mushroomman:
John West:
Hi Carl,A photo attached of one of his vans, a postcard at the time, passing the Ritz cinema by chance in 1939. I have somewhere other photos of his vans, but like me, he was no photographer!
He bought another firm after Nationalisation finished, with a couple of vans, but his heart was no longer in it. He sold the vans and A licences to Alan Cooksey, who became a large local removals firm, eventually working for Bowater Scott and selling out to Blue Dart in the Seventies.
Hey, life is what you make it!
John.
Hi John and Carl, that’s probably opened a can of worms.
I think that all of us regret not taking enough photographs over fifty years ago and if I would have done so at the time then I could have shown Carl quite a few photos of Bedford Marsden’s. I have been over Carl’s great thread a number of times and never seen a photo of any of Vitafoam’s Marsden’s, the one that I drove was registration number TVR 712 K and I also remember one as being on a F registration number plate.
Vitafoam, British Vita and Vita Luxan must have had a least a dozen Marsden’s in the sixties and early seventies and as it has been mentioned before, they were a marine ply, wooden cab. After a couple of years, most of them started to let water in whenever it was raining and with a six-inch foam mattress on the wide back parcel shelf, (a perk of the job) you could always get a good night’s sleep.
I have been meaning to mention this to you for years now Carl but I can remember a couple of W.H. Williams drivers, flashing their lights at me while going up the A1 in the early seventies. As Vitafoam also had a depot at Fencehouses near Haughton le Springs, I wondered if you ever did any back loads for them from their Middleton factory.
John, Alan Cooksey junior was my first traffic manager who I.I.R.C. was about 25 years old at the time. I had great respect for Alan who really looked after me and I often wondered what happened to him after he left Blue Dart. I can only remember staying overnight in Cooksey’s yard in Barrow just once, just once was enough.
Hi Mushroomman
This site is dreadful Here is my fourth attempt before it crashes
WE never did any work for Vitafoam as I aleays thought they were fully serviced by Blue Dart, but also we were always paid both ways by all our customers so back loads were not a nescesity , and Mancheser was often a day run. We did work for Lancaster Carpets from Manchester and the inly foam I remember was Sheffield Insulation who we did some loads from Sheffield
I never remember Vitafoam Marsdens. Are you sure they were not bodies which looked quite similar buily by Bowyer Bros Congleton (Boalloy) which would rain in as they were badly built but we never had a Marsden no matter how old ever have a leak.
Thanks so much for contacting Best wishes CARL