.
.
Hi georgeking, Yeowarts & Kirkpatricks were taken over by Stagecoach, I can,t remember just how Stevensons were broken up after Reggies sudden death but younger members of the family started up again. Billy Messenger sold out to Angie & Liam Walker a couple from Carlisle who still trade as Messengers operating out of John Irvings yard at Mealsgate. Cheers L 600.
georgeking:
A bit off topic but does anyone remember these coach companies based in ■■■■■■■■■Yeowarts - Whitehaven
Stephensons - Maryport
Kirkpatrick - Brigham
Messengers - AspatriaThe first three were taken over by Stagecoach and I believe that Messengers are now based at H & ME Fearons old depot at Mealsgate.
Hello mgeorgeking
I don’t really like busses but I can help you out about Stephensons. Stephensons packed up in 2004 when the owner of the business sadly died. But not long after, the founders son, George Stephenson, started a small minibus company operating from Stephersons old yard. This didn’t last long as his liecence was revoked and the business closed in early 2005.
As for Messengers, they where bought out by the Walker family in 2005 and the business was moved from Aspatria,
to Mealsgate Stationwhere they share some of the Yard & Warehousing with Irving Transport Ltd, Lattimers & ■■■■■■■ Paint Products Ltd.
Hope this helps george
Kindest regards
CG
Think you’ll be the one to know Gill, who’s is the yard in Bigrigg where there’s always a very tidy 8 legged Scania tipper parked behind the gate? Whenever I go past at night I look but can’t see the doors enough to get the name off it.
dew:
Think you’ll be the one to know Gill, who’s is the yard in Bigrigg where there’s always a very tidy 8 legged Scania tipper parked behind the gate? Whenever I go past at night I look but can’t see the doors enough to get the name off it.
Hello dew
It might be W G & GP Forster of Aspatria, who operate one Scania 8 wheel tipper from E Moorhouse & Son’s yard (another local haulage company), which is on the main road through Bigrigg. As far as I know, Moorhouse don’t operate a Scania in there 7 strong fleet of lorries, but I know Forsters have based a lorry there for years.
Hope this help dew
Kindest regards
CG
That’s the one I think - Fosters on the lightbar gives it away. I always thought it was white but in the orange street lights it can throw the colours out.
georgeking:
A one time West ■■■■■■■ had lots of open cast mines, Peter Greggains of Maryport had most of the haulage contracts except one Wimpey Mining, who had their own fleet of orange Leyland Bison 6x4 tippers. Apparently JR Graham of Workington (of Roller Disco and Garage fame) had the Wimpey Mining haulage contract however they had a disagreement with Wimpey, so Wimpey bought there own fleet. Eventually someone from Chesterfield called Pugh Lewis won this contract, (not Peter Greggains!) they used yellow Magirus Deutz 8x4 tippers.I remember:-
Wimpey Mining at Clifton,
Shepherd Hill at Dearham,
Miller Mining at Prospect,
alas there are no more open cast mines in West ■■■■■■■■
Aren’t there plans afoot to “opencast mine” the old MOD site at Broughton Moor? and anyway,how much more coal and Iron ore are still lying under W. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ a lot I would think. Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
georgeking:
A one time West ■■■■■■■ had lots of open cast mines, Peter Greggains of Maryport had most of the haulage contracts except one Wimpey Mining, who had their own fleet of orange Leyland Bison 6x4 tippers. Apparently JR Graham of Workington (of Roller Disco and Garage fame) had the Wimpey Mining haulage contract however they had a disagreement with Wimpey, so Wimpey bought there own fleet. Eventually someone from Chesterfield called Pugh Lewis won this contract, (not Peter Greggains!) they used yellow Magirus Deutz 8x4 tippers.I remember:-
Wimpey Mining at Clifton,
Shepherd Hill at Dearham,
Miller Mining at Prospect,
alas there are no more open cast mines in West ■■■■■■■■Aren’t there plans afoot to “opencast mine” the old MOD site at Broughton Moor? and anyway,how much more coal and Iron ore are still lying under W. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ a lot I would think. Cheers Dennis.
Derwent Forest? Been doing a bit of reading about that site lately, looks a very interesting place.
Leyland600:
Hi Bewick, I started hauling Marchon products through an introduction to BRS Howgate (Manager, the late Gordon Meldrum) via RW in 1964. This was just after H&L started up circa 1963 by ■■? Holloway from Scunthorpe and Alec Lavery who was BRS Howgate manager. Marchon traffic was divided between BRS and H&L but numerous others owner drivers were in direct, Jimmy (Squeak) O Neil, carrying drums, Joe Dial, Henry Turner all Aspatria,Duncan Hill, Joe Routledge, Billy Pattinson both Plumbland, Working regularly through BRS were, A.D. Boyes, Tyson Burridge, Donnie Bewick, Hector Johnston, ■■■■ (Snowball) Stamper of Dearham, ■■? Goodfellow, Cleator Moor, F. Caunce, Rufford, B.Mandale, Greystoke, H&L had a nucleus of sub contractors, Johnston Bros ( part of that company being taken over by H&L) Tonkin of Egremont, Memory getting hazy but I will ask an ex BRS friend who certainly will know who else was involved. DEC work was also shared by BRS and H&L. I seem to remember H&L did not last too long perhaps until1969 or thereabouts and some H&L office staff returned to BRS and managed the depot until closure circa 1973 when most of the aformentioned hauliers went direct into Marchon, ADB to DEC. By this time I was working direct out of Blue Circle at Marchon and was really out of touch with what went on along the road. A terrific amount of soap powder and soapy derivatives in bags, kegs and drums plus liquids carried by Harold Wood, Tyburn, and various others was hauled in and out during those years… After humble beginnings on Whitehaven dockside in 1939-40 making firelighters Fred Marsilliease and Frank Schon developed a huge multi national company Whitehaven becoming the largest Sulphuric Acid plant in the world. Marchon themselves had a sizeable fleet of AEC Mercury and Marshall flats and boxvans plus Mammoth Major tankers, also two or three Jensens in the early days. They went on to own three ships running phosphate rock from North Africa to Whitehaven thus requiring a fleet of AEC Mammoth Major tippers then Mandators later Atkinson Borderers and some ERFs I think.
Hope this puts you in the picture, Cheers Leyland 600.
Hi Leyland600. I went into Marchon stacks of times in the 70s when on tankers. Here’s a couple of photos out of a book about that company.
An AEC MK5 tipping phosphate rock ex the docks…
A Marchon Atki Borderer tipping molten sulphur ex Workington Docks.
[
Hi Chris, Yes there was a vast amount of tanker traffic in and out of Marchon during the 1970s, the whole site created an awful lot of work for ■■■■■■■■ and other hauliers, Those were good times then not as much red tape then. Cheers L 600.
dew:
That’s the one I think - Fosters on the lightbar gives it away. I always thought it was white but in the orange street lights it can throw the colours out.
Hello dew
I’m glad its the right company. Forsters always have a great fleet but I’ve been told that they aren’t very good to work for.
Kindest regards
CG
Leyland600:
Hi Chris, Yes there was a vast amount of tanker traffic in and out of Marchon during the 1970s, the whole site created an awful lot of work for ■■■■■■■■ and other hauliers, Those were good times then not as much red tape then. Cheers L 600.
I don’t know who sent me this but I know the Atki is being loaded with phosphate rock.
.
.
georgeking:
I’m not sure if anyone remembers ■■■■■■■■■■ Motor Services they were a state owned bus which ran bus and coach services through West ■■■■■■■ they had bus stations at Maryport, Millom, Keswick, Wigton, Workington and Whitehaven, the later being their head office. I estimate that they had around 150 buses (this is a wild guess!) they were part of the National Bus Company before they were privatised.The East of ■■■■■■■■ Carlisle, Penrith, Kendal, used a different bus company called Ribble Motor Services who were a large regional bus operator, based in Preston, they were also part of the National Bus Company before they were privatised.
Barrow In Furness had their own fleet of buses can’t remember the name though.
Alston appeared to use neither of these companies, but instead it had a private business named Wright Bros who provided a local bus service.
Barrow Corporation ran their own fleet of Cream over Blue Leyland PD3’s and these were open platform deckers.Their Coach fleet traded as Hadwins.Stagecoach took over the Barrow town services and Shaws of Silverdale took the Coach side over becoming Shaw-Hadwin for a while and are now known as Travellers.Cheers Dennis.
George, Have you forgotten about Jack Armstrong from Dearham who had a Commer TS3 furniture van on contract haulage to M.Hackney (now Sealy Beds) at Aspatria hauling mattresses all over Britain along with the late Norman Dowell from Wigton who had a similar contract.
Leyland 600
No Dennis , Barrow never ever ran Leyland Titan PD 3s (30 footers) they had a variety of PD2s the latest being PD2As with St Helens style radiator grills all the previous PD 2/3s (10) and 2/40s (10) had traditional exposed radiators all 26ft 6in or 27footers with Park Royal bodies exept the 10 PD 2A/27s which had Massey Bros bodys I think. Certainly a very elegant fleet and well maintained.
Cheers Leyland 600.
.
georgeking:
Bewick:
Aren’t there plans afoot to “opencast mine” the old MOD site at Broughton Moor? and anyway,how much more coal and Iron ore are still lying under W. ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ a lot I would think. Cheers Dennis.It will be become a leisure development, someone suggested an open cast however people were up at arms at the thought of an open cast! They welcome a nuclear storage depot similar to the one at Drigg but not a coal mine.
The area around Dearham and Broughton Moor has a rich mining industry, the remains of the Birkby and Allbright Mine can still be seen, to the people of Dearham it is known as “Mother Pit”.Here is a photo taken of it by a local historian called Russell W Barnes.
Dearham is a mixed mining and farming village with quite a large population of around 2500 people, it is made up of four areas:-
Top End, Middle End (Browside), Bottom End and Row Brow the first two areas are certainly mining areas whereas the last two are farming areas.There were quite a few haulage businesses connected to Dearham:-
1.) Stampers were based at Woodside Farm they had about 10-12 vehicles hauling cattle and chemicals from Marchon etc
2.) Eric Nicholson is now based at Woodside Farm, they have about 40 vehicles based there not too sure who they haul for
3.) Pattinson’s ran two Scania 86 6x2’s has sub contractors to Duncan Hill they were based in the Went
4.) Duncan Hill started his business in Dearham
5.) Tommy and Martin Fawkes had a Seddon 4x2 and then a Fiat 4x2 cattle truck apparently they built up the fleet to three vehicles after I left Dearham and then packed in
6.) Eric Edmondson an owner driver bought a Scania 82 off H & ME Fearon and became a subcontractor to Sealy Beds at Aspatria
7.) Fred Thompson the ex transport manager of Sealy Beds at Aspatria set up around 1980 with a Dodge artic and a Ford Transit pick up, he soon packed in though
8.) Steven Irving the son of John Irving of Mealsgate lived in Fred Thompson’s old house for many years
9.) Hodgson and Bailey were a very successful firm of waste paper merchants who were based on Central Road until they moved to Maryport, they were eventually taken over by Thompson Board Mills of Little Salkeld Penrith and then closed down. They had 4 or 5 Bedford 4X2TK’s
10.) Paul Hodgson who is a frequent poster on here runs a successful tipper businessThere was also a pallet company called HD Pallets Ltd they made wooden pallets.
Near to Dearham was Dennis’s old friend HT Thompson of Bullgill.
Hello george king
What an excelent list marra, but what about.
- Frankie Dempster runs a fleet of two Scania tippers based at Dearham.
- Messers Fawkes. The company still runs 3 lorries at the same operating centre as Frankie Dempster. Haulage work is mainly for farms.
- Peter Bell runs a fleet of 3 Scania’s based at Slatefell Motors in Mid Town. Haulage work for Thompsons Plant Hire.
As for Eric Nicholson, he does haulage work for ACP Concrete Blocks (Flimby) & JPR Feeds (Aspatria & Longtown).
Kindest regards
CG
