Bootiful !
Found this one.
Charles Alexander
My father drove for the Buckie Fish Company in a Commer 2 stroke flat and then an AEC Mercury with an insulated box and dry ice down to Hull, Grimsby and Billingsgate. I often went with him during school holidays and well remember them all. Wm. Taylor of Buckie, Lochinver Transport, Gibbs of Frazerburgh, Charles Alexander and Munroes of Aberdeen. I can smell the cafe parks now and you didn’t follow too close up Brough if it was sunny and there was a flat in front. The Mercury was a revelation in it’s day (1958) and my dad used to tell other drivers it was a tank with live fish inside to keep them fresh! Charles Alexander must have been a big firm then you saw them everywhere and very tidy they were too with up to date motors and you could tell their livery from far away and always got a wave when you were south of the border. The paintwork on most of the northern wagons was always more intricate and interesting and to go to that trouble with a fleet that size and a relatively quick turn round shows how well they must have been managed. Lovely memories - except for the smelly bree. Jim
Charles Alexander
hi you guys back in the late 70s early 80s i ran M6 A74, would chat to chas angels jammie dogger comes to mind he ran out of preston on nights down to london back to hatfield change trl up to brum change again then back to preston , then day man back to aberdeen would pass day man going south to preston , so his truck would do a trunk to glasgow so that truck works 24 hrs a day every day . don,t no how many trucks they had i used to save fleet nums as i see them never see number 1 was told it was the fitters van . dont think they went bust the were part of TDG they got rid lik e a few other companys entress of swansea binging one of them
Charlies changed over in Kendal on New Road for many years and I first recall noticing them in 60/61 when they ran a lot of AECMercury’s and their origional colour scheme was dark blue cab with a red band around the middle.They ran down overnight from Aberdeen and the Kendal drivers started at anytime between midnight and 3 or 4 am and they ran to Manchester,Sheffield and Liverpool IIRC,probably other places aswell.They would be back in Kendal by early/mid afternoon when the Aberdeen men would roll out the various digs,mainly Claras,and set off back to Aberdeen.The back loads were a bit of all kinds sometimes just a part load of empties.But the stink of fish where they parked was terrible probably because by the time they got down to Kendal the ice was starting to melt,except in winter of course,they also all carried a bar and occaisionally you would see one on “the bar” being dragged back up to Aberdeen,it may also have been “on the bar” for part of the journey south to it’s destination.Charlies foreman in Kendal during the late 50’s and through the 60’s was a chap called ? Cook (can’t just remember his first name at the moment doh!)could have been Arnold 
But I knew his son Ron who I bought some of my Merc cars from,very decent bloke.We had a number of ex Charlies drivers at Bewick Transport over the years,Charlies was a fair gruelling job so you could usually get a start as they were always wanting drivers,although they always seemed to have a regular core of drivers that stuck with them over the years.Those were the days though 
Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
Charlies changed over in Kendal on New Road for many years and I first recall noticing them in 60/61 when they ran a lot of AECMercury’s and their origional colour scheme was dark blue cab with a red band around the middle.They ran down overnight from Aberdeen and the Kendal drivers started at anytime between midnight and 3 or 4 am and they ran to Manchester,Sheffield and Liverpool IIRC,probably other places aswell.They would be back in Kendal by early/mid afternoon when the Aberdeen men would roll out the various digs,mainly Claras,and set off back to Aberdeen.The back loads were a bit of all kinds sometimes just a part load of empties.But the stink of fish where they parked was terrible probably because by the time they got down to Kendal the ice was starting to melt,except in winter of course,they also all carried a bar and occaisionally you would see one on “the bar” being dragged back up to Aberdeen,it may also have been “on the bar” for part of the journey south to it’s destination.Charlies foreman in Kendal during the late 50’s and through the 60’s was a chap called ? Cook (can’t just remember his first name at the moment doh!)could have been Arnold
hiya,
Don’t know how true this is but I was once told that the Charles Alexander’s
fish motors were fitted with Leyland Tiger coach diffs, I remember Fearing
Transport of Burnley acquiring an ex CA Leyland Comet and it would fly I
never had a go in it but it flew past me quite often,like I was parked up.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Bewick:
Charlies changed over in Kendal on New Road for many years and I first recall noticing them in 60/61 when they ran a lot of AECMercury’s and their origional colour scheme was dark blue cab with a red band around the middle.They ran down overnight from Aberdeen and the Kendal drivers started at anytime between midnight and 3 or 4 am and they ran to Manchester,Sheffield and Liverpool IIRC,probably other places aswell.They would be back in Kendal by early/mid afternoon when the Aberdeen men would roll out the various digs,mainly Claras,and set off back to Aberdeen.The back loads were a bit of all kinds sometimes just a part load of empties.But the stink of fish where they parked was terrible probably because by the time they got down to Kendal the ice was starting to melt,except in winter of course,they also all carried a bar and occaisionally you would see one on “the bar” being dragged back up to Aberdeen,it may also have been “on the bar” for part of the journey south to it’s destination.Charlies foreman in Kendal during the late 50’s and through the 60’s was a chap called ? Cook (can’t just remember his first name at the moment doh!)could have been Arnoldhiya,
Don’t know how true this is but I was once told that the Charles Alexander’s
fish motors were fitted with Leyland Tiger coach diffs, I remember Fearing
Transport of Burnley acquiring an ex CA Leyland Comet and it would fly I
never had a go in it but it flew past me quite often,like I was parked up.
thanks harry, long retired.
Aye there was a lot of good lads on for Alexander’s on the east side on the night run, down to Darlington and some to Lawsons at Londonderry,they did shift on down the A1,i heard the the same story about the diffs from them so it could be right.Vic.
Along with their mainly Blue with red stripe around IIRC they also had white cab roofs ! 
Cheers Bewick
dead right about the smell,they used to park up for a break alongside the river in kendal in the 60s,not good.Did trunk at wh malcolms preston to johnstone and return in the 70s, on return journey you always knew a charlie alexander was somewhere in front of you, and it always was.
ardennes:
dead right about the smell,they used to park up for a break alongside the river in kendal in the 60s,not good.Did trunk at wh malcolms preston to johnstone and return in the 70s, on return journey you always knew a charlie alexander was somewhere in front of you, and it always was.
They used to park up in East Linton when southbound and nip into the Red Lion pub for a wee one or two and then away.A friend of mine’s father ran that boozer and tells me the smell of fish watter took ages to disperse.
Just a random pic’ found, but they are all a memory jogger for someone 
, even the ‘Don Fishing Co. Ltd’ boxes could bring back memories of a particular job/delivery/collection . Regards Chris
adr:
Not got a clue where/when I took this, but it might ring bells with someone!
Looks like Ali Coopers Scania,i used to drive an old Volvo F88 KRS762P for a fish haulier in Fleetwood,that Ali once owned.
anyone got any photos of Charles Alexander’s motors, i have heard about them but i dunno what they’re motors look like.
i’ve heard a few stories about them as well.
Sort of silvery and blue, smelling strongly of fish. 
Something like this
But smelling strongly of fish
was there another company ran in those colors as well or was it part of that company . im sure i seen almost identical motors on here but it wasn’t charles alexanders.
Dunno but i think some Edinburgh or Glasgow (ish) company was almost the same but i cant remember the name