Hi all,
I worked at Rylands, Ryland Street in the Bedford service department between 1979 and 1985. I started as an apprentice HGV mechanic and ended up as service reception engineer. I left when Rylands lost the Bedford franchise in early 1985.
We operated out of two workshops, the “original” large workshop which was accessed down “The Slope” from the entrance in Morville Street, and the smaller top workshop which was on the corner of Morville Street and Sherborne Street and accessible from both streets.
Fleet Hire’s offices were always located in Morville House on Morville Street. A chap called Joe was the boss as I recall.
Around 81-82 (I think) Fleet Hire moved from Coleshill into the top workshop on Morville/Sherborne Street. They took roughly a third of the workshop up. There were two employees, Mick Sheppard/Shepperd and another chap who’s name I can’t remember. Whilst there was enough work for one mechanic, there really wasn’t wasn’t enough for two, and Mick was eventually forced to accept redundancy and start working in the Bedford service department. Unsurprisingly, he disliked his new role and more specifically the commute.
Fleet Hire had a Ford D Series wrecker (or was it a Dodge 500 series ?) fitted with a Perkins V8, a smoky, noisy and very tired contraption, which saw little or no use in the time Fleet hire were located in ladywood… Rylands Bedford ran an Albion 6x4 Reiver, which whilst slow, would pull pretty much anything !! In 1982-3 this was replaced by a purpose built LHD ex Bedford demo Bedford TM wrecker fitted with a V8 Detroit Diesel.
The six years I spent in the service department at Rylands, Ryland Street were among the happiest of my 56 year life !! I’m in the process of writing a book documenting my time there …