Saviem what god forsaken radio show was interviewing that plank?
The guy we transported for - George -came from Northallerton and he worked with a Turkish partner.They started buying M/Fs from auctions all over the Uk,but mainly at Cambridge and when the supply in the UK started dwindling they turned their attention to France.God knows from where they found the concessionaire at La Copechagnier it is just a tiny village in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farms,there was only about a dozen houses,a refectory and a post office there.I think the concessionaire must have been the only one in a huge area because we must have taken nigh on 100 tractors from there,- all made to look like they were made in England.Later the Turkish partner got involved with another Turk who wanted to import 2nd hand compressors,Ingersoll Rand and Atlas Copco.I remember me and Geoff meeting him in a pub near to where we had our garage,he said he was paying cash for the compressors and he wanted us to help him find some good ones,he opened a small suitcase he had with him and it was full,-really full, with 50 pound notes.The thought went through my head (and I’m sure the Crows) to slip him a mickey and do a runner.But being basicly honest upright citizens we didn’t.2 weeks later I was loaded with a most unusual load.
The demise of Banner Lane was extremely controversial at the time. MF were one of my largest customers so I was in and out of their offices almost every week. The received wisdom was that the yanks had the choice of closing Banner Lane or Beauvais and the final decision was that The UK plant would be the easiest to close because of UK labour laws.
The outcome for MF was disastrous allowing all sorts of other manufacturers into the market. The other major outsourcing plant was and is Brazil and they went through years of substandard production so MF lost a lot of their reputation in the farming world.
Another sad episode in the demise of British industrial might. Case/international- McCormick out of Doncaster and our only remaining tractor manufacturer is New Holland owned by Fiat!
Well gents it s amazing aint it I only mentioned Massey Fergies because that s what we were loaded with, and now we have a debate about them and Turkish importers am engaged on other things at the moment but Fred this is nt the Beginning nor is it the end of the beginning but it is the beginning of the end, catch you later Crow.
The beginning of the end. So now with sleeping quarters arranged we re staying in Kavala that night. George decides he wants to visit a Brothel you must be joking I said, not a bit of it he s serious. So we go trooping round the town the 2 girls in tow. After questioning many locals he finds one . Right George we ll wait here for you. I m not going in on my own and pushes me up the stairs. It was like a Drs waiting room half a dozen clients waiting. A door opened and a woman came out clad in a dressing gown. I ll fit you in as soon as I can she said. I said to George are you really going to wait and he said no way lets offski and we did .The 2 girls were highly amused by this. The next 4 days go like this. Transcon breaks down just outside Alexandropolous, fuel problems.As any ■■■■■■■ man will tell you there are no high pressure fuel lines, the injectors do all the work that s why there are 3 pushrods per cylinder. The fuel pump is just a glorified lift pump. Ashaft has sheared, George goes off to get it welded and is gone for hours. Night out Ipsala with all the associated problems. Next day not far from Silivri alternator on Transcon not charging it s dark and his lights are going up and down like a whores drawers. Limp it into Mocamp bars shut no Efes. Following day girls gone to meet some friends told to be back in 2 days. We re taken to dinner by Candimir. A ■■■■ bus is in the Mocamp. 2 days later tipped Bos papers in hand we re off,thru Ipsala not much delay and run up to Polykastro.Night out,following day Saturday just opposite Motel Nis road works a Jughead clouts a home bound Greek fridge tearing the side, more delays.It gets so late that by the time we reach the Belgrade peage the weekend driving ban is in force. We re stuck 3 hours s late into the Nacional. There s agood crew there, Richie Thorne say s no steak tonight. Now old George is in charge and when he sees the 2 girls steak is back on the menu. This is the George who featured in one of Commercial Motors accounts re Whittle International. Now as you know the Nacional shuts early but not tonight George is enraptured by Kim and is dancing with her.Tony has effed off to bed and so has Nicky leaving me IC. lets paraphrase now sunday up to Fernetti parked up at border can t drive until 10pm.Tony is going to Prato me to Milano not Verona,he carried on and I parked up at Scaligera . Monday 3 pick ups of new furniture for Pegasus Stoke on Trent. It s a light load Im going home Swiss. Night out Ponte Chiasso, dinner in Johnies just up the road. Cleared in the morning by Lorenzonis and away pay Swiss rod tax and off away thru St Gotthard Basle St Louis up thru Franceand just after Dudelange park up in Belgium for the night .Next afternoon Zeebrugge and trip over Stanley Wombold. Ship across ferry did nt capsize, papers in then East cliffs for a gargle. Stanley no money whats new so I m paying for the 3 of us, no matter we ve been weighed in at istanbul no shortage of funds. Next day we are late leaving Dover because of an occurrence that kept me up half the night discretion comes into plat here and to cap it all we get apull at that weighbridge just after Husks yard. Off we go and I m going to drop Nicky in London. Thru Blackwall and further up going towards Archway is a Tube station on the left with a bus pull in right next to it. Nicky climbs over the engine hump and slides down me to the deck. I don t want to go she says, arms round me and a big kiss, tumultuous round of applause from the crowd waiting for the bus. I never did see her again.Epilogue. A week later I ve got 6 snuggled down again. Just as i m about to leave home the letter box clicked and it s an envelope with a card from the girls a 10 pound note was clipped to the card. Nicky had borrowed a tenner to buy her charges a small gift,I had nt expected to see it again.I was nt married at the time and my wife to be Susan wrote to Nicky for the next year or so get that eh. Nicky if by some strange quirk of fate you read this Susan and I were married in 1985 and produced 2 children Harriet our daughter and Joe our son. Tragically Susan was taken from us 2 weeks short of our 25th. She lost a 4 and half year battle against yhe dreaded big C You ll be in your 50s now and possibly a grandma. Your maiden name was withrington, you have photos of Tony and me, we sadly have none of you and Kim. If someone in NZ knows you and you do get chance to read this I wish you all the best and I still think from time to time of that epic journey. Like most people from downunder you can t pronounce Geoff you called me Jiff. Regards and best wishes to all. Geoff the Crow TAYLOR.
Bit tame that Crow,…Tony’s version is…!!!
David 
5thwheel:
Bit tame that Crow,…Tony’s version is…!!!David
I’ll write mine shortly I suppose. (how did we get talked into this??)
The Crow has written his story and a fine one too. It is great to hear of those days and it is great to hear about the tractors. I did a little bit of work for a bloke in Yorkshire, he bought tractors and sold them through Cheffins in Cambridge. I would pick them up from the local area and we would all set off down to Cambridge, me driving an F86 drawbar outfit and them close by in his Mercedes car. It was great wandering around looking at the sales and watching these foreigners with sharp suits and wads of cash.
Roll the clock forward 6 or 7 years and Hughie Ashton, Joe Toole and myself are loading tractors from Cambridge sale ground for Greece. It would be about this time of year and I remember something about the export paperwork expiring on 31st of December. No matter to us, we decided that we would take the loads out to Belgium and pick them up after Christmas.
It was an eventful trip I had been home on North Sea Ferries as a foot passenger and returned to TTZ on the day after boxing day. Apart from Joe and I there was very little traffic moving in Germany and we reached Geiselwind early. good meals and chatter before bed, then down to Waidhaus, almost deserted, it was like this most of the way down calling in at the regular stops. Plzen bus station, Gyor, ■■■ for ever, Windmill and Georges Hotel in Belgrade 
I remember it was quite impressive having 3 new years eves that night. We arrived in the BP at Evzoni in time for a plate smashing and several beers. We had new year for the Dutch and Germans and then we had a British celebration
All I remember now is the place was near Alexandria and the place was like a swamp and needed three large tractors to pull us in and out of the yard
Dave, it never was meant to be racy and it was only after exhortions from Fred that I wrote it, These were real people not figments of my imagination so lets not forget certain elements of propiety have to be observed. Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Crow.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Dave, it never was meant to be racy and it was only after exhortions from Fred that I wrote it, These were real people not figments of my imagination so lets not forget certain elements of propiety have to be observed. Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Crow.
Nice one Geoff, well filtered down so as not to cause any embarrassment to anyone and I actually found the account of the trip quite interesting and as I have previously mentioned in earlier posts although many of us have done it and got the ‘T-shirt’ such an account as yours always opens up a wealth of memories eh ? - It would be quite amazing if you get feed back from NZ. Good Luck. Fred
Jazzandy:
The demise of Banner Lane was extremely controversial at the time. MF were one of my largest customers so I was in and out of their offices almost every week. The received wisdom was that the yanks had the choice of closing Banner Lane or Beauvais and the final decision was that The UK plant would be the easiest to close because of UK labour laws.The outcome for MF was disastrous allowing all sorts of other manufacturers into the market. The other major outsourcing plant was and is Brazil and they went through years of substandard production so MF lost a lot of their reputation in the farming world.
Another sad episode in the demise of British industrial might. Case/international- McCormick out of Doncaster and our only remaining tractor manufacturer is New Holland owned by Fiat!
You mention “dodgy” Brazillian,I recall the last two new 81’s we bought ( W reg.) were long wheelbase sleepers and they were the subject of a recall because that batch of engines,manufactured at the Scania plant in Brazil,were prone to dropping the oil pickup pipe into the sump!! Fortunately our two engines were OK,Phew!Then again we had a brand new P cab 82 ( Y reg '82) that walloped all the valves into the pistons,resulting in it receiving a brand new engine,I never found out if that was a Brazillian engine,but it could have been as the three engines were fairly close together “agewise”.Cheers Bewick.
Saviem:
Jazzandy:
The demise of Banner Lane was extremely controversial at the time. MF were one of my largest customers so I was in and out of their offices almost every week. The received wisdom was that the yanks had the choice of closing Banner Lane or Beauvais and the final decision was that The UK plant would be the easiest to close because of UK labour laws.Sorry folkes, just bloomin useless at driving this electric thing!
Jazzandy, you are absolutely correct, the more liberal UK laws allowed the Yanks to do what they are good at…cut and run. But they had, (as you will well know, if you were close to MF), been pushed to total distraction. Closing Beauvais would , in strategic managerial terms, (am I correct that cost of production, had production targets been met, Banner Lane was 6% cost on average lower per unit built), have made far more economic sense. But to fight the CGT…no way.
So there we are, another industry decimated, lousey management, that allowed the Unions to grab the business by the throat, ex pat ownership, who could never understand Europe as a market place, let alone manage a European business correctly, (our US friends are in a masterclass of 1, in this), so write it off, and look for a lower cost base, “hey geographicaly this is smaller than back home”!
Sounds familiar does it not, Foden, Dodge, Bedford, ■■■■■■■■ Sad really, and does anyone outside of our industries Know, let alone care?
Funny, I sold all my Massey stuff as a job lot, about five years ago. Straight sale, (b…r the auctions, and their “premiums”, the whole lot went to a Turkish Dealer, who had previously bought lorries from me, clean and tidy deal, for good money. Picked up by some cracking Turkish drivers, who had tipped at the Four Ashes Chemical plant. Stripped down, loaded, a convivial bit of tea, here at the farm, and away they went. Probably the last equipment I will ever send to Turkey!
Geoff, that really is a cracking good read!!! Cheerio for now.
geoffthecrowtaylor:
Dave, it never was meant to be racy and it was only after exhortions from Fred that I wrote it, These were real people not figments of my imagination so lets not forget certain elements of propiety have to be observed. Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. Crow.
Geoff,Its only banter,I would’nt expect anything other than the utmost propriety in your text,some stories can be somewhat laborious to read,“going off track” lightens the mood somewhat.
Seasons greetings to you.
David 
Good one “Jiff” mate,sorry mate I don’t know Nicky.
Sounds like you had some interesting trips and would of had some good times when the bus came in to Mocamp.
Cheers mate.
NZ Jamie, it was always going to be a long shot re Nicky. I seem to remember that she had Irish connections and her uncle some sort of Irish diplomat in NZ.The race horse guy name I ve forgot was somewhere near Wicklow Town. To put a seal on the Masseys in 1985 the Turks slapped an outright ban on 2nd hand tractors as they were producing their own at Izmit I think. That did nt stop George he switched to plant and machinery the pic of SVT shows a Liebherr bound for istanbul. George was by this time living in istanbul. At the conclusion of this stage he moved to Xanthi in greece and the whole cycle started again not only MFs but Fords David Browns and Leylands. This ended in disaster his Greek partners being absolute thieves. Most of the stuff went to Xanthi but different customs points used every time who you know not what. We eventually ran out of UK tractors and France was next,these going to Thessalonika not Xanthi.He finally moved to Cholet in France and not long after the European saga closed and he was exporting by sea to Israel. Last I heard of him several years ago he was back in Northallerton. A remarkable man. con man extrordinaire.Crow.
Tony Taylor:
5thwheel:
Bit tame that Crow,…Tony’s version is…!!!David
I’ll write mine shortly I suppose. (how did we get talked into this??)
That’s typical of the Crow,I told you he wouldn’t be bothered to tell a proper story.It’s so long ago I can’t recall all the details,however,now that I’ve been railroaded into it I’ll do my best.When we left Kavalla and George broke down at Alexandopolus and went to get the fuel pump shaft repaired we went on to Ipsala.Kimberley never stopped talking,I can’t remember what about,life down under I suppose,I just switched off and let the sound drone on.At the border we did the papers and waited for George.While we were wating we decided to make a ‘camion stew’,just then up rolls an Italian who parked near us.He took one look at the girls and decided he wanted to stay for dinner.This eyetie was a bit of a lad he said he would make some coffee,he had one of those percolators you see everywhere, silver colour and the base unscrewed so you can put the water in.Well,this guy made the coffee with half water,half grappa and then poured half a cup of grappa into half a cup of coffee and loaded it with sugar,we drank several cups of this brew.The rest of the bottle of grappa went into the ‘stew’.I think he was trying to get us(or maybe the girls) ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ hadn’t reckoned on the capacity of Manchester lads and we only got half ■■■■■■ and the same with the girls.The eyetie on the other hand was 3 sheets to wind and therefore out of the game.I remember the Turkish border workers and the police taking a close interest in the 2 scantily clad females and they got quite a lot of unwanted attention.We decided we would stay there for the night and that’s where the 1st problem began.I had 2 bunks in the 89 but the top one was always full of gear and I wasn’t going to move it into the trailer box.In any case even if Kim could have(which I doubt) got onto the top bunk,if she layed on her back,her ■■■■ would have dented the cab roof.So,it was decided we both sleep downstairs.She was not in the least bit shy and just took her ‘t’ shirt off,she wasn’t wearing a bra and the twin orbs were swinging gently to her movements.I thought I was in for a treat,but had my thoughts dashed when she said firmly “no ■■■” tonight and as I am a gentleman and not a ■■■■■■,I had to content myself with just looking.Trying to sleep 2 in a bed is not easy in an 89 and Kim was a big girl and the only way we could do it and get some sleep was top to tail,the other way was too frustrating for me and impractical as well.Ah well !! maybe better luck in Istanbul.
Tony Taylor:
Tony Taylor:
5thwheel:
Bit tame that Crow,…Tony’s version is…!!!David
I’ll write mine shortly I suppose. (how did we get talked into this??)
That’s typical of the Crow,I told you he wouldn’t be bothered to tell a proper story.It’s so long ago I can’t recall all the details,however,now that I’ve been railroaded into it I’ll do my best.When we left Kavalla and George broke down at Alexandopolus and went to get the fuel pump shaft repaired we went on to Ipsala.Kimberley never stopped talking,I can’t remember what about,life down under I suppose,I just switched off and let the sound drone on.At the border we did the papers and waited for George.While we were wating we decided to make a ‘camion stew’,just then up rolls an Italian who parked near us.He took one look at the girls and decided he wanted to stay for dinner.This eyetie was a bit of a lad he said he would make some coffee,he had one of those percolators you see everywhere, silver colour and the base unscrewed so you can put the water in.Well,this guy made the coffee with half water,half grappa and then poured half a cup of grappa into half a cup of coffee and loaded it with sugar,we drank several cups of this brew.The rest of the bottle of grappa went into the ‘stew’.I think he was trying to get us(or maybe the girls) ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ hadn’t reckoned on the capacity of Manchester lads and we only got half ■■■■■■ and the same with the girls.The eyetie on the other hand was 3 sheets to wind and therefore out of the game.I remember the Turkish border workers and the police taking a close interest in the 2 scantily clad females and they got quite a lot of unwanted attention.We decided we would stay there for the night and that’s where the 1st problem began.I had 2 bunks in the 89 but the top one was always full of gear and I wasn’t going to move it into the trailer box.In any case even if Kim could have(which I doubt) got onto the top bunk,if she layed on her back,her ■■■■ would have dented the cab roof.So,it was decided we both sleep downstairs.She was not in the least bit shy and just took her ‘t’ shirt off,she wasn’t wearing a bra and the twin orbs were swinging gently to her movements.I thought I was in for a treat,but had my thoughts dashed when she said firmly “no ■■■” tonight and as I am a gentleman and not a ■■■■■■,I had to content myself with just looking.Trying to sleep 2 in a bed is not easy in an 89 and Kim was a big girl and the only way we could do it and get some sleep was top to tail,the other way was too frustrating for me and impractical as well.Ah well !! maybe better luck in Istanbul.
Thats great Tony,another Mills and Boon I think,thanks for your mam…,sorry,memories Tony,and indeed better luck in Istanbul!!!
Seasons greetings,
David
Jazzandy:
The demise of Banner Lane was extremely controversial at the time. MF were one of my largest customers so I was in and out of their offices almost every week.
G/day Jiff and Jazzandy, you should both get a book together after stirring up some great memories for a lot of the old boys on here especially me. We did many loads out of Massey Fergusson (Industrial) in Urmston and Massey’s at Banner Lane, Coventry (agricultural). Now as the old memories not as good as it was, weren’t Urmstons front end loaders painted yellow and Banner Lane’s combine harvesters painted red. 
Maybe Andy can remember the name of the Massey Eastern European rep who came from the Liverpool area but worked from Banner Lane who I met once when I took a Massey machine down to the Plovdiv International State fair in Bulgaria one year. He took a couple of us to a big hotel in Plovdiv where he was staying, fed us and quenched our thirst and insisted that he (or Massey’s) paid the bill.
The story of my coming to the rescue of two Kiwi birds in Greece will have to wait until another day but as one of them had Irish roots and they were both interested in horses and were looking forward to going to the Appleby Horse fair once they arrived in the U.K. then Jiff certainly brought back memories of a great night out in Xanthi. And it’s not true that the descripion of a Kiwi Bird is it eats, roots, shoots and leaves well not for me it wasn’t anyway. 
The strange thing was that I told them once they got to Istanbul to camp at the Mocamp and if they saw any of our wagons to go and asked the driver for a lift back to the U.K. a couple of weeks later they met up with Irish John who, being single like myself just couldn’t leave them stranded in Turkey and I think he took them all the way to London. I wonder if Irish John can still remember their names.
Regards Steve.
Somewhere I’ve got a photo of us offloading MF backhoes in the middle of a roundabout in Baghdad. There were three trailer loads on that occasion all owned by Doug Russell. I know the MF rep. you’re referring to but no way can I remember his name! It’s an age thing!