UKM 490 H was the sister to this vehicle (UKM 480 H)and both would have been registered in 1970. Round about 1976 one of the two failed its MOT at Hastings. Now this was something that would make Jack absolutely furious, easily enough for him to chuck his cap up in the air and then jump up and down on it going blank, blank, blank. Yes, this is one of the legends about him.
Why did it fail? When it was new, it had been fitted with the number plates for the other vehicle and both had been through several MOTs successfully!
As has been said, Jack is a fair man and although an MOT failure on something that should have been noticed would annoy him, if it failed on brake efficiency there was no complaint. He recognised that without a roller brake tester his fitters were not to blame. Jack also recognised that at this time the workshop facilities were not really up to the job of maintaining such a large fleet. When the ministry were due to come round for a fleet inspection, all the tractors etc. were moved out of the adjoining agricultural workshop to be replaced by the farm lorry and various trailers.
The Henley fleet had a reputation second to none at Hastings for their presentation. There wasn’t such a thing as a shabby Henley lorry. Jack was very lucky, he had absolutely excellent fitters: John Heady (foreman) David Colvin, Cyril Kingsnorth, Peter Golding, Alan Smith and Lee Skinner.
John Heady had come from the Alva car company and went on to become a field service engineer for Gardner. David Colvin had been a fitter at Maidstone and District bus co at Hawkhurst and went on to replace John as foreman. Cyril Kingsnorth was something of a local legend having been at Mumfords in Marden and moved on to Alan Lock’s at Headcorn. Peter Golding had come from Pump House Garage at
Sandhurst who maintained the Thomas Transport fleet he replaced David and later ran the workshop for S&S Transport at Tonbridge. Alan Smith went on to successfully start his own Commercial workshop in Marden . Lee Skinner returned to Edwin Shirley Trucking, who were then in Lamberhurst.
Brian and the fitters:
JYX came to Spelmonden for service. Brian had completed a defect sheet and requested that his lorry be returned with the usual grease all over the stering wheel and seats. When he got the lorry back, there on top of the engine cover, was an empty oil filter box containing the dirty grease that Peter had scraped off the 5th wheel.
good old few names from the workshop of the lads who done a first class job maintaining the lorries and trailers.
it was always company policy that the vehicles were maintained to the highest standard,and when they went into the workshop for servicing it wasnt unusual not to see the vehicle for a couple of days as nothing was left unturned and any preventative maintenance would be done or even if something was near the mark and would make it to the next service it was done whilst it was off the road.
as cav551 stated the vehicles were tested at hastings in east sussex,the vehicle was off the road on the friday for steam cleaning,then the following week the fitters would get to work on the vehicle going through it with a very fine tooth comb in time for the mot test which would always be the following friday after steam cleaning on the friday.
i spoke to cyril kingsnorth last year (now living in liskeard cornwall) he answered an ad i placed in cvc as i am trying to find a photo of the 6 wheeler atkinson hkr 260d that was in the 1966 motor show and my dad drove it from new.
cyril described the vehicle so well as if it was yesterday
rkj 160m (fleet no 16) was originally purchased by jack henley for use by henley transport co ltd.
after its working life it was pensioned off to become the farm lorry ( i have a feeling it replaced an old commer on the farm)
here the photo shows it was re signwritten h.p.henley ltd,spelmonden estate,goudhurst,kent.
Henley in the 70s hauled for several companies. Atcost in Paddock Wood and Charcon in Tonbridge made concrete industrial buildings and at the time were very busy. MLL 570 L was bought specifically for this work, but was specified with a 30 ft body so that it could carry a profitable load of fruit. Some of the beams required trombone trailers`of which I think there were three or four. Tyler mouldings in Tonbridge made fibreglass boats for which there were two or maybe three low loaders. Dempsons in Hermitage Lane Maidstone made paper bags and the AEC Mercury artics (5?) were engaged on this with single axle trailers which included a couple of Tautliners. The Hop Board in Paddock Wood produced a considerable amount of work especially in season and Brian was one of a select band of about six drivers skilled in loading Hops. Luis Gordon (Domecq Sherry) in Hart street Maidstone were another large customer and introduced us all to the joys of supermarket RDCs although it wasn’t as bad then.
Apart from the specific fruit off farm to destination, most fruit work came from Mack and Edwards in Paddock Wood and Norman Collett who were based in the yard at Paddock Wood. This would be London or provincial Markets or fruit and veg wholesalers throughout the country. A ‘Collett run’ would normally be five, six or more drops. I did Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Wakefield, Normanton, Cleckheaton and Leeds many times. These runs varied to suit the orders naturally. When Transfesa opened then that also became a major source of fruit work. I got banned from there for a while, but that’s another story.
Return loads from the North usually meant running into Charcon Products at Hulland Ward and freezing in the winter.
I am loving this thread all the old company names and trucks — although nothing to do with Henley’s I grew up in East Peckham and my father had coaches out the back of Queen Street. In the school holidays in the early 70’s I used to cycle from East Peckham to Dad’s yard to earn pocket money cleaning the coaches, the approved route was on the pavement across Brandbridges and down Torbay lane — over Beltring crossing and Laddingford way — the much quicker and definitely unapproved route was straight along and down Lucks Lane just before Paddock Wood. The latter meant I got to see close up of a great many Henley, Lowe’s etc chassis’s as they passed me pedalling like a bat out of hell.
cav551:
Henley in the 70s hauled for several companies. Atcost in Paddock Wood and Charcon in Tonbridge made concrete industrial buildings and at the time were very busy. MLL 570 L was bought specifically for this work, but was specified with a 30 ft body so that it could carry a profitable load of fruit. Some of the beams required trombone trailers`of which I think there were three or four. Tyler mouldings in Tonbridge made fibreglass boats for which there were two or maybe three low loaders. Dempsons in Hermitage Lane Maidstone made paper bags and the AEC Mercury artics (5?) were engaged on this with single axle trailers which included a couple of Tautliners. The Hop Board in Paddock Wood produced a considerable amount of work especially in season and Brian was one of a select band of about six drivers skilled in loading Hops. Luis Gordon (Domecq Sherry) in Hart street Maidstone were another large customer and introduced us all to the joys of supermarket RDCs although it wasn’t as bad then.
Apart from the specific fruit off farm to destination, most fruit work came from Mack and Edwards in Paddock Wood and Norman Collett who were based in the yard at Paddock Wood. This would be London or provincial Markets or fruit and veg wholesalers throughout the country. A ‘Collett run’ would normally be five, six or more drops. I did Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Wakefield, Normanton, Cleckheaton and Leeds many times. These runs varied to suit the orders naturally. When Transfesa opened then that also became a major source of fruit work. I got banned from there for a while, but that’s another story.
Return loads from the North usually meant running into Charcon Products at Hulland Ward and freezing in the winter.
Thanks for the info cav551-sounds like they kept the drivers busy
2 x seddon atkinson 300 double drive (6x4) rigids fitted with 28ft boalloy tauliners bko 520y and fke 580y (fleet nos 52 and 58 respectively).
fke 580y was new to the late bryan goldsmith who originally drove the atkinson defender mll 570l.
the vehicles are shown parked down one end of the hops marketing board yard who were henley transports neighbours,due to a restricted size yard at paddock wood in the old days the company had an arrangement where vehicles could be parked in their yard over the weekend from 3pm on fridays but had to be clear by 7.30am on mondays.
some photos will follow at a later date taken on a weekend with the vehicles parked in the hops marketing board premesis
cav551:
Hello Gazzaman,
Did you know the lads in Arnold motors workshop in Smithers Lane: Tony Sales, Lofty and Ken Underdown?
Remember Tony Sales and Lofty, and Ken Underdown sounds familiar, my dad was Frank Wood who worked I think for a short time at Smither Lane before going to Milsteads along Hale Street then starting a driving school.
I should have added that there was another source of work that kept two vehicles busy for a lot of the year. The late Roy Pilbeam drove one of the ■■■■■■■ L reg ERFs (620?) and CKO 250K a Gardner LV ERF was driven by someone whose name escapes me. These two vehicles ran everyday with bulk tipping trailers carrying Cider apples to Shepton Mallet and back to reload for the next morning. These vehicles had to be serviced at the weekends. CKO was written off in an accident on the M27 eventually.
RKJ 160M was taken over new by Roy Podd if I am right. He had been used to the AEC Mercury 4 wheelers and wasn’t much impressed by the performance of its Gardner 6LW20. Some time later John Heady arranged for a Gardner field service engineer to come out and give it a few tweaks. RKJ 160 M still exists on the preservation scene.
160 had a sister vehicle which was I think 180M . This was based at Nickle Farm Chartham and driven by Dennis Mills ( now a semi-retired shunter at Gomez for Coolchain). This had a Gardner 180 and pulled a drawbar trailer (a proper one not one of these modern toys). He went every night to the London Markets, leaving the trailer at one, once it was empty and returning after tipping the rest on the lorry. It became known that other companies’ drivers were making enquiries as to what engine it had, because it was so quick solo.
c51 jfw an man 22.321 tractor unit (fleet no 51) shown here coupled to a pacton tandem axle trailer and an insuliner body made by boalloy powered by a petter refridgeration unit.
the unit was allocated brand new to paul newton a spelmonden (goudhurst) driver one of pauls regular runs was western international fruit market in west london and then down to waitrose at bracknell for 6am,which necessitated the produce be kept chilled the normal temperature would be +5 degrees for supermarket work.
the photo shows the lorry parked in hop pocket lane in paddock wood,to the rear of the trailer in the distance the sign for the hop pocket pub can be seen.
also seen in the photo is the rha sticker in the windscreen,jack henley was a very staunch rha man,also can be seen is the ta sticker which showed that henley transport co ltd were members of the transport association.
Hi Chris… you mentioned Reg Greenfield. Just before he died he lent me a pile of photos, i dont know if you’ve seen them but i’ll put a couple on. Their not the best quality but well worth a look. R.I.P Reg.
Mark R:
Reg Greenfield with his Mack liveried ERF.
hello mark,
the late reg greenfield himself,he was one of the larger than life characters at henleys,2 things i always will remember reg for firstly you never had a dull moment when he was around and secondly he always had his camera with him,his photo collection must have been something else.
likewise mark we both had the pleasure of working with reg although on opposites side of the coin.
many years ago when we got involved in pulling fruit out of sheerness docks back to paddock wood for storage for our customer richard hochfeld ltd,as we were relatively new to this as is always seemed to be woods domain,we had a runner in the docks but we couldnt get hold of him whilst roy hook and myself were involved in a meeting with richard hochfeld ltd who were after a progress report,bearing in mind we were talking late 80s so not a lot of hand held mobiles about,i then had the idea of speaking to reg who i knew was in sheerness docks at the time,within a couple of minutes reg came back with a bloody good progress report as always with reg it started the situation is …,after that if anyone wanted to know anything it was always said ask reg!
god bless reg and rip it was a pleasure to have known you
EMA 876 an ERF C15 was the first lorry Jack bought for preservation. I accompanied Alan Smith to Lloyd’s of Ludlow to look over the lorry prior to Jack buying it. We naturally took it for a test drive, which was quite entertaining to say the least, because it has a centre throttle and a very low header rail. Subsequent to this we went to a couple of rallies for Jack with it. One being to Cranfield. ■■■■ (forgotten name) came with his camper van which was very welcome for the overnight. The next day the camper’s engine failed, so with a bit of difficulty we managed to piggyback it home and discretely unload it before Jack noticed.
1st Northern depot:
■■■■ had been based at Henley’s yard at Charcon buildings in Newark, driving one of the two ‘canaries’ (yellow and blue Charcon paintwork) LKM (350?)F (an AEC 4 wheeler with a very distinctive engine note like a London bus) and an LV ERF. (VKO 520J maybe?) When the yard closed, ■■■■ moved down to Spelmonden and lived in the cottage alongside the lorry shed. Fairly soon afterwards he was given the first 8LXB ERF B series to come home. This didn’t go down particularly well with some of the drivers who reckoned it should have been their’s. Nothing new there then!
Fleet numbers:
As Chris has said these normally matched the registration number in tens. However, vehicles were seldom referred to by this number except maybe in the office. Usually it was by the full number 620, or number and suffix etc. However certain waggons seemed to be called by their letters JYX, HKP,SYF, particularly at Goudhurst.
Cyril Kingsnorth had a seemingly sensitive ear and could predict which lorry it was coming down the road to the workshop, JYX and LKM were easy as was the ■■■■■■■ Atkinson Alec Hay drove, but Cyril could do it with many more.
IIRC, Henley`s did a trailer change @ Leicester Forest East services every afternoon, this must have been around the early 80s onwards ?
I can also remember Henley`s @ Waitrose in Bracknell, parked on the waste ground / truck park, which is now another one of their DCs, with those curtainsider fridges, plenty of head scratching from non produce drivers IIRC
just to put you out of the misery of trying to recall his surmane it was richard harris.
cav551:
EMA 876 an ERF C15 was the first lorry Jack bought for preservation. I accompanied Alan Smith to Lloyd’s of Ludlow to look over the lorry prior to Jack buying it. We naturally took it for a test drive, which was quite entertaining to say the least, because it has a centre throttle and a very low header rail. Subsequent to this we went to a couple of rallies for Jack with it. One being to Cranfield. ■■■■ (forgotten name) came with his camper van which was very welcome for the overnight. The next day the camper’s engine failed, so with a bit of difficulty we managed to piggyback it home and discretely unload it before Jack noticed.
1st Northern depot:
■■■■ had been based at Henley’s yard at Charcon buildings in Newark, driving one of the two ‘canaries’ (yellow and blue Charcon paintwork) LKM (350?)F (an AEC 4 wheeler with a very distinctive engine note like a London bus) and an LV ERF. (VKO 520J maybe?) When the yard closed, ■■■■ moved down to Spelmonden and lived in the cottage alongside the lorry shed. Fairly soon afterwards he was given the first 8LXB ERF B series to come home. This didn’t go down particularly well with some of the drivers who reckoned it should have been their’s. Nothing new there then!
Fleet numbers:
As Chris has said these normally matched the registration number in tens. However, vehicles were seldom referred to by this number except maybe in the office. Usually it was by the full number 620, or number and suffix etc. However certain waggons seemed to be called by their letters JYX, HKP,SYF, particularly at Goudhurst.
Cyril Kingsnorth had a seemingly sensitive ear and could predict which lorry it was coming down the road to the workshop, JYX and LKM were easy as was the ■■■■■■■ Atkinson Alec Hay drove, but Cyril could do it with many more.
cav551:
EMA 876 an ERF C15 was the first lorry Jack bought for preservation. I accompanied Alan Smith to Lloyd’s of Ludlow to look over the lorry prior to Jack buying it. We naturally took it for a test drive, which was quite entertaining to say the least, because it has a centre throttle and a very low header rail. Subsequent to this we went to a couple of rallies for Jack with it. One being to Cranfield. ■■■■ (forgotten name) came with his camper van which was very welcome for the overnight. The next day the camper’s engine failed, so with a bit of difficulty we managed to piggyback it home and discretely unload it before Jack noticed.
1st Northern depot:
■■■■ had been based at Henley’s yard at Charcon buildings in Newark, driving one of the two ‘canaries’ (yellow and blue Charcon paintwork) LKM (350?)F (an AEC 4 wheeler with a very distinctive engine note like a London bus) and an LV ERF. (VKO 520J maybe?) When the yard closed, ■■■■ moved down to Spelmonden and lived in the cottage alongside the lorry shed. Fairly soon afterwards he was given the first 8LXB ERF B series to come home. This didn’t go down particularly well with some of the drivers who reckoned it should have been their’s. Nothing new there then!
Fleet numbers:
As Chris has said these normally matched the registration number in tens. However, vehicles were seldom referred to by this number except maybe in the office. Usually it was by the full number 620, or number and suffix etc. However certain waggons seemed to be called by their letters JYX, HKP,SYF, particularly at Goudhurst.
Cyril Kingsnorth had a seemingly sensitive ear and could predict which lorry it was coming down the road to the workshop, JYX and LKM were easy as was the ■■■■■■■ Atkinson Alec Hay drove, but Cyril could do it with many more.
Stanley Mitchell:
IIRC, Henley`s did a trailer change @ Leicester Forest East services every afternoon, this must have been around the early 80s onwards ?
I can also remember Henley`s @ Waitrose in Bracknell, parked on the waste ground / truck park, which is now another one of their DCs, with those curtainsider fridges, plenty of head scratching from non produce drivers IIRC
Always a great advert for UK haulage IMO…
the company done all manner of change overs throughout the years with the rochdale depot.
3 change overs at night 1st either corley services of maple leaf trading estate walsall the northbound load would be mainly for manchester wholesale market then filled out with local wholesalers in north lancs area and possibly day drops.
2nd either corley services or maple leaf again the northbound load being preston market then down to liverpool market and filled out with other drops.
3rd either leics forest or trowell services the northbound load being leics mkt,notts mkt,sheffield mkt,bradford mkt, leeds mkt then swap with a day man and then the vehicle would continue over to hull mkt
the southbound load were for the likes of proctor & gamble ,lever bros or mcbrides all to rdcs depending on the delivery slots sometimes the night men would have to tip out after the changover on the way home this would determine where as to how far the paddock wood men went up.
change overs were done during the day on supermarket work a trailer from paddock wood would change at leics forest or trowell and continue through to say sainsburys at rotherham or tescos at doncaster and like wise on the other side of the country with loads going up to sainsburys at middleton
