our livery (How I wised I had photographed them In TT Liddle livery then ours as they were symbolic vehicles. At the time they were older than anything we were running, but Tom’s maintenance was perfect & whenever a driver returned to his yard if there was nothing to do they were handed a paint brush & told to paint either the wheels or inside the body. The paint inside Cream sides & roof & grey floors were an inch thick. I cannot remember selling these vans or where they went but we only kept them about a year.
Not long later we went across again & Tom had packed in as he could not stand how P & O worked. He had bought himself a little Bedford CF pick up & had builders building him a new bungalow which was up the bank n Stanley, overlooking his old site. P & O had given him time to move out of his original bungalow as they were converting it into offices. Tom was totally immersed with this building work & when he invited us to see his new bungalow it could go straight into Home & Gardens. One feature was two huge kitchens. One brand new & just for show & the second containing all units & appliances from his old bungalow, which was the kitchen they used day to day.
Once the bungalow was built like many ex hauliers with no business, Tom was bored to death & so bought out Lewins Removals Stanley (see photos). He had negotiate transport for The Clover Can Company at Castleside near Consett. Happy & full of himself back in business again. Dad must have mentioned the story of our Scammell breakdown & how it only would do 19 mph & he said. ‘Would you like to buy mine?’ He took us down to a workshop he had for Lewins Removals (It appeared to be an old Chappell, quite large & it might have been Blackhall) & inside still painted in T.T. Liddle livery was his breakdown with about 2,000 miles on the clock. We snatched his hand off.
So, we had an almost new Bedford TK breakdown. I was given the job of selling the Scammell & quickly did so to the famous North East Showman Colin Noble and I later heard about three weeks after he bought it from us was The Town Moor Fare at Newcastle which was the biggest touring fare in Europe, and during the ten days on Newcastle’s Town moor it never stopped raining, and everyone was bogged down & Colin made twice what he paid for the scammell pulling everyone off the muddy grass.
I often was asked why we never had kept the Scammell & used it on Commecial Vehicle ralleys . I thoroughly enjoyed my drive from Watford Gap in the Scammell. It was an experience I can remember to this day, but I never could have imagined wanting to spend my spare time driving it round at that speed.
However, there is a footnote. In about 1980 going into Chester Le Street from A167 (Pickhill area) just after passing Northern Bus Garage on Left hand side there was a clothing factory & I noticed an old van parked which was obviously used for storage, and one day they had moved it a little and it was one of Tom Liddle’s ERFs. It looked from a distance, not in bad condition. I told my dad and strange for him, as he was not nostalgic he said he would go & see if he could buy it and we could do it up. Talking we agreed if we got it, it would be dishonest to paint it in our livery and it would have to be repainted in Tom’s Livery (Tom sadly had passed away by then). How we ever could claim any costs through our advertising budget would have caused interest to our auditors, but they were such beautiful vans…. Sadly, it had been stripped and had no engine, gearbox, back axle & inside the cab had been vandalised, but how I wish we could have saved one, even though it had nothing to do with W.H.Williams.

[windrush]

I worked as a fitter for two main dealerships and in the nine years I was with them there was never any mention of working overtime. If the vehicle wasn’t ready then the customer had to wait until the following day for it, no way would we be allowed to work late to get it finished. Most were own account operators like the Gas Board or BRS etc to be fair and they usually had a few spare vehicles to use so no pressure on us, we did no work at all for ‘private hauliers’ that I can recall apart from a few removal companies like yourselves but they also had to wait!

We did have a couple of fitters who were very ‘steady’ as well, a father and son team. Scenario; remove a BMC engine to fit a new unit, simple. Not with that pair, numerous ■■■ breaks and plenty of time sitting on an oil drum chatting. The foreman came along one day to hurry them up, both engines still sitting on the floor after several hours and numerous ■■■■ being smoked. “What does it sound like then John?” he asked and John replied “Keys are in, jump in the cab and try it for yourself” and the foreman would wander off shaking his head and muttering to himself! When it was finally finished, and the test run had been completed, the foreman asked how it went; “Does it go like a bomb then lad?” he asked and the reply was that he didn’t know anything about that. “So, what do you mean you don’t know, you gave it a long enough run?” well, I don’t thrash new engines! He never could get the better of that pair!

Pete.

[lr_man]

Hi Carl,

Excellent stories about the breakdown wagons, I remember them all!

It was nice to see you mention my dad and uncle Jim. Its great to hear your stories and I wish I had been able to ask my dad more before he died at only 52. He enjoyed working on the wagons down Marmaduke Street and Green Lane. He was a quiet man, but when he was with your dad, they would talk for hours and always having a good laugh!

Uncle Jim was star, very knowledgeable in many ways, could fix anything and loved history. However, he was steady away when driving, I don’t think he ever went more than the 20mph limit from his early driving days!!!

Don’t forget to mention the LWB Land Rover pickup which you used for towing the vans. I remember this when this was brand new and is one of the main reasons I have been into Land Rovers ever since. I remember Saturday mornings and it being used to tow wagons from the waste ground at the end of Marmaduke Street along to the garage for repair, Dad would borrow it at dinner time and take me home with me always saying “put the whirry light on!”

Dad took me to see the Bedford RL when it first came and can recall it having the crane fitted and the bodywork modified to suit, it really looked well when it was done.

I do remember my dad and uncle Harry talking about poor Kenny and the ride back with Scammell, with you having to go down and swap seats!!! I loved that motor, it looked such a beast and wished I had taken a photo of it. I seem to think it had a notice screwed to the inside of the passenger door saying something like ‘no unauthorised passengers allowed in this vehicle’.I have always liked anything to do with heavy haulage from a very early age, with another of my uncles, Phil who worked for Bakers of Southampton, they having a removals side to the business, but also specialised in heavy haulage and ran a lot of ERF’s plus few Scammells.

The Bedford TK breakdown was on a different scale to the Scammell, but still looked just right, was it white and blue when you first got it?

This is why I have always like Scammells, Bedfords and Land Rovers.

Keep the stories coming Carl.

Best regards,

Mark