W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

I remember that when the time came to fit tachographs to the older vehicles, which had not had them from new, we carried a stock of Veeder root, which we fitted ourselves in our workshops. We then took then to Tilcon (I think) at Middleton St George who calibrated and sealed them.

The basic thought behind the fitting and use of tachographs was road safety .I wonder what the older drivers, who completed log sheets think about this. In my opinion overall they have made little difference, as drivers who are hell bent on driving round the clock would risk not using them.

In the fifties and sixties traffic was much lighter than it is today and perhaps the stress of driving wasn’t as high as it is today, but safety in vehicles, both in design and maintenance has improved so much, and also today’s vehicles are so much easier to drive. In my opinion drivers today would have a fit if they had to concentrate so hard to change gear, and then having to stand up to get that extra bit of strength to tug and turn the steering, when reversing into a tight spot. Overall, I think the average driver would still keep within the law if they just still had to keep paper records, but at the end of the day politicians make the decisions and often as not they haven’t got a clue.

As a haulage contractor myself I was opposed to the spy in the cab, & the only people I new that agreed with it was the RHA, . I was astounded at the time ,because after all the members were paying their bloody wages. I recall being at a meeting & the tacho was top of the agenda , the RHA claimed it would rid the industry of the cowboy operators, bull ■■■■ I thought, a lot of these so called cowboy outfits didnt even have an O,Licence to start with.,then they claimed it would be better for the good guys. I my oppinion it was just another obsticle in the hauliers path, plus the extra costs the had to bear.There was a classic case some years ago where one of them got caught running wagons without the O/L, they were told they would have to get one so they were running legal, I didnt see them getting fined for what they had being doing, a genuine haulier doing something wrong would of had to pay for their mistakes.I allways thought the RHA was for the hauliers & not against them I was obviousley wrong.

Lawrence Dunbar:
As a haulage contractor myself I was opposed to the spy in the cab, & the only people I new that agreed with it was the RHA, . I was astounded at the time ,because after all the members were paying their bloody wages. I recall being at a meeting & the tacho was top of the agenda , the RHA claimed it would rid the industry of the cowboy operators, bull [zb] I thought, a lot of these so called cowboy outfits didnt even have an O,Licence to start with.,then they claimed it would be better for the good guys. I my oppinion it was just another obsticle in the hauliers path, plus the extra costs the had to bear.There was a classic case some years ago where one of them got caught running wagons without the O/L, they were told they would have to get one so they were running legal, I didnt see them getting fined for what they had being doing, a genuine haulier doing something wrong would of had to pay for their mistakes.I allways thought the RHA was for the hauliers & not against them I was obviousley wrong.

Hi Larry,

I totally agree with you that tachographs just were and additional expense for the hauliers. Not only was there the expense of buying and replacing them when they broke, but also the expense of calibration at regular intervals.

In my opinion if you were sending a driver off with an expensive piece of equipment, the vehicle and load you needed to employ someone who you could trust to do an honest days work, conscientiously. That meant you did not continuously need to spy on him.

Also, like in your posts regarding good cafes, you knew where you wanted to stop, to take your breaks, and you could overrun by a minute or two to get there… Nowadays with traffic delays, it must be very difficult to keep to any schedule and many times drivers must have to stop at the nearest lay-by as otherwise they would overrun their hours. That cannot be good for the driver or the operator. Far better let him stop somewhere where he’ll get genuine rest and refreshment.

The final burden we, as operators had to suffer was we had a legal requirement to check the charts on a weekly basis. For us with about one hundred and twenty drivers, that was a difficult task 600 charts a week.

We bought a Commodore computer and software to try to do this, but it ended sitting in a cupboard unused as it was such a slow process.

Best wishes

Carl

Another piece of computer technology became available in the early nineteen eighties, computer routing systems.

Our friends Thorn Emi bought one, and used the results from this the compare with he mileages we charged that had been achieved by our drivers.

We found invoices were being held up because of disputed mileages. Of course these disputes didn’t come to life until five to six weeks after the work was done and started causing cash flow problems as the disputed invoices were held in their accounting system and not passed for payment.

I went for a meeting and they showed me print outs of various journeys and deliveries made by our drivers, showing huge discrepancies in mileages. Initially when we looked at them they were blatantly wrong. For instance Spennymoor to Wetherby is 60 miles and there wonderful system showed 40 mile. That solved the initial problem and the computer program was sent back.

However senior directors on Thorn main board were not satisfied and agreed that the programmers should be allowed to improve the initial results, and back it came again.

Although they appeared to put the obvious mistakes right drivers, who have human brains had to take other factors into consideration. Many of the deliveries were to shops as well as warehouses, and shops, in those days still had half days closed mid week. Also if a driver was delivering into the West End of London, they couldn’t park on Oxford Street overnight. They had to travel to park, and park somewhere that was safe, to avoid the remainder of the load being stolen. Experienced drivers planned their journeys to cover these points and loaded their vans accordingly.

Friendly arguments continued and eventually we were persuaded to employ someone from their transport department who was being made redundant who they would trust to check the mileages before we submitted them.

Jock (I cannot remember his second name) used to drive for Ramar Dresses, and he lived in Crook. Dad had known him from the Ramar days in the early 50’s.He had gone to ATM from Ramar, where he was given the responsibility as Transport Manager supervising the drivers and vehicles. When we took over ATM work ATM made him redundant, and as at that time we didn’t have work for him, dad recommended him to Smart & Brown (Thorn) and they employed him. As. Is often the problem< Jock as an ex driver could do the job much better than their office staff and was a fish out of water, so hence his redundancy.

Once more technology had landed us with an additional wage, and expense, but at least with him checking the mileages we got our invoices passed quicker, and by avoiding the potential delay in payment made his wage worth while.

Interesting stuff again Carl. I have missed a few episodes so caught up today. The piece about Homeworthy and Tiny Rowland was good and prompted me to dig this piece out about him.

Rowland, originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, was born on 27 November 1917 in a World War I detention camp for aliens in India, as the child of an Anglo-Dutch mother and a German trader father. After World War I the Fuhrhops were refused entry to the United Kingdom, and settled in Hamburg, Germany. He was said to have been nicknamed “Tiny” by his nanny because of his small size. In the 1930s, he was briefly in the Hitler Youth

When tachographs were introduced and I was working for United Carriers, we had the URTU behind us and were on strike for several days, :imp: never been a favourite pastime of mine, I haven’t been in the union since, except for a very short spell to get on the docks in Hull.

It was 1st Jan 1982 when tachographs were first used in the UK according to this thread and it fits in with my memory although we used them earlier than this with serial numbered charts.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=42958

Wheel Nut:
Interesting stuff again Carl. I have missed a few episodes so caught up today. The piece about Homeworthy and Tiny Rowland was good and prompted me to dig this piece out about him.

Rowland, originally Roland Walter Fuhrhop, was born on 27 November 1917 in a World War I detention camp for aliens in India, as the child of an Anglo-Dutch mother and a German trader father. After World War I the Fuhrhops were refused entry to the United Kingdom, and settled in Hamburg, Germany. He was said to have been nicknamed “Tiny” by his nanny because of his small size. In the 1930s, he was briefly in the Hitler Youth

When tachographs were introduced and I was working for United Carriers, we had the URTU behind us and were on strike for several days, :imp: never been a favourite pastime of mine, I haven’t been in the union since, except for a very short spell to get on the docks in Hull.

It was 1st Jan 1982 when tachographs were first used in the UK according to this thread and it fits in with my memory although we used them earlier than this with serial numbered charts.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=42958

Hi Wheelnut,

Welcome back
Thanks for the info on Tiny Rowland. It explanes how Sctt who joined us as a director was so heartless, after working for him for twenty odd years. I will be telling more of this later.

Lokking back I cannot beleive there wasn’t more strikes that would have stopped the introduction of the tachograph.I think the haulage industry, and most of all the drivers were stitched up

Best wishes
Carl

My son Paul took me this morning to an appointment at the James Cook Hospital Middlesbrough and he said he had to pay the wages to his staff as it was the 28th of the month. I was worried but he said it will only take about 15 minutes when I get back and then he asked how we went on.

I explained that originally everyone had a right to be paid cash, under the truck act and then it eventually was changed and some who had bank accounts let us pay directly into their bank. In those days we had to give our bank details of employees bank accounts then after a fortnight they were ready and we had to give them each week a list of names and amounts and then they paid which took three days, so different today when a click of the mouse makes an immediate payment.

However still, even in 1986 most were paid cash. Originally I had to go to the bank on a Friday morning and collect the money (When I look back it was asking to be robbed). I then sat opposite side of a desk to our wages clerk. We both had a list with the amounts and I counted and gave her the money which she would then recount and check against her list and put in the wage envelope and sealed. It used to take two hours.

On the rare occasion I was not there on a Friday another one of the office staff took my place and as we finished each week I could guarantee we had one or two of the driver’s wives waiting for the wage packets.

The wages were given out until 5.30 when the office closed and then a tray with wage envelopes was given to our security person who took it into the hut at the gates of Green Lane where he gave them out until the last expected driver returned on the Friday night. They were then put into a slide that slid down into an under floor safe in the security hut.

Next morning I or my father would open the safe and get them out and continue giving them out until Saturday lunchtime. If any was left then, which was unusual they would be put into an under floor safe next to my desk in my office until the Monday.

Eventually we were advised of the danger of me collecting so much money from the bank and we hired Securicor, but still on a Friday we held a lot of cash in our offices.

Talking about wages being paid in cash, Paul asked me how Smart & Brown (Thorn EMI) with their huge workforce went on.

I explained to him as soon as the Securicor went through the entrance of the site all access and exit to and from the site was stopped until the Securicor van then left. I often had to wait in queue to go in as the barrier was firmly down and there was a line of vehicles waiting to enter as well as a similar line waiting to leave. Obviously I don’t know what internal security arrangements were made, but although in the late seventies money wasn’t as it is today; pro rata paying 7,500 people must have been a lot of money.

The other thing that changed so dramatically was travelling to and from work.
Even in that late seventies Smart and Brown had aprox 40 busses travelling to their Spennymoor plant bringing in the workers. By 1990 there was none as everyone travelled by car.

In our case if you look at the early Arial photos of our Green Lane Site on the first page of this thread and compare with the later photo on page 9 you can clearly see the additional area we had to allow as more workers travelled to and from work by car.

Carl Williams:
My son Paul took me this morning to an appointment at the James Cook Hospital Middlesbrough and he said he had to pay the wages to his staff as it was the 28th of the month. I was worried but he said it will only take about 15 minutes when I get back and then he asked how we went on.

I explained that originally everyone had a right to be paid cash, under the truck act and then it eventually was changed and some who had bank accounts let us pay directly into their bank. In those days we had to give our bank details of employees bank accounts then after a fortnight they were ready and we had to give them each week a list of names and amounts and then they paid which took three days, so different today when a click of the mouse makes an immediate payment.

However still, even in 1986 most were paid cash. Originally I had to go to the bank on a Friday morning and collect the money (When I look back it was asking to be robbed). I then sat opposite side of a desk to our wages clerk. We both had a list with the amounts and I counted and gave her the money which she would then recount and check against her list and put in the wage envelope and sealed. It used to take two hours.

On the rare occasion I was not there on a Friday another one of the office staff took my place and as we finished each week I could guarantee we had one or two of the driver’s wives waiting for the wage packets.

The wages were given out until 5.30 when the office closed and then a tray with wage envelopes was given to our security person who took it into the hut at the gates of Green Lane where he gave them out until the last expected driver returned on the Friday night. They were then put into a slide that slid down into an under floor safe in the security hut.

Next morning I or my father would open the safe and get them out and continue giving them out until Saturday lunchtime. If any was left then, which was unusual they would be put into an under floor safe next to my desk in my office until the Monday.

Eventually we were advised of the danger of me collecting so much money from the bank and we hired Securicor, but still on a Friday we held a lot of cash in our offices.

As I said some drivers’ wives were waiting to collect their husband’s pay packet as soon as we had filled it with cash. We had one complaint from a driver who when asking for his wage packet and being told his wife had collected it remarked, ‘Oh God she’ll have spent all of it ‘and technically we were in the wrong o hand it over and had he pursued matters we could have been made to give him it in full, doubling his weekly wage.

Following this we took the precaution of getting authorisation from drivers who were prepared to have their wives collect their wages. Some drivers insisted that in no way should their wives be told what wages they had earned.

Others were content to hand over all wages and considered their subsistence payments to be theirs and by sleeping in the cabs saved this money for themselves. We used to give cash out on a day to day basis for subsistence with drivers requesting it before they went away to cover the number of nights they expected to spend away, and the next problem came when we decided to pay this payment in areas with their wages. To make this possible we gave all drivers a float so they had the money in advance, and it was made up with the money in the wages. Some spent the float and had to tell dad what they had done and needed money for their away trip, and others were very unhappy as their wives found out what their subsistence was.

Everyway possible dad tried to help drivers with their financial problems and often made interest free loans. Again this in itself caused problems because when a driver left we calculated all payments due to him and subtracted the money he owed for loans and subsistence advances made, and one in particular objected to us taking off him the money he owed us and took us to County Court. Fortunately we had signed documentation for the money owed but had no written agreement to take it back. Fortunately the Recorder at the County Court ruled we had a verbal agreement and came down on our side.

It just shows how one person can ruin things for others.

This morning I am deviating slightly to give a tribute to Jimmy Savile who died at lunchtime yesterday and I can slightly justify this with a W.H.Williams connection.

In October 1980 my ex wife and myself were having a short two night break at the Imperial Hotel, Blackpool and as we pulled into the car park we couldn’t help but notice a white Range Rover parked at the main entrance of the hotel decorated in bunting. I parked and as we approached the doorway there sat on a chair, on his own was Jimmy Savile. Seeing him my ex wife rushed forward, asking for his autograph and he suggested she sat on his knee and I took a photograph of them both, saying I like a Minx in Mink. (As it was chilly she was wearing a mink jacket.)

As we left him the doorman said, ‘You caught him well there!’ and he went on to say you just missed Mike Yarwood. I checked in at reception and we went over to the lift to put the cases in the room and me, as my usual efficient self pressed the lift button and we got on the lift and down it went into the basement (I had pressed down instead of up). The lift returned to the ground floor and in got Mike Yarwood. Susan said ‘My there are some famous people in here today’. Yarwood totally ignored her and as he was getting off on the first floor said sarcastically. ‘You’ll need the next floor’.

We only stayed in the room seconds and I suggested we go down into the hotel lounge for a cup of tea. Sitting at the table Susan said she was just nipping to the toilet and as I waited the waitress came and took my order, and as I waited still no Susan. I stood up and looked round and saw her sitting at a table with Jimmy Savile, who seeing me beckoned me over. He stopped the waitress and asked her to take our order to his table saying ‘They are joining me’.

He greeted me by saying that my wife had explained who I was and he knew well the cream and brown vans he constantly passed in his Rolls Royce. Apparently he was there as he had arranged for about 200 Manchester Taxi drivers to take under privileged children to the Pleasure Beach for the day and he had gone along to the Imperial ‘as they knew him there’.

We spent about half an hour with him and he honestly seemed to enjoy our company and conversation. During the time people were coming over continually putting money into a bucket he had on the floor next to him, collecting for Stoke Mandeville Hospital. A really nice guy who confirmed to me the value of the really good immediately recognisable livery on our vehicles.

Things were different in 1948, so I was told. I would imagine it would be about October and I was 1 year old, when my dad travelled down to London to collect his new Bedford O model 5 tonner with bodywork by Spurlings. Spurlings had exhibited it in the familiar cream and brown livery in the Commercial motor Show of that year.

The Bedford chassis cab had been specially built by Vauxhall Motors for the show with the rocker cover and many of the engine parts being chromed. The cab was similarly finished to a higher than normal specification. On his way back dad had decided to stop and dip the oil as no doubt he had forgotten when he departed from London and to his horror the dipstick, which had been chromed showed no oil and he had asked another Bedford drive to borrow a standard dip stick.

The journey back also was eventful as he was pulled up by the police, and when he asked what was the matter they replied ‘We just had to, so we could look at it as it looked so good on the road.’.

In 1984 Marsden built a Bedford TK pantechnicon for us, which was specially provided by Vauxhall for the Commercial motor show. No doubt it was checked over more thoroughly than normal as it wouldn’t do if anything appeared wrong at the show, but no chrome or anything special. Marsden’s work was always to the highest standards so there was little they could do to improve on the norm. The floor inside the body had a coloured pattern, against the plain wood we usually had and only recently I noticed hat they had put a gold line round the windscreen to emphasise the design and they had finished the front buffer bar in an aluminium colour instead of our standard cream colour. But once it was on the road, nothing would stand out making it different as a show model.

Do you think more pride was taken in the work in 1948?

Carl Williams:
Talking earlier of Billy Dixon reminded me of Keith Dixon who came from Crook, who joined us when we took over the drivers and vehicles of ATM Crook,

Keith ran a part time Disco business at weekends and provided disco for a few W.H.Williams functions

Once again Keith if you read this contact me, or if anyone who knows Keith Dixon, please do likewise

Keith worked for my Grandad, Ernie Henderson from Crook. I remember He came from Baileys, not sure where He went when He finished for Grandad.

andrewv8:

Carl Williams:
Talking earlier of Billy Dixon reminded me of Keith Dixon who came from Crook, who joined us when we took over the drivers and vehicles of ATM Crook,

Keith ran a part time Disco business at weekends and provided disco for a few W.H.Williams functions

Once again Keith if you read this contact me, or if anyone who knows Keith Dixon, please do likewise

Keith worked for my Grandad, Ernie Henderson from Crook. I remember He came from Baileys, not sure where He went when He finished for Grandad.

Hi Andrewv8

Thanks for the info, you wouldn’t know roughly when he worked for your Grandad?

I surpose he’ll be either retired now or shortly. Its nice to know he’s still around

Once again thanks for your reply

Best wishes

Carl

One piece of technology we didn’t have was the mobile phone. I would have hated having one in those days. When I was getting pestered I could always get in the car and go to Courtaulds or Smart & Browns (Thorn EMI) out of the way till things quieted down.

Mary Morris of New Equipment, the furniture factory at Croxdale was one of the worst pests. She would ring on a morning and order a van to go and load and we would promise one in about an hour, knowing we had several due homes shortly and she could have the first one in. After about half an hour she would ring every five minutes, until it arrived. Worst of all she would only speak to me, and I would never dream of getting someone to say I wasn’t there unless I actually had left the premises , as she was liable to come and see for herself and she never would forgive me lying to her. With a mobile phone life would have been hell.

Best thing was that when the van arrived the load was always still being manufactured, so in reality there was no great hurry.

However to the driver the mobile must be indispensable. Particularly so that he could ring in advance and book him into deliveries and have the phone available for emergencies.

With our Mail Order deliveries all over the UK we delivered on average 800 3 piece suites a week, 5,000 beds and mattresses and about 1,000 furniture items including bedroom fitments, wall units and dining sets. We had to attempt three deliveries to households before we could abort the deliveries. In the seventies and early eighties many households didn’t even have a land line, so often our staff were arriving at homes without any prior warning and the type of furniture items they were delivering weren’t suitable to leave next door. The items had to be returned to our nearest depot and retained for a second trial delivery. In this world with nearly everyone having a mobile phone life would have been so much better.

After hearing from AndrewV8 that Keith Dixon worked for his grandfather after we stopped trading, I wonder if anything is known of Jim Kirk, or Barry Lauder who were two of Keith’s workmates who also joined us when we took over the ATM fleet and drivers. Both lived in Crook and I remember that Barry went on to work in a furniture shop in Bishop Auckland as a salesman at one time.

You brought back memories when you posted about the payment wages, before we paid direct my father & the wages clerk used to pick up the cash from the bank which was less than a 1/4 of a mile away from the yard. There was a period the clerk was nervous and thought they were been watched, the village policeman watched from a nearby house for a few weeks but nothing happened. Because of the risk involved it was then decided to pay the wages direct into the drivers accounts this caused a stir for a while we agreed to pay some drivers wages and subsistances into separate accounts but did draw the line at splitting the wages into separate accounts. After a period things settled down and wages and susistances were paid into one account, I think eveyone agreed it was the best method and it was easier to save money, the biggest loser been the club in the village which was always the first stop on the way home on the Friday night.
Another thing related to this subject that comes to mind is when I served my time in the garage at Consett Iron Company, it was a job for a couple of apprentices to fit a steel box into a Ford 15cwt every Thursday morning, it was bolted through the floor. This van used to run up to the bank in Consett followed by wages clerks in a chauffeur driven car. When you think of the amount of money carried in that van for about 6000 workers they would have been a sitting duck. One thing for sure you would not dare move money like that now.

Hi Carl
In previous posts mobile phones and paydays are mentioned.
When we sold up in September 1988 and I went on the road myself I bought a Panasonic two brick job complete with hands free kit. It cost £1200 at the time. You can get mobiles free with lucky bags these days !!!

I still have the phone, it might be a collectors item someday !!!

The coal business we ran was 90% COD and the money taken Monday to Thursday was kept in the house all week until pay day and the packets were put up. This was the case until about 1982 when my Father answered a knock at the door and got a crow bar in his face. That’s another story !!!
Saturday was always our busiest day and we didn’t like to keep cash in the house over the weekend and so I would go down to the nightsafe to deposit the takings. This would often be about £2000 in the wintertime , Gateshead High Street (where the bank was) is a mighty lonely place about 7.00pm on a Saturday evening.
Gateshead was the main branch in the area and had several sub branches and the Senior Manager would often ask my Father to go round the sub branches to collect the bags of silver coin that had built up. This was usually done in our SWB Land Rover. Security and Health & Safety had not been invented those days.

transporter man:
You brought back memories when you posted about the payment wages, before we paid direct my father & the wages clerk used to pick up the cash from the bank which was less than a 1/4 of a mile away from the yard. There was a period the clerk was nervous and thought they were been watched, the village policeman watched from a nearby house for a few weeks but nothing happened. Because of the risk involved it was then decided to pay the wages direct into the drivers accounts this caused a stir for a while we agreed to pay some drivers wages and subsistances into separate accounts but did draw the line at splitting the wages into separate accounts. After a period things settled down and wages and susistances were paid into one account, I think eveyone agreed it was the best method and it was easier to save money, the biggest loser been the club in the village which was always the first stop on the way home on the Friday night.
Another thing related to this subject that comes to mind is when I served my time in the garage at Consett Iron Company, it was a job for a couple of apprentices to fit a steel box into a Ford 15cwt every Thursday morning, it was bolted through the floor. This van used to run up to the bank in Consett followed by wages clerks in a chauffeur driven car. When you think of the amount of money carried in that van for about 6000 workers they would have been a sitting duck. One thing for sure you would not dare move money like that now.

Hi transporterman

No doubt you, like us, would never give it a second thought of going to the bank to collect wages, and being in transport would never dream to get someone like Securicor to do it for them. The problem in our case was from our insurers. We had money insurance, but the conditions attached of the number of men required to o with me made it farcical, but had the effect of making us realise the danger, and change our ways.

I suppose the problems at Consett Ironworks was similar to the problems faced with Smart & Brown (Thorn EMI) with their 7500 employees all receiving cash payments, but at least they had Securicor, not just a safe bolted into the back of a van. Really when you think about it both those places would have been open to attack by thieves when they were counting the money and putting it into the pay envelopes in their premises. Payment directly into the bank accounts was by far one of the best things that happened, and time saving as well. Unfortunately we never achieved more than about half the workforce agreeing but it would have become the norm had we carried on longer towards the nineties.
I think it is good that a website ,Trucknet, allowing us all to leave our memories of such things as for instance when I told my son, the other day as he drove me to hospital, he found it unthinkable that we handled such large amounts of cash, and future generations can read direct from the horses mouth, what life was like.

Hope you are keeping well

Best wishes
Carl

Hi Carl

Just a quick note to say I’m up to page 2 of your extraordinary thread. It took me a bit to get the company name to click but when I saw some of the photos of your wagons that were around in the 80s it all fell into place, especially the Marsdens. Never got to drive one but saw many out on the road (Britannia, Pickfords and White’s were the most common I saw) and for some reason they seemed to be on the road longer than the usual luton body on a TK chassis - perhaps that’s testimony to the quality of their workmanship, perhaps also it reflects the substantial investment that a Vanplan was.

Anyway, thanks for a fascinating (and epic!) thread. I’ll be back to read more.

Steve

tyneside:
Hi Carl
In previous posts mobile phones and paydays are mentioned.
When we sold up in September 1988 and I went on the road myself I bought a Panasonic two brick job complete with hands free kit. It cost £1200 at the time. You can get mobiles free with lucky bags these days !!!

I still have the phone, it might be a collectors item someday !!!

The coal business we ran was 90% COD and the money taken Monday to Thursday was kept in the house all week until pay day and the packets were put up. This was the case until about 1982 when my Father answered a knock at the door and got a crow bar in his face. That’s another story !!!
Saturday was always our busiest day and we didn’t like to keep cash in the house over the weekend and so I would go down to the nightsafe to deposit the takings. This would often be about £2000 in the wintertime , Gateshead High Street (where the bank was) is a mighty lonely place about 7.00pm on a Saturday evening.
Gateshead was the main branch in the area and had several sub branches and the Senior Manager would often ask my Father to go round the sub branches to collect the bags of silver coin that had built up. This was usually done in our SWB Land Rover. Security and Health & Safety had not been invented those days.

Hi Tyneside

Technology hasn’t half changed quickly these past few years. Mobile phones, when we finished in 1986 were not heard of and like you say your 1988 model is a collectors item.

As far as cash is concerned. We all were lax in our security. Perhaps it was because we got complacent at handling it. But I bet you wished you got a lot of it today because cash always is king.

I laughed when you said about moving cash round in your Land Rover. I don’t know if you have read theb post where we used to collect cash from other Barclays (martin’s in those days) banks and take it to Spennymoor branch. Various bank clerks accompanied me and they were issued with a truncheon by the bank and they all agreed they would have just given in and handed the cash over. When I look back it seems insane that we used to drop bags of cash (maybe about £50-£100) at the doors as door stops as we carried the cash into the bank. I attach a ford 15cwt van which was the first at 17 years old I used however it had been dione by others both before and afterwards as I was still at school orriginally and several vehicles we used for this job.

Once again best wishes and hope to hear again from you soon, as we seem to have so many similar experiences

Carl