Many thanks for that, Lance. Nice to know Neil’s still grafting. Cheers.
Well Tommy, I remember Neil well I sold him a car when we were working at Bridges. Struggling to remember Carl though. Mick
Carl was frank shaws mate on Cheshire runs late 60s early 70s
I can remember Frank Shaw alright, but I probably knew Carl by sight not name. The nearest I got to were they used to load was when they put me on Ellesmere Port with Twilly. I was usually on one of the Manchester runs. Not had a reply from Tommy yet.
Hi, Falconman! This is the first I’ve seen of your msg. so apologies for seeming rude! I was, for the most part, on Eccles run, initially as a mate with Arthur Dawson. He was a really good guy , sound as a pound. As I’m (Jesus!) 65 now, I guess he’s no longer with us?! Go on, put me out of my misery, What’s your full name and which run were you on?
Do you remember ‘Major’ at the so-called Manchester depot? (About three old Albions parked on a pad next to Atlas Express) Heh! Remember when they got the old Pye two way Radios fitted? “Clarion” call signs …I think because it was on Clarion street? Me and Rennie used to wind him up no end! “Major! Can’t see, Major. It’s foggy. Whaaay”
Paddy Tyrell, the big Irish er, chap, used to call it “Da Yoke” . “Get on da !*#@ing yoke!” What a hoot! Paddy drove the only Ford (D series) left on the fleet, no.45 I think. I drove an Albion Chieftain (crash gearbox) on Eccles for a while before TK’s. Those TK’s! Great lightweight doors you could swipe shut as you leapt out of the still moving cab. Rocking on the transmission brake. Ah, happy days. Said the old ■■■■.
Go on, who are you? Tommy.
Oops! A faux pas on my part…sorry, Falcoman not Falconman!
Hi Tommy round about the time you were mating with Arthur, I was with Harold Hopewell, (wagon no 34, if my memory is right yours was 61) used to start delivering Adlington through to Atherton then pick ups in Manchester city centre. Before that I was on the Blackburn run with a driver called Vinnie. Yeah I can certainly remember the old depot in Salford and Major and you couldn’t forget the old Claymores. They certainly were happy days. I always used to knock about with Ian Catt, my name is Mick Livesey.
Is this you in your Chieftain Tommy ?
Reading your posts is like looking back at my time at Ripponden & District, both as a van lad and driver. I spent a lot of years in the 60s and 70s on the Manchester runs.
This is me in '71 with my Chieftain, I was also on the Eccles run . This was taken on Barton Rd., having just delivered to British Mail Order Corporation on Hall Bank.
Endless tales of what we got up to, sometimes I can’t quite believe them, but some of the happiest days of my life !!
Regards. John.
Thanks Mick and John, great to see the old Chieftain again! Probably not me but wow, it don’t half bring the memories back! Mick, yeah, it was no.61 and Harold? He was like a ‘dad’ character to me. How did you stand the pipe baccy smoke!? He had an old black Austin A40 Somerset for years, one night, having been out in Blackpool boozing, me and a mate were hitchhiking to Preston, (me hiding in a ditch-this is 1:30am!) a car pulls up in a cloud of baccy smoke and Harold shouts “Gerrin ere, ya daft bugger!” WTF? Weird!
John, I went to BMOC every day! Probably queuing behind you! Big boxes of shoes I think , were great for filling the back, loading up in the morning, ‘wall-building’ so Charlie Webb, one of our checkers, wouldn’t give me more drops. (About 40+ per day) .
Remember Garth & Brown’s, the oil-making firm, opposite Sheldon paper? You could see how they blended oils & grease in the machines. Fascinating! I think that’s what made the job interesting, going into so many different places, wandering about where the public weren’t allowed.
Manchester airport!! Bloody hell, you could have hidden on a plane real easy! Security? What security? People probably thought truck driving was boring…
I once held the FA cup!. Vent-axia in Peter street off Deansgate, just loading and at the desk inside, the gaffer, in a suit says “ere, do you want to see the FA cup?” Er ok. …he handed it to me. It’s heavy too! Turns out he was a director at Manchester City FC. Maybe they held the cup that year? 1970’s.
Anyhoo, I’m waffling. I’ll post more pictures as I find them, I really appreciate anyone posting pictures of those days.
Tommy Ash. (Now commonly known as Tom.)
Jack Barnes was in the wagon with Ken. It took awhile to remember his surname. It must be something to do with my age.
Once again you have reminded me about something which was the same at R & D, " building a wall " to make the van look full. The bloke next to me told our Manchester foreman he was leaving some deliveries in the depot because he was full. " Oh full is it ? " he says with a smile, as he shoulder charges the “wall”. Instead of just knocking the wall forward, he burst through, and trampled all over a load of trays of paint which were behind it, then falling on his arse getting paint all over him !! For some reason his smile seamed to turn to embarrassed rage!!
Can’t remember Garth and Brown but Sheldon Paper rings a bell, can’t just place them though. Do you remember ROF ? the bomb factory on Green Lane where you had to leave your mate at security if he was under 18 ? Lots of good cheap canteens round Manchester and we were always welcome to use them. I used to have dinner in Lankro Chemicals or Ward and Goldstone when on Eccles.
Regards. John.
Them radios we had them on Stockport runs I used to wind major and jet Morgan up I would call in and say 19 to carry on control and they would say its clarion and I’d yeah carry on ha!
Went to m/c depot once for a week All I was doing was making brews all day for major and jet the following week I went to traffic office said to geof Johnson what am I on today I hope its not m/c depot he said no they don’t want you back because you can’t make a decent brew ha! got out of that without trying
Ripponden John, yeah, the Eccles run…when you came out of the main entrance way to BMOC, there was a bridge over t’road just to the left (to Patricroft TL’s) but to the right, towards Worsley after a few yards was Garth & Brown’s with Sheldon Paper to the left opposite. Did you ever go into that Foundry at the canalside coming out of BMOC, close to where your photo was taken? What a hot, mucky, stinky place that was to work in, bit like British Steel in Irlam. Made me appreciate my job! Did you ever drop at Gardner engines, Patricroft? Another fascinating place to wander round. I remember ROF clearly but don’t recall the canteen, we invariably parked over dinnertime at Lankro, no canteen though, chippy & brewcan usually. Enamel chipped easy on them!
Falcoman Mick, I well remember Catty! Didn’t he leave to buy his own truck? I seem to remember seeing him in a massive tractor unit with “Ian Catt” in 6ft.letters or did I just dream that? There was a driver’s mate off Liverpool runs who set up his own underlay business in Kent street, Preston after leaving Bridges. “Joe” , but his surname escapes me, anybody remember him?
Hey Mick Bingo! I would’ve absolutely hated to have been stuck in Manchester depot ! Aaarrgh! I hated being stuck in the main depot, some days if I’d well overslept and there were no runs or mating left. I usually tried to get on the forklifts bazzing about. Bloody hell you need certificates to sit on one nowadays.
Can I ask if anyone remembers the crash on the M61? Ha ha, Rennie would. He was in it! Who was the driver? A newish guy with Rennie as mate. Coming back from Manchester, the M61 had a REALLY sharp bend to drop onto the M6. The driver woke up, ( with Rennie shouting I imagine !) overeacted and skidded 180 ° the TK 's rear end dug into the banking and flipped up and over end over end. There was no bodywork left but the cab still intact. Rennie’s thigh was badly bruised by hitting the gearstick but the driver’s shins & ankles were scraped to the bone by the sharp TK’s pedals. There was tons of stuff scattered on the banking. I came along later to see massive Pegler & Louden valves, Peter England shirts and Dinaclass curry powder with countless other stuff spread for 100 yards. Other wagons had parked and we spent hours re loading it. Transport manager there with Police. I was ■■■■■■■■ it because I had some knock off in the cab! ! Didn’t we all? Er, no? Oh just me then… Rennie jumped out of the pan into the fire two days later, back to work they put him mating with me. Ha ha! That’ll larn him not to have accidents!
Falcoman, didn’t Harold Hopewell pass on his round to a guy called Geoff? Lived in Houghton but he was a very active Union guy and called a few strikes. My wages jumped from £6 a week to about £18 after a few ‘show of hands’ stoppages. I hadn’t a clue what I was voting for but it was early days then. Tayforth group owned the business, not the saintly Harold Bridges so that was ok.
I’m running out of pictures but here’s one of a girlfriend with wagon no.27 which was a ‘relief’ wagon, not on a regular run. I used to LOVE getting in one of the brand new TK’S, that new smell was great, not like some of the knackered ■■■■■ mucky cabs there were. Tom.
Catty left Bridges 1972 started at Mellings two weeks after he left I followed we were running out of ICI Thornton. He got his class one, wasn’t to happy driving the artics there. The trailers were four-in-line rubbish so he left there 1974 went working for a small outfit in Cadley I think it was Jacksons only had a few trucks but they were mostly Immaculate looking DAF’s. Lost touch for a few years then he started on his own he had quite a few trucks both his sons Lee and Wayne drove for him. Last I heard of him he had something to do with Atkinsons at Penwortham. ( maybe you weren’t dreaming about seeing large Catt lettering both sons have their own trucks and the names certainly stand out.)
Regarding that accident on M61, I can’t remember Rennie being involved in one,maybe that was while I was away came back in 74, only one I can think of was Dave Moss and Billy Brown when they turned over there. I can remember the one on Belmont with Brooksy and that nutter Norman Payne and the one at Leyland with Jimmy Thornley.
As far as I can remember Harold had psoriasis and I think that was why he finished. Geoff Mcann and Ken Brown both lived across the road from Harold in Hoghton I think it was Harold who got them the jobs. Both Ken and Geoff were on Bolton runs along with Ken Marston.
Hey tom and Mick I’ve searched everywhere for years trying to get photos of the old bridges chieftons and the 72 guild float and the closest I got was this ha!
Hey Mick and Tom thinking about Chieftains, do you remember Steve Marshall, aka “Bootsy” and the infamous 97 the one that they cut the height of the body down on. I think Steve was the only one who loved driving it. Steve left Bridges when they moved to Leyland and started at Gravesons and stayed there until he retired which by that time it was Sita. I’ve only seen him once since he retired. Steve always loved Jaguar cars and just before he retired he bought an E type from a farm somewhere in Yorkshire for £4,000! (bargain of the century) worked on it for about six months and sold it for £55,000!!! maybe that’s why I’ve not seen him. Mick
Steve Marshall…hmmm was he a very thin lad with a er, ‘Roman’ nose? I thought he went to Leyland? I recall (I think) he used to eat for three blokes. In the canteen (Welly bobby’s mum work there?) he’d have a breakfast part way through loading, then another before weighing out, then one in the cafe part way to Manchester and ditto in the afternoon. (Was it him or a chap called Bernard used to absolutely COVER his breakfast with pepper?) He never got any fatter, lucky bugger.
Bridges actually had a couple of Albion Reivers too, bigger & longer than Chieftains. Maybe that’s what was cut down? I know me and Arthur Dawson used to fiddle the weighbridge, going in and out. Bridges kept tally of tonnage carried weekly via the weighbridge, to ‘help’ the doddery old chap in the weighbridge (also in charge of overalls issue) we used to move the levers for him, always catching it on the upswing, punch the card and we’d carried an extra ton & a half every time. We obviously worked harder than anyone else…look at the weights! Ha ha worra fiddle!! Mind you we frequently came in with over 12 Ton on the 7 tonner after loading Visqueen at ICI Potato wharf. Talk about sway and standing up on the brakes!
I was pleased to hear Catty did so well, he was a good Mucker.
Tom.
P.S. I bet Paul- warniep, the op on this thread, is sorry he asked about Bridges!