cant remember the exact year,but must have been 68/9ish,during a dock strike at liverpool (again) i was sent with 15ton of handball bags to a dock id never heard off,felixstowe quay was on the notes,now having been used to liverpool ways! and its size,i thought ,this is a good start,no dock,no ship name, no closeing date etc, i managed after a few directions,down this narrow road,to locate “the dock”, it turned out to be about 5 tin sheds on a short wharf,with a couple of coasters tied-up. i hadnt even t/off the motor,when this chap came out of the shed and said "are you the driver from bristol with bags for export! yea i said thats me,ok he says pull into the shed and well sort you out,so i pulls in fully expecting the usual liverpool stunt , a pile of palletts and a checker hiding behind a post,while i handballed the lot off my-self. i jumped out ready to start unsheeting,when the same bloke says to me,!there is a small canteen round the back,go and have a cup and breakfast,and well see you later so about 30 mins later, and after a free breakfast,i went back into the shed to make a start, only to find the whole lot off,the sheets folded.and the notes signed!!
needless to say i was even less impressed the next time i went to liverpool!!
park your wagon on your sheets and your bed on your boots
Those tin sheds used to house seaplanes during the war,and they were (are?) still there,or some of them up until a few years ago.
Around the late 60’s-early 70’s my brother was a mechanic at Ancliff’s in Felixstowe,the yard was next to the dock basin and right next door to The Little Ships pub (where he spent an awful lot of time propping up the bar) and I often used to jump in the cab of a Seddon,Atki Borderer or Scania 110 and accompany him to the tin sheds to drop a tank for export.
HMC&E used to use one of the sheds for inspection when you came off the Townsend-Thoresen ferry from Europoort or Zeebrugge,and behind a high fence within the shed was all the stuff that had been confiscated,as well as a few cars and a couple of units.
aidey:
Shame they dont give as good a service as that now.
the only bad thing that happened from my 1st visit to felixstowe was that i was never sent there again!! ,something to do with wrong type of ship and wrong destinations!..trunkera1
park your wagon on your sheets and your bed on your boots
I can recall coming into Felixstowe in the early 70s from Holland and I had the samson, at that time they used to train the customs officers there and this particular day I made a comment to the “lady” supervising a trainee which she seemed to be offended by and was immediately informed that I was to be shaken down by the black gang which took a fair bit of time they even deflated the spare wheels and searched in side the only thing they did not take out was the roof lining but it did learn me to keep my gob shut well with the customs anyway.
,something to do with wrong type of ship and wrong destinations!..trunkera1