W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

[tyneside]

Carl Williams:

John West:
Hi Carl.

Just read your latest post and (as you do) some earlier ones, and noticed your family was peripherally involved in politics. I was at school with Rodney Atkinson (Rowan’s older brother) who was part of the early set up of UKIP until falling out with N Farage. I realise that he’s a bit further north than you, but wondered if you knew him? We exchanged emails a few months ago, but apart from that haven’t kept in touch.

Which also reminded me that one of the ‘prefects’ was Bill Elliot, whose family had a removals business at Morpeth. Do you remember them?

John.

Hi John,
My involvement in politics is mostly via Twitter & strangely I have almost 4,500 followers including several well known political journalists & a few MPs, some of which have thousands of followers but follow only a few. Why they chose me ■■? to follow. However I have made comments on Twitter that I have heard repeated a week or two later on TV. Coincidence ? However they have to get their ideas somewhere.

My Grandfather was different, however I think he used his political connections for his own benefit. Friendly with a Labour MP but not in anyway surrendering his Conservative thoughts & beliefs. He did however put up to be a Durham County Councillor as an Independent, which was the excuse for Conservative thinkers in County Durham, where 80% of the population would aproach a conservative with a cross & garlic. Remarcably he nearly won in a seat that had been Labour for ever. There were three re-counts and my mother who was watching the count & had been helping him campaign, swor the ballot papers had been interfered with to ensure Labour Win, but even then just by a handful of votes.

My dad never took much interest in politics apart from agreeing if my Grandfather had won he would have entered County Hall like a bomb blowing up as he would have done a lot of good. My dad always said Business wise we always did better under a Lab Gov as they threw money arround, but paid the cost afterwards. However all of us knew to keep our political & any religious views to ourselves in business.

I did not know either of the Gentlemen you mentioned. The only Elliot I knew was Fred Elliot Removals Durham. However I went to Bow School Durham and then onto Durham School, and during a school holiday when I was 17 and driving, I drove my mother to Newcastle, and at tea time we went into Fenwick’s restaurant & sitting at a table were the two Miss Blair’s with their nephew Tony. They had been teachers at Kings Street school Spennymoor and had taught my mother. they asked us to join them at their table. As they talked I spoke to Tony who was a pupil at Chorister’s School Durham (Bow & Choristers were rivals). He had just taken his Common Enterance Exam & I asked was he going to Durham School & he said no he was going to Fettes. Rowan Atkinson had been in his year at Choristers.

Such a small world isn’t it

Best wishes for 2019

Carl

Hi Carl

Just a bit of useless info from me :- My wife’s first school was very small (about 30-40 pupils) and was based in one of the big 4 storey houses on Western Hill in Durham. She then went on to Durham High, first on Claypath in Durham and then the new site out by the Oriental Museum.

My wife’s brother went to Bow but I am not sure if he went on to Durham School or Argyle House in Sunderland. His daughter went to Barnard Castle School and is now a teacher herself, his son is still at Barnard Castle and plays for the first fifteen. he is part of the squad who are playing in a tournament in South Africa next year.

Tyneside

[carl_williams]

harry_gill:
Hiya,
Carl would like to wish you and your family a very happy New Year and to
thank you for the very interesting posts you have put out over the past
year and look forwards to more posts in this new year. Thank you.

Thanks so much, Harry

Hope 2019 is a good year for you, too. Trouble is these years seem to be going passed so fast.

[carl_williams]

HTH 882 1953 Bedford SB (Passenger chassis) with bodywork by Spurlings (Lage London Vauxhall-Bedford agents who were famous for bodywork) HTH was the last of our 3 Bedford SB petrols and stayed in service until 1967 when it was sold to another removal contractor and did several years further work with them. The last journey it did for us was with the late Colin Watson as driver. A 1,300 mile South west run carrying furniture for NESS Furniture Croxdale starting Birminhamg and finishing Cornwall via Devon. I hate to think how much the petrol would have cost today. But it showed the confidence we had in our maintainance & condition of the van.
During its life it had at least one repaint and finished its days with us with a brown cab & cream bumper. The body built by Spurlings was the most expensive & best built of our 3 SB’s and certainly the most artistic. As most of our vans of the 50’s and early sixties it waspanneled in Plymax sheeting and there must have been a problem with the batch Spurlings used as it developed pin prick holes that let the air in & caused the paint to bleb. I remember in my youth going round with Holts Cataloy & tring to find the pin pricks (After it had been rubbed down in preparation of painting) filling the holes & sanding down and it looked like patchwork before it was repainted. These vans were like babies, you saw them come and witnessed all problems they had during their life with us and often heard how others went on with them when they had finished their days with us and passed on to new owners.

[carl_williams]

They say you live and learn as you go through life and over they years I have had many expensive lessons.
I was very fortunate that my Grandparents went to 1963 Motor show when the Rover2000 was being released and ordered one for a present to me the following September for my 17th Birthday present (Seen in the photo DUP243B in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor opposite our Garage in 1964). They brought me back colour samples and swatches of leather to decide colour of car and leather. I chose ‘Wedgewood blue’ with a very light cream leather
Hearing over the years how the old drivers used to look after their wagons and how you could ‘eat your dinner’ off the engines as they were so clean, I decided when giving the car its first wash, I would wash the engine.
Harry Wilson was the Mechanic from Howe’s bus garage (Howe ran the OK service in conjunction with Emerson’s Bishop Auckland) which was about 4 blocks up from our Garage in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor, and had nipped down for a chat as he often did and was there when I pulled the Rover on the wash bay and proceeded brushing the engine with Diversy oil cleaner and then rinsing it off with the hose pipe. ‘You know it won’t start now?’ he told me. 'Well why didn’t you tell me before I washed it? I asked. ‘I just wanted to watch you do it’ came the reply.
I then had to leave the car where it was on the wash bay a couple of hours till it dried itself out.

[carl_williams]

Throughout my lifetime we always had at least one small van that could be driven on a car licence at 17 years old. My first memory was a 1957 Bedford CA 15 cwt with a Luton Van body & how I now wished I had taken a photo because it was really attractive in our cream & brown livery.
When I passed my driving test we had two. This 1961 Ford 15 cwt and a 1964 Morris FG tonner chassis scuttle with a Marsden 850 cu ft integral pantechnicon, which I hated driving, particularly at 16 years old on L plates (My dad had got me a provisional licence at 16) Fortunately I spent most my school holidays over 2 years driving this little Ford, which I really enjoyed.
I had a long apprenticeship. My first memory was at the age of 8 carrying boxes off the van on a removal to a newly built bungalow on Whitworth Lane Spennymoor when a van door blew round in the wind knocking me well into the back of the van & the lady we were moving put nearly all her butter onto my brow, to stop the swelling. When I returned home my mother went mad with my father for exploiting child labour.
In fairness dad knew no better, coming from a generation that left school at 12 and starting work, and knowing my Grandfather I am sure he would have started working at 8. I found at 10-12 myself often helping my dad on removals and a settee or wardrobe is very difficult to try to carry at that age. I probably will be one of few today who remembers the sheer weight of the old Pre-War Bendix washing machines or possibly even worse the pre-war bed settees. At a very early age I was informed as a van-lad it was my job to count ahead up the street to tell the driver which house where he had to stop and have the van doors opened and the tailboard down by the time the driver got to the back of the van. That was the way he was taught & all youths who worked for us
However as I said in my youth driving days I really enjoyed driving the little Ford in the photograph, with its 3 speed column change gearbox and vacuum wiper blades and needless to say no thought of radio or any type of in-car entertainment, but like they said about Italians ‘They enjoy listening to the sound of the car engine’
In 1964 we delivered groceries for Thompson Stores, Spennymoor, Ferryhill, Chilton and West Cornforth branches and Walter Willsons Spennymoor branch which was in the old Sutton’s Furniture Shop on left hand side going up the town just past The Arcadia now sadly Ladbrokes.
The Ford was fully occupied Mon, Tues, Fri & Sat delivering for these shops. For those that think Tesco & Sainsbury vans delivering to your home is a new thing, it happened in the 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s.
My problem was a lot was expected of me. My Grandfather lived next door to the Garage in Marmaduke Street and although not taking a particular interest in the business in retirement he did me and saw what time I returned & expected to see improvement. On a Saturday morning was Thompson’s West Cornforth and drivers usually returned after delivering at 12-30. The problem was Walter Willson’s deliveries started at 11.30AM so another van had to be used that could have been doing other work. I managed after one or two weeks to get back by 12.00PM & then by about week 5 I got back early enough to get to Walter Willsons by 11.30 so the little Ford could do both jobs.
I remember the first time getting a nice smile from one of my dad’s female cousins as I pulled up but I’m sure she would have no idea the amount of running in & out of houses with boxes of groceries sometimes piled really high to get finished on job one quickly to get there.
On a Wed & Thurs I was kept busy delivering Furniture for the likes of Hardy’s furniture shop and Woodhouses Furniture shop in Bishop Auckland and in between tea chests to houses we were moving for advance packing. I even remember taking a load of cases & bags to Whitley Bay for a family who were going there by train for a fortnights holiday. Imagine saying to someone where did you go on holiday and the reply being Whiltey Bay
Many people would think the third generation born into a family business was born with a silver spoon but I can assure you it is not the case especially when you have a Grandfather, like I had who expected and demanded so much.

[carl_williams]

GPT (Sorry I don’t know the numbers) was our first new vehicle after WW2 Reg Feb 1946. Bedford O Model 3 tonner supplied by Sherwoods main Vauxhall-Bedford agents Darlington with Luton body built by Sherwood & Wynn their bodybuilding subsidy of Hurworth near Darlington.
Seen here in about 1954 with me as a young boy on the left of the photo and my Grandfather on the far left. Under the stickers promoting Spennymoor Garden Guild of which my Grandfather was a member. You can see a little bit of our phone number sticking out beneath the paper Garden guild promotion. Apparently this is the only time my Grandfather drove any commercial vehicle of any size since his early days in 1920s with his T model Fords and as I was sat in the cab next to him, he knocked his drivers side mirror & broke it.
GPT was a large vehicle when it entered the fleet, replacing a pre war Bedford 2 tonner but sadly it was soon outdated in just over a year with our first Bedford OB (Passenger chassis) luton van, & subsequent 5 tonners and even an artic & then in 1952 we got our first Bedford SB which was built to the extra size that legislation had just allowed. So although GPT stayed with us until 1959 it tended to not as much usage as its siblings as it was just too small.
I always had a soft spot for GPT as it often stood in the garage in Marmaduke Street when everything else was out working and I could sit in the cab and pretend to drive.
In 1959 it was sold to a removal contractor from Seaham Co Durham called Hughes and painted in his blue livery. He was so pleased with it as even the Bedford Griffin badge on the front of the radiator was unblemished like new and realistically the van looked & felt to drive, so I was told just like the day it was new.

[carl_williams]

Marmaduke Street Spennymoor in 1950s must have been a hive for small businesses. Starting at the top on right on land at no 24 was Howes OK bus garage. Further down the street on land of 14 was our garage. At bottom of the street was Oughton Carriers next door was H. Raine and Son Coachbuilders (Before they moved to the old Brewery on King Street, across the road was Swinburn’s monumental sculpters and round the Corner on Grange road was Grays soft drinks.
In 1929 Eddie Howe started his OK bus service from Bishop Auckland via Spennymoor. An hourly service but because it was the year of the Great Exhibition in Newcastle he soon found he couldn’t cope with the amount of passengers. So he approached Emmersons of Bishop Auckland and they ran the service between them. Emmersons went on to name their business as OK Motor Services Ltd, and soon greatly exceeded Howe in size.
One week Howe would run one bus (Which usually needed a second for duplicate) and Emmersons ran two and next week Howe ran two with two required for duplicates.
Howe’s garage was in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor just up from ours and in fact my Grandfather who had established our haulage business in 1919 taught Eddie Howe to drive. Howe ran orriginally RIOs & then went onto AECs which he ran exclusively until as he was approaching retirement he bought three Bedfords.
He always ran 6 busses. 2 service busses, 2 semi-coaches & 2 Coaches.
When in the late 60s Eddie decided to retire he sold the business onto OK.
Here is a selection of his busses.

[carl_williams]

The Commercial Motor Show was held at Earls Court London every other year and always opened by Royalty. The last by Princess Anne
From about the age of five I went to everyone
Over the years we had 2 vehicles Exhibited.
1948 Spurlings stand Bedford Livestock carrier seen on the photo as my father was bringing it from London home to Spennymoor. We had a photo sadly lost of it after it had arrived & been sign-written & then lo & behold this one turned up on Ebay. Dad said pulling out of London near Swiss Cottage he was pulled in by a police man who said he just stopped him to admire the van. This photo must have been taken somewhere where he stopped to eat, sadly my dad had died about three years before I got the photo as he would have been so surprised & would have known where it was taken. The rocker cover on the Bedford engine had all been chromed plated by Bedford for the show and so had the dip stick. Dad said when he stopped he tried to dip the oil & found the dip stick was also chrome so he had to stop another Bedford driver to borrow his dip stick.
I have very vague memories. I had two wonderful photos taken outside Marmaduke street when the cab doors were lettered, and a rear view showing doors & tailboard painted and lettered. It was built by Spurlings as a livestock carrier/horsebox and my Grandfather & Father had Spurlings make tailboard & doors which enables the full height rear ramps be removed and tailboard and doors fitted so it could be used as a traditional van. It was built on the Bedford 5 tonner chassis which had been specially built as a Motor Show Exhibit so had a few cosmetic improvements to the standard chassis/cab. I asked dad was it ever used to carry cattle and he said it was only used once as a horsebox to carry racehorses. When Spurlings built it they never would have expected it spent most of its early years doing household removals & carrying furniture. After the war there was rationing of Commercial vehicles and as a livestock vehicle it was exempt, and so they could get round the restrictions

[windrush]

When dad drove for Thermalite they had a Foden S20 chinese six flat that had been an Earls Court exhibit. That had a chrome gearlever (maybe both if it was a 'twin stick 12 speed gearbox?) and a chromed steering wheel with a white rim, the gear lever knob was also white.

Back in the late 60’s we used to get a day off from tech to go, living in Reading at the time it wasn’t far, and some of the lads bypassed the show and headed straight for Soho! We also had a couple of ‘clowns’ in our group who were always larking about and for some obscure reason they brought some ‘crow scarers’ with them! When we were heading back through the underground tunnel leading to the station they thought they had better get rid of them so they lit two and chucked them into one of the ‘empty’ side tunnels. Such a loud noise, clouds of smoke, and then through the smoke there appeared a Lister truck belonging to the railway with one rather unhappy driver giving strange hand signals!!" We all scarpered as we could see the rest of us getting blamed as well! Apologies Carl for meandering off topic!

Pete.

[carl_williams]

I’ve just been given a photo of one of the last new trailers we ran before we finished, Its rather grubby but has our three north east offices and phone numbers then underneath, Also at Sheffield, Wellingborough and London (Our non North East warehouses & depots)

If anyone has any idea how I can clean this photo up or ideally colour I would greatly appreciate

the trailer was, like many of ours built by our own company, Coachskill Ltd in our bodyshop at Green Lane Industrial Estate Spennymoor

[carl_williams]

Sorry it duplicated post & I’m too thick to know how to delete

[lr_man]

Hi Carl,
Here are a couple of photos I took of the trailer you asked about.
Regards, Mark

[carl_williams]

LR Man:
Hi Carl,
Here are a couple of photos I took of the trailer you asked about.
Regards, Mark

Thanks so much, Mark,

I cannot remember any of the trailers been painted in that new livery, but clearly there was at least two as the one next to it shows. We built a lot of those trailers(About 30) and Coachskill charged W.H.Williams (Haulage) Ltd £6,500 each for the complete trailer,(Chassis & body) which wasn’t bad because each had Joloda tracks, large Radcliffe double tear tail lifts which could be used to load and unload second deck, if used. The trailers were fitted with load locks and were able to be fitted with a second deck when required, and I’ve been told at about 40 years on at least one is still in service. So we built them to last.

We also built about 6 for Direct Transport Shildon (Bodies only) as the stripped down some platform trailers to the chassis & I think from memory we charged them £4.500 each building new box bodies onto their trailer chassis.

If you find any more photos, Mark, please post them.

Once again Thank you

Carl.

[carl_williams]

Finally a Corgi Model TK to go with my 'O’model

[carl_williams]

The brother of one of our drivers did this oil painting of one of our Bedford Vanplans several years ago. We ran quite a few of these & so far I’ve never been sent a photo. So this painting serves as a aid t my memory

[carl_williams]

The Seddon Pennine passenger chassis was the base of this vehicle and the first were built by Pennine coachbuilders which was Seddon’s coachbuilding company alongside vehicle building in Oldham.
The Bedford SB passenger chassis had been the most popular for pantechnicons since the 50s until along came Plating & Testing. The passenger chassis had two advantages its length (Not needing chassis extensions to get decent size) and softness of ride (designed for people) which was better for furniture & fragile loads that the normal goods vehicle. They were plated at 8.5 ton GVW (4 ton carrying) & even with all modifications which we did on all of ours including new sets (Front & rear) springs max was 9.5 ton. (5 ton carrying) and the front axle could easily be overloaded.
Seddon saw a gap in the market & designed the Seddon Pennine at 13 ton GVW available often immediate delivery at your local Seddon dealer.They were very popular and exceeded expected demands. At the same time Seddon sales were doing well & they needed extra space & so did a deal with Boalloy and transferred building to Congelton under licence to Seddon. Taking the fibreglass mould. One of the features added was the plastic skirt panels available as parts at Seddon dealers which could easily replaced for minor accidents.
Reading these I was impressed & dad said he would be interested if he could buy chassis and put into Marsden for GRP bodies. The first of the batch we bought in the photo. Gerry Crowe also persuaded us to let Vanplan build one as well.
Tom Liddle of Stanley Co.Durham had sold out his Removal business to P & O & soon got sick & bought Lewins removals He bought 3 of these First built by Pennine & two by Boalloy. Within a year he decided to change to artics & sold us his rigids (Bedfords & these 3 Seddons one in photo)
The biggest problem with Seddon was the Perkins engine which had much poorer fuel consumption than our Bedfords, achieved much less mileage life was much more expensive to replace than our Bedford short motors & stole a lot of profit. We asked if we could order with Gardiner engines which although would have been dearer to buy would on our useage have got twice fuel consumption & been totally reliable. Sadly they said the chassis was not heavy enough.
At the same time Foden were going through a bad spell with poor sales and they had a designer come to meet me & ask what would we want I said about 13 ton GVW Gardiner engine geared to cruise at 70 mph. Sadly again they couldn’t produce at such light weight.
The problem with the Seddons again was the price. We could buy 3 Bedford-Marsdens to 2 Seddon Marsdens. The two Boalloy & one Pennine bodywork was very poor compared with Marsden & Vanplan. The cheap & nasty ridged aluminium bodies gave us half lifespan.

[carl_williams]

I often read comments about wind resistance to square shaped high sided pantechnicons like we ran and danger in windy weather. We only ever had one van turn over onto its side. a 1956 Thames 4D luton TPT918.

In fairness we always told our drivers if they considered side winds dangerous to park up ideally in a sheltered area, because better be late delivering a load than it being destroyed when the van went over, risk the life or safety of the driver or risk the vehicle being written off.

TPT918 was a 4-5 ton carrying capacity van. (Sorry the photo is the only reminder I have) I remember as an eight year old going down to Sheffield by train with my grandparents to see it at the main Ford agents in Sheffield in early 1956. The chassis cab had had a baco chassis extension and it had a 1600 cu,ft luton body. Dad had seen it advertised in Commercial Motor and in grey primer it looked a nice big van. My Grandfather rang my father after hassling over the price and it was bought. It was our first diesel and actually achived about 24 mpg and the unladen weight was light enough so it did not need to be restricted to 20 mph which our petrol SBs which had to display a 20 plate on the rear and as petrols got half the fuel consumption. The SBs were about 1750 cu ft so the Thames 4D was acceptable to all our customers who never really realised the loads were slightly smaller.

In about late 1959-1960 My Uncle Bob (My mother’s brother who worked for us as a driver) was travelling south one morning and just passed Catterick on an area notorious for high side winds it turned over. I was at boarding school in Durham & kept up to date with my daily letters from my dad. My uncle said he sat firm on his driving seat holding tight onto the steering he was still sitting in his seat on his side when he was assisted out of the cab. What he hadn’t realised was that stretch of road had telegraph posts along its length and a post had gone straight through the body just behind his cab, so he had been extremely lucky as a foot or so later it would have gone through his cab & probably through his body.

There has been many times I cannot believe that my family had been so greedy, but the insurance company agreed to pay for a new body to be built but would not pay for painting & lettering. Sherwoods the Darlington Bedford agents had their body building business Sherwood & Wynn at Hurworth near Darlington and it was run by a very strict manager Mr Noble. He was an excellent body builder but when he gave a price he stuck to it and would not negotiate. Had they chosen Noble to build the body although the Thames 4D was not our most reliable vehicle (Which I will shorty explain) it would have had a very good body. Instead they agreed with H.Young the main Ford agents with branches in Chester Le Street & Sunderland to build the new body in their Sunderland body shop, because they agreed to include painting & lettering in with the price. Youngs were dreadful bodybuilders who they knew after they built a van body on a 1948 Bedford OB that virtually had fallen to bits.

Further more between my Grandfather & father they had the body greatly reduced in size about a foot lower and a sloped luton which made it look ridiculous. They were worried had they fitted a body equal in size to the previous one it might turn over again. As I explained I was in boarding school but this would never have happened had I been there. In those days on a removal we put the two arm chairs with the tv in between with the settee sat on top. usually a single matress on top with a mattress vertically boxing off the luton. When TPT came back the luton was all but useless.

Needless to say what had been a nice big body was no longer & the work it was able to do was greatly reduced. I remember during a half term holiday going into Youngs to see how it was progressing, and was horrified. While I was there Hughes at Seaham who were removal contractors were having a new Thames Trader built. It was painted ready to deliver and it was very small. We had about a year earlier sold a 1946 Bedford 3 tonner which we had from new (Body built by Sherwood & Wynn) and the body on his new Trader was the same size as the old 3 tonner. He explained a while later when we met him that he had a customer that used him & he got a bigger van they wouldn’t use his older smaller ones. Another nice chap who was short sited & lost the work because of small vehicles.

The 4D had a nine year life with us before it was sold to another removal contractor which is strange because it was so unreliable. One of the first things I remember when it was only a few weeks old was the starter button replaced by a handle down the side of the engine. Fair to Ford there were quite a few modifications like that but the biggest problems were head gaskets, getting to the stage when dad said they had changed that many it was only taking 40 minutes, but often gaskets lasted less than 100 miles. However one day Elders Walkers rep came into our garage when they were fitting the umpteenth gasket & he said if they fitted one of their gaskets it would solve the problem. We had been fitting Ford genuine parts, but he explained Ford accountants kept their costs down to fraction of pennies & wouldn’t specify a better gasket. Elders Walker gaskets solved the problem, but not long after the engine blew up & Youngs at Chester Le Street fitted a new modified engine free under guarantee, telling my dad ‘That will also solve the head gasket problem’ However a fortnight with the new engine & the head gasket went again, so an Elders Walker gasket was once again fitted that solved the problem.

[carl_williams]

This model represents FPT780G
The story goes back to late 63 early 64. As mentioned in a previous tale amongst our vans we had a 1956 Thames 4D luton van TPT980
In those days before ‘O’ Licences we had an ‘A’ licence which were very difficult to obtain and we were fairly rapidly increasing our fleet size. The Thames 4D was fairly light unladen weight and you could automatically add up to 10 cwt but over that you had to apply and go through all the rigmarole as though you were applying for a new licence, and at that time we were regularly doing that as we added vehicles so we needed a lighter vehicle to the Bedford SBs Marsden Pantechnicons we were regularly adding.
At this time in Merrington Lane Spennymoor there was a Company Coulsons Forge Ltd that mostly manufactured railway lines (Which were not in high demand thanks to Mr Beecham). Coulsons had bought a Bedford TK dropsided truck 4 tonner KD model, with 4 cylinder Bedford diesel engine which they very rarely used. Dad heard they were closing down which proved quite protracted but had discussions with them and agreed when they did he would buy this Bedford TK reg no 6188HN. At the time it had only done about 6,000 miles.
So we got our first TK, which although second hand was virtually new, with mileage any of our vans would have done in about 5 or 6 weeks. We took off the drop sided body and sold it and myself (On school holiday & still too young to drive) went with one of our long serving drivers Norman Snowball to Warrington and delivered to Marsden Coachbuilders Ltd to have a luton body built onto the chassis cab after the chassis had been extended. The fact I was with the van and Norman who had worked for us since he was 14 years old during WW2 was as conscientious as you ever could find and we had a steady ride over the Pennines to Warrington particularly as the light Bedford chassis without a body was bouncing about a bit, and I knew it had been an un-eventful journey, trouble free.
Leaving it at Marsdens Norman & myself caught the train home. A couple of weeks later we had a sheepish phone call from Ken Marsden saying that their driver had been taking it to a company Chassis Conversions who were extending the chassis length, when the engine blew up. Fortunately as I had said I knew it was OK when we had left it, so the ball was clearly in Marsden’s court. 6188HN had been towed into GBE (Garlic Burrell & Edwards) Bedford Main agents St Helens Lancs and could my father meet him and the service Manager of GBE, which he agreed to do the next Sunday Morning. GBE was part of The Baird group of companies who had just recently bought Marsden Coachbuilders Ltd. It was agreed they would fit a completely new 4 cylinder Bedford Engine & I think we agreed to pay half the Labour costs.
This delayed things a few weeks and Marsden’s were always slow at building the vans. It didn’t take that long once they started but they always had lots of chassis and chassis cabs outside waiting They had just built for us that year HUP 145C and a week or so before they were due to start on the TK JUP 945C which was one of the first they had built with a full fibreglass body. When they got the TK back we got a phone call to say they had a problem with their fibreglass plant that made the flat sheets for the sided so there would be a six month delay or they could build with plymax panelling as all our other vans had . We couldn’t wait so 6188HN arrived with moulded fibreglass luton front & plymax body. Our first TK.
It would take pages to describe its life with us even if I could remember but within about 2 years it had another two short motors and umpteen injector pipes which broke. I can remember its last long journey with us was the late Colin Watson who took it on 1300 mile South West (Devon & Cornwall ) trip. He reminded me of this about a couple of years ago at a reunion shortly before he died. He says amongst the bits he took with him was 2 full sets of injector pipes, all of which he used and it limped home needing a new head gasket. Dad was fed up and the next new SB that arrived was put on the road as a replacement. Fred Johnson from Durham (J G Johnson & Son Removals) bought it from us. In theory it was a good van as a week or two before it went we put in another new Short motor and the body of course was beautiful.
Fred repainted it in their livery and ran it, and within a year or so he asked if we wanted to buy his business. 3 vans (The TK being one of them).We asked how it had been and they said not much trouble & back it came We did gain 2 'A’Licences and 1 'B’Licences and some excellent staff including Eddie Ramsey (Old Eddie0 and Geoff Pye. Eddie stayed with us years until he sadly collapsed & died in our Warehouse loading a van on a Christmas Eve and Geoff until we finished in 1986.
The TK was repainted in our livery and we assumed it had had its teething problems & had settled down with its short life with Johnsons, but gradually as the breakdowns restarted we started to hear they had had similar problems. Finally enough was enough and dad decided the only thing to do was to buy a new Bedford KE chassis cab with 330 cu in engine & put the body on it. The KE was slightly heavier with larger wheel size 825x20 but with a chassis extension to the same length with exactly the same wheelbase it would fit.
One thing My Grandfather, Father & I had in common was impatience and one decided we wanted a new chassis cab there and then. Adams & Gibbons couldn’t get one for a few months as couldn’t Sherwoods Darlington. We located one at Shaw & Kilburn London. This is where the story takes a funny turn bearing in mind how things are today. My son Paul is a Commercial vehicle Sales executive and all agents will not let a vehicle leave their hands until it is paid for. Either by bank transfer & they see the money is in their account and even when customers buy on finance they will not release until the money is paid by finance company. To the best of my knowledge we never had any pripr dealings with Shaw & Kilburn and all dealing was done over the phone including them agreeing to deliver the new unregistered chassis cab to us. When it arrived on Trade plates the driver asked if we could give him a lift to the Railway Station to return to London. Our first question was did he have the invoice so we could give him a cheque and pay for it. ‘No’ he said 'they’ll be sending it in the post. About a fortnight later the invoice arrived diving us standard 28 days to pay, Needlessly we sent a cheque straight off particularly as the chassis was in our workshop cut in two as we were preparing to weld into place the chassis extension. When the body was mounted and the cab was painted it was registered FPT 780G and was still alive and active when we finished in 1986. As I said this model is a good representation with the right size wheels and slightly shorter body than its Bedford SB sisters Sadly in all those years we never got a picture and none have turned up so these of the model are as near as possible

[old_67]

I like photos of old lorries with people on. This is a nice one, I have tried to tidy it up a bit, I hope you don’t mind.

Regards John.

[carl_williams]

old 67:
I like photos of old lorries with people on. This is a nice one, I have tried to tidy it up a bit, I hope you don’t mind.
0
Regards John.

Thanks John, Of course I don’t mind at all. I am the smallest one on the front about 5 years old. The van 1946 Bedford O Series 3 tonner reg GPTxxx

Body built by Sherwood and Wynn from Hurworth near Darlington