Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

Buzzer:
Buzzer

The Shap Granite 8 wheeler is interesting as I reckon I knew the driver who lived in Mint Street at the back of Shap road where I started as an O/D based at my parents home. This was in 1968 and the Shap Granite driver was called Jack Ridley and he wouldn’t have been far off retirement at this time. However the motor he was driving by this time was a dropside 6 wheeler LAD cabbed Dodge which IIRC had a Leyland engine. His regular loads were daily down into Lancashire with Kerbs , flags or concrete pipes . After he had parked up on the Mintsfeet trading estate late afternoon he’d walk home round the street and past where sometimes I was parked and if I was about he would stop for a bit craic and was always interested in what I was " up to" :wink: But I’d hazzard a guess that he would have been the Driver of that Foden as They only ran an odd motor using contractors for most of their products.
PS They ran and 8 wheel tipper shuttling between the Pink quarry and the plant and it was driven by the Landlord of the Greyhound pub in Shap
village and for a number of years Derek the driver used to bring it down to the MOT station next to our depot and it was always loaded with 10ton or so of blue granite chippings which he tipped in our yard so I asked him one night when we were in the Greyhound with some of the friends we had in Shap if he would bring a load of “pink” this next time which was about 4 times expensive than the Blus ! Leave it to me Derek said and sure enough the next visit to the MOT he brought about 10 ton of beautiful Shap Fell pink granite which I used most of it on the garden paths around our bungalow ! Derek always said I don’t mind coming down the Fell loaded but I’m blowed if I’m gonna drag it back up the Fell ! Derek thought it was great that he could get the 8 wheeler tested then tip the load next door in our depot ! Cheers Dennis.