W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

[carl_williams]

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

Hi Mark, How I can remember that Landrover.
We bought it new from Fed Dinsdale & Sons Yarm Lane Stockton in 1970 at a cost, if I remember right £1300.00 They were a cheap machine. On day one at 3.00PM on its first afternoon I had to take it to pick up a large part (Something like a gearbox) for one of our Dodges from the Dodge Agents in Carlisle as that was the nearest one available. I was told to take it easy & ‘Run it in’ and not go any faster than 40 mph. I had two hours to get to Carlisle & I just made it before they closed at 5.00PM.

Later in its life I took it out to the bottom of Crawleyside Bank where Colin Watson had a fuel problem with VPT828F a Bedford SB weighing about 4 and a half ton unladen. Fortunately he was empty. I started out in bottom gear and was slowly heading up the bank with the Bedford Pantechnicon behind heading back to Spennymoor, when I got into my head it was pulling Ok so I should change up to second & ‘Ping’ I broke a half shaft. Not to be beaten I put it in 4 wheel drive and pulled it back with the front axle.

What model was it. Mark. I always thought a Land rover was a Land rover but now we have Series 1, 2 3 etc. I don’t know if you remember we had 2 others. An old one we had bought for pottering around the site at Green Lane. It had spoked stearing wheel and the old Rover free wheel. & another modern one which my dad used if it was icey, to travel to & from work. It was a Diesel short wheel Base about 1978 reg .

To me Landrovers were a magnificent piece of equipment for a commercial purpose, but unlike you I never was an enthusiastic driver, putting them more in line with a horse & Cart for comfort, but in their day I suppose there was nothing else quite like them.

Hope you are keeping well Carl

[harry_gill]

Hiya,
Haven’t heard anything from you for a while Carl, hoping everything is OK
and all is well with you.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

harry_gill:
Hiya,
Haven’t heard anything from you for a while Carl, hoping everything is OK
and all is well with you.
thanks harry, long retired.

Hi Harry,

Thanks so much for asking. I’m fine, it’s just this hot Summer weather has put me in relaxation mood & I’ve been sitting in my Garden reading books & couldn’t be bothered going on the internet & planning something to write.

I’ll be back on before long as this Summer wonderful as it is will end too soon no doubt

Hope you’re OK & keeping well

Carl

[harry_gill]

Carl Williams:

harry_gill:
Hiya,
Haven’t heard anything from you for a while Carl, hoping everything is OK
and all is well with you.
thanks harry, long retired.

Hi Harry,

Thanks so much for asking. I’m fine, it’s just this hot Summer weather has put me in relaxation mood & I’ve been sitting in my Garden reading books & couldn’t be bothered going on the internet & planning something to write.

I’ll be back on before long as this Summer wonderful as it is will end too soon no doubt

Hope you’re OK & keeping well

Carl

Hiya,
That’s fine Carl, yea’ I’m OK I know you can tend to do too much on the
internet I keep saying I’ll start to give it a miss but never do, good to
know you’re well and yes enjoying this wonderful Summer.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

VUP812L the first of a series of Seddon Pennine pantechnicons we put on the road. (Seddon’s passenger chassis) driven the first 5-6 years of its life by the late Eddy Ramsey (known by all of us as old Eddie) VUP812L was also one of the last vans designed by Arthur Rathbone whilst he was a long serving employee of Marsden Coachbuilding Ltd before he left to co-found Vanplan Ltd.
VUP was built (Unlike all others at the time) without a tail-lift, with walk in tailboard & shutter, drop well and wheelboxes 34ft long making it for a few months our biggest rigid van. We had a stretched SB & a KF both at 33 ft long. We later had 2 Seddon Pennines built to maximum legal length of 36ft. However these were a little too long for some use but at 34 foot with the front axle set back and a shorter wheelbase they were easy to reverse into some very tight spaces.
YUP had been built primary for large removals or smaller removals that could be filled up with part loads. It also used it from time to time on new furniture and on times it was used for carrying Tricity Cookers & Fridges (Thorn EMI) or Courtaulds Yarn it would usually be loads from 30ft long Bedfords transhipped onto it so we could use the additional space for part loads, or outward loads to pick up removals from down country northern bound.
Eddy Ramsey started his working life when he left school at 14 and got a job for Elders-Walker the glazing contactors in Durham and at 21 he joined J.G. Johnson & Sons the Durham City Removal Contactors as a driver where he worked until we bought them out in about 1966. He then came to us where he spent the remainder of his career. One of the vans we bought with Johnson’s business was a 1961 Morris 7 tonner which had been supplied new to Johnsons by ■■■■ Barret-Atkin who then in the early days of his long career was Commercial Sales Manager of Turvey’s Sunderland. It was delivered to Johnson’s as a chassis cab and believe it had a Sauber diesel engine. Eddie was so handy that he himself built a huge luton body on it. (So high it wouldn’t go into our Marmaduke street Garage. We had a fit when we first got it as the engine was showing virtually no oil pressure on tick over but Eddy assured us he could nurse it along for another 30 to 40,000 miles, but needless to stay we didn’t keep it long and sold it to North of England School Furniture at Darlington and replaced it with the next Bedford -Marsden we had being built.
Eddy would be approaching 60 years old when we took delivery of VUP812L and had been working for us about 8 years. With such a long career in removals the kit he carried with him of not only tools for dismantling wardrobes, taking out windows & doors down to countless mechanical tools he could use to repair most vehicle problems he encountered that other drivers would be calling in for recovery but also a French Polishing kit. He said he used this on the van on the rare occasion a piece of furniture may have been scuffed so that it was perfect when it went into the house. We never had one complaint about any of Eddy’s work. He also had these massive soaps that after every job he scraped along the van floor. In those days the floors were still tongued & grooved flooring & the soap filled in the gaps ‘It makes the van smell fresh & helps boxes slide easily on the floor’ he said and before anyone remarks it didn’t make the floor slippery under feet.
One job he did with VUP which in his eyes was just a regular piece of work was a removal for Karl Kenmire (One of the Kenmire Furniture manufacturing family of Spennymoor who lived in a very large house (With one of the famous Kenmire Oak staircases & galleried first floor) in North Close Kirk Merrington to Switzerland. It was one of quite a few overseas removals Eddy did during his years with us. & quite honestly it had crossed my mind until I was asked to be a guest Speaker at the Spennymoor Rotary club.
I gave my talk and Frank Kenmire , Karl’s Brother was a Rotarian and had been given the task of giving me the ‘ Vote of thanks’ He started out by praising his brother’s removal, which as I have said I had forgotten.
Frank continued the new house was in a quiet area in the alps and Eddy who was driving the van couldn’t get near because the van was sliding in the snow. Without getting flustered he parked the van in a safe area & got himself a taxi & returned in about an hour with a set of snow chains & calmly jacked up each wheel, put the chains on & drove up to the house to unload.
When I recounted my experience to my dad he caught Eddy when he next returned into the transport office & said what’s this about you hiring chains in Switzerland, you never told me. Eddy replied ‘I didn’t need to it was just part of the job & I put my expenses in & got my money back.

To be continued

[suedehead]

Why would you jack up a wheel, to put a snow chain on ?

[john_west]

Suedehead:
Why would you jack up a wheel, to put a snow chain on ?

Hmm…

There is more than one way to fit a snowchain. I remember before setting off for Damascus in the worst winter Turkey had endured for 50 years, 1975/76, being shown how to fit snow chains. This was in deep dark December Britain, where the temperature was about 5 degrees. The chain was laid across the tyres, , the connecting links were at the the bottom, iirc one link was able to be secured. You rolled the truck gently backwards and connected the rest of the links.

Heading up Bolu mountain East of Istanbul, in January, where putting on the handbrake wasn’t enough, you needed to put the trailer brake on too, or your whole rig would slide gently over the edge and the temperature was such that as you breathed out your breath fell as snowflakes to the ground it was another matter. Suddenly, those double chains seemed too small. Your skin was pulled off if you didn’t use gloves, but you didn’t have enough feeling with gloves. As I remember, we eventually managed to get simpler one wheel chains on and used the diff lock to stop the other wheel spinning.

So I can see that jacking up the axle would make it easier to put the chains on. I didn’t actually try that.

John.

[carl_williams]

Suedehead:
Why would you jack up a wheel, to put a snow chain on ?

Quite honestly I haven’t a clue, because as I explained I, or none of our staff at Spennymoor knew he had used snow chains, which to give credit to him showed his ability. Many of our drivers would have rang us almost in tears saying ‘I can’t get a mile near the house and haven’t a clue what to do, send someone out to help me’.

I was told by an elderly gentleman in his 70s who was relaying what he’d been told by his older brother, who we were moving.

[carl_williams]

367MPT Bedford SB 330 cu in Diesel with Bodywork by Marsden’s of Warrington Registered new 1963 and originally driven by Harry Hawkins, Seen here in about 1963 in Aberdeen (I believe) The photograph was taken by a young Eddie Worthington, who was Harry’s porter that day. Eddie kindly not only kept that photo all those years but a year or two ago coloured the van in what had originally been a black & white shot.

[jmc_jnr]

Hello Carl. Good to see your site still as entertaining as ever. Keep well. Jim.

[carl_williams]

jmc jnr:
Hello Carl. Good to see your site still as entertaining as ever. Keep well. Jim.

When MPT was new it was delivered in Grey Primer and as we were extremely busy and it was an additional van it ran for just over a week until my dad could get it in for painting, which he did himself as he had with all our vehicles since the mid 1930;'s brush painting at this time with Dulux Coach Finnish. It was sign written by Temp Newton of Spennymoor who made fame decorating Palaces in Dubai etc. I can remember going out with it when it was new & in Grey going to Hoults at Walker Road at Newcastle, & thinking what a pity we were in gisguise in an unpainted new van, which for its day was so modern

[carl_williams]

Yesterday morning I went for a ride down to the Renault Truck Depot which is at the old Rainton Service area on the A1 near Ripon with my son Paul, where he is Sales executive to hand over a new tractor unit as Saturday was Sept1st, and it reminded me of a Saturday morning about 45 years ago when I went down to London to collect a new Leyland super Comet, seen in the photo which was taken from a Vanplan brochure, when it had gone to Vanplan to collect one of the 40ft trailers they built for us.
As normal we were impatient and had wanted to buy another AEC Mercury, which we had several and were extremely happy with, and were unable to find one for immediate delivery. However we found a Super Comet located at Alington the Leyland agents who had several agencies kicking round the South. This one was at their depot near Wembley and after agreeing the discount we always recieved from the AEC dealers we bought it and so one Sunny Saturday morning I got on the train to Kings Cross to go down to collect.
When I got there I was greated by a very embarresed sales rep who told me that as it was standing waiting for my arrival another HGV reversed into it destroying the bumper & lower part of the cab. They had stripped off the damaged parts and there it stood with no bumper lights, flashers etc. They said there was two solutions & return home and come back on Tuesday when it would be ready or I could take it, as it was and they would get all the parts delivered to us at Spennymoor and pay us the labour charge for us to fit.
I took the second option put the trade plate on the back & stuck the other on the dash in the front of the cab so it was visible through the windscreen & off I went, having to use hand signals when I wanted to change lanes or make a turn.
I fully expected to be pulled over by the police as to say it looked kind of bare at the front with no lights at all made it stand out, but remarkably I made it back to Grantham where I pulled in as in the twighlight I could hardly see to travel further. I booked into a hotel and on the Sunday morning got up and finnished the return journey to Spennymoor.
The Super Comet proved to be a quite good machine, not quite achieving the AEC Mercuries incredible MPG, but never the less quite acceptable, unlike the three Lynx we later bought, and we did eventually buy a second.

[carl_williams]

Carl Williams:
Yesterday morning I went for a ride down to the Renault Truck Depot which is at the old Rainton Service area on the A1 near Ripon with my son Paul, where he is Sales executive to hand over a new tractor unit as Saturday was Sept1st, and it reminded me of a Saturday morning about 45 years ago when I went down to London to collect a new Leyland super Comet, seen in the photo which was taken from a Vanplan brochure, when it had gone to Vanplan to collect one of the 40ft trailers they built for us.
As normal we were impatient and had wanted to buy another AEC Mercury, which we had several and were extremely happy with, and were unable to find one for immediate delivery. However we found a Super Comet located at Alington the Leyland agents who had several agencies kicking round the South. This one was at their depot near Wembley and after agreeing the discount we always recieved from the AEC dealers we bought it and so one Sunny Saturday morning I got on the train to Kings Cross to go down to collect.
When I got there I was greated by a very embarresed sales rep who told me that as it was standing waiting for my arrival another HGV reversed into it destroying the bumper & lower part of the cab. They had stripped off the damaged parts and there it stood with no bumper lights, flashers etc. They said there was two solutions & return home and come back on Tuesday when it would be ready or I could take it, as it was and they would get all the parts delivered to us at Spennymoor and pay us the labour charge for us to fit.
I took the second option put the trade plate on the back & stuck the other on the dash in the front of the cab so it was visible through the windscreen & off I went, having to use hand signals when I wanted to change lanes or make a turn.
I fully expected to be pulled over by the police as to say it looked kind of bare at the front with no lights at all made it stand out, but remarkably I made it back to Grantham where I pulled in as in the twighlight I could hardly see to travel further. I booked into a hotel and on the Sunday morning got up and finnished the return journey to Spennymoor.
The Super Comet proved to be a quite good machine, not quite achieving the AEC Mercuries incredible MPG, but never the less quite acceptable, unlike the three Lynx we later bought, and we did eventually buy a second.

[carl_williams]

NUP Bedford Petrol SB supplied new to us , in 1952 by Blakes who then were Bedford Main agents in Manchester. Blakes also built the body which was a bit amateurish but never the less was one of the first pantechnicons built on an SB passenger chassis, so I suppose they had nothing to copy off

[lr_man]

Hi Carl, hope you are well.

I have always wondered who owned this Scammell before it went into showland use. I first thought it might have been Siddle C. Cook, but I think the registration is too new. Could it be the ex Pickfords Scammell you sold to a showman, maybe re-registered or registered as it had always been used on trade plates as it was a brake down wagon? It looks like the one you had without the crane an possibly the wooden body work has been panelled over.

I took the photos in the early eighties at a showmans yard in Coxhoe.

Regards, Mark

[carl_williams]

LR Man:
Hi Carl, hope you are well.

I have always wondered who owned this Scammell before it went into showland use. I first thought it might have been Siddle C. Cook, but I think the registration is too new. Could it be the ex Pickfords Scammell you sold to a showman, maybe re-registered or registered as it had always been used on trade plates as it was a brake down wagon? It looks like the one you had without the crane an possibly the wooden body work has been panelled over.

I took the photos in the early eighties at a showmans yard in Coxhoe.

Regards, Mark

I suppose, Mark that could well be it. I sold it to Colin Noble who lived in his caravan (although probably a millionair) in Coxhoe when not on tour.
We had a boxvan Bedford SUP…M which no doubt you will remember, which was registered new about the time I sold it to Colin. It never had been registered till we sold it, always used on trade plates. Colin would not have had the facilities to obtain Trade plates & would have wanted it to be taxed as a showmans tax rate. So no doubt he would register & tax it. I don’t think Q plates had been thought of in M reg days which is obvious from the age.

I remember those front mudguards plus the Towing plate & headlight possitions match. Colin would not have needed the lifting gear as all he would use it for was pulling vehicles out of the muddy show sites & from memory of how they loaded he probably would have needed the space on the back to carry things. So I might not be Columbo but the evidence seems to identify it

It was made new 1937 & from the photo looks the part

Best wishes
Carl

[harry_gill]

Carl Williams:

LR Man:
Hi Carl, hope you are well.

I have always wondered who owned this Scammell before it went into showland use. I first thought it might have been Siddle C. Cook, but I think the registration is too new. Could it be the ex Pickfords Scammell you sold to a showman, maybe re-registered or registered as it had always been used on trade plates as it was a brake down wagon? It looks like the one you had without the crane an possibly the wooden body work has been panelled over.

I took the photos in the early eighties at a showmans yard in Coxhoe.

Regards, Mark

I suppose, Mark that could well be it. I sold it to Colin Noble who lived in his caravan (although probably a millionair) in Coxhoe when not on tour.
We had a boxvan Bedford SUP…M which no doubt you will remember, which was registered new about the time I sold it to Colin. It never had been registered till we sold it, always used on trade plates. Colin would not have had the facilities to obtain Trade plates & would have wanted it to be taxed as a showmans tax rate. So no doubt he would register & tax it. I don’t think Q plates had been thought of in M reg days which is obvious from the age.

I remember those front mudguards plus the Towing plate & headlight possitions match. Colin would not have needed the lifting gear as all he would use it for was pulling vehicles out of the muddy show sites & from memory of how they loaded he probably would have needed the space on the back to carry things. So I might not be Columbo but the evidence seems to identify it

It was made new 1937 & from the photo looks the part

Best wishes
Carl

Hiya,
Pump a drop of fresh diesel through the old Scammell, bung a charged
battery on and I’ll dare bet the old girl would crack up, they would go
forever and I remember seeing one that hadn’t been started up for 26
years given just that treatment and it started and was driven away out
of the undergrowth and onto a lowloader.
thanks harry, long retired.

[carl_williams]

harry_gill:

Carl Williams:

LR Man:
Hi Carl, hope you are well.

I have always wondered who owned this Scammell before it went into showland use. I first thought it might have been Siddle C. Cook, but I think the registration is too new. Could it be the ex Pickfords Scammell you sold to a showman, maybe re-registered or registered as it had always been used on trade plates as it was a brake down wagon? It looks like the one you had without the crane an possibly the wooden body work has been panelled over.

I took the photos in the early eighties at a showmans yard in Coxhoe.

Regards, Mark

I suppose, Mark that could well be it. I sold it to Colin Noble who lived in his caravan (although probably a millionair) in Coxhoe when not on tour.
We had a boxvan Bedford SUP…M which no doubt you will remember, which was registered new about the time I sold it to Colin. It never had been registered till we sold it, always used on trade plates. Colin would not have had the facilities to obtain Trade plates & would have wanted it to be taxed as a showmans tax rate. So no doubt he would register & tax it. I don’t think Q plates had been thought of in M reg days which is obvious from the age.

I remember those front mudguards plus the Towing plate & headlight possitions match. Colin would not have needed the lifting gear as all he would use it for was pulling vehicles out of the muddy show sites & from memory of how they loaded he probably would have needed the space on the back to carry things. So I might not be Columbo but the evidence seems to identify it

It was made new 1937 & from the photo looks the part

Best wishes
Carl

Hiya,
Pump a drop of fresh diesel through the old Scammell, bung a charged
battery on and I’ll dare bet the old girl would crack up, they would go
forever and I remember seeing one that hadn’t been started up for 26
years given just that treatment and it started and was driven away out
of the undergrowth and onto a lowloader.
thanks harry, long retired.

Hi Harry
The only problem was that one only did 19mph. You wouldn’t get through much work in a week at 19MPH

But I would love to see some of these ‘Expert’ drivers of today, particularly these ones that were on that eddie Stobbard program try to drive it

Best wishes
Carl

[carl_williams]

The driver in this Ford Transcontinental was Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper The police coming regularly to our office to check the drivers records to see who had been in the area following a murder A young DC Eddie came regularly who I understand went onto being a very senior officer. His parents had the fish & chip shop near the Variety Club. So they were correct in suspecting a lorry driver. One or two of our drivers were near the murder scenes, but one in particular was every time, until when they checked next murder he was in North Scotland, or he would have been a suspect. One of our drivers from Ferryhill area who drove a D series artic, & often gave a lift at dinner time to girls in our office to Smart & Brown’s canteen was a masked ■■■■■■. He had broken down in Southampton with a minor problem & was towed to the local Ford agents and as they hadn’t got the park had to stay from the afternoon until the next day and was caught with a mask on after committing a ■■■■ and they really thought they had got the ripper as in his cab they found ■■■■■■■■■■■ where he had attacked the photos with a knife and thrown darts at the naked women. I think he was a Laurie Petch

[marktaff]

Carl Williams:
The driver in this Ford Transcontinental was Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper The police coming regularly to our office to check the drivers records to see who had been in the area following a murder A young DC Eddie came regularly who I understand went onto being a very senior officer. His parents had the fish & chip shop near the Variety Club. So they were correct in suspecting a lorry driver. One or two of our drivers were near the murder scenes, but one in particular was every time, until when they checked next murder he was in North Scotland, or he would have been a suspect. One of our drivers from Ferryhill area who drove a D series artic, & often gave a lift at dinner time to girls in our office to Smart & Brown’s canteen was a masked ■■■■■■. He had broken down in Southampton with a minor problem & was towed to the local Ford agents and as they hadn’t got the park had to stay from the afternoon until the next day and was caught with a mask on after committing a ■■■■ and they really thought they had got the ripper as in his cab they found ■■■■■■■■■■■ where he had attacked the photos with a knife and thrown darts at the naked women. I think he was a Laurie Petch

Hi Carl,
You have jogged a memory for me with this story you tell here…it was around 1979…80 I was portering at the time I was around 17…18 years old…we were taking a removal up to Middlesbrough. …we were in a Ford D series D1311 T reg Vanplan body pretty new at the time…on the way back from Middlesbrough we stopped for the night in Ripon Yorkshire…at this time the Yorkshire Ripper has he was known was still at large…early hours of the morning we were woken by the local Police …they made us get up get out of the vehicle with loads of questions and serched the vehicle…obviously at that time looking for Peter Sutcliffe. …something I will never forget…obviously they never found Sutcliffe in our van …thinking back now I think they new they were looking for a truck driver at that time.

I’ve seen that pic of Sutcliffe driving that Transcon many times over the years…very chilling to think what he was capable of.