Anyone remember Hipwood and Grundy from Farnworth? They had a lot of tankers on black oil but some on general, they were also a clearing house. I wonder what happened to them?
Cliff
I remember the old Leyland Octopus tankers. I think they became H&G who were taken over by Swain
Hoyer took over the Ellesmere Port tanker operation in about 1991
Around 2000/2002 Stiller/Sadler tankers based some of their NorthWest motors in Hipwoods yard at Farnworth along with numurous other hauliers who had outbased vehicles.The transport side of Hipwood & Grundy did not exsist at that time, the yard was just a parking compound.
One from the Edmonton depot
Foden 8 wheeler with the Farnworth address (photo by P Davies)
Thanks for the response, I used to live in Farnworth when Hippys were at their peak, it is good to know what happened to them.
Cliff
A sizeable company in their day. In addition to the long serving Leyland Octopus tankers they had a large general haulage fleet and ran quite a number of night trunks to both London and Glasgow. They had the London office in addition to the head office and main depot at Farnworth. They folded in the 1990s after stretching themselves financially for several years before that by buying too many new lorries at the same time. The H & G firm was started by a couple of ex Hipwoods people and used the initials to trade on Hipwood’s good will, but as a company was nothing like Hipwoods had been in its pomp.
They ran a lot of V8 Mandators as well,twelve according to an excellent book I’ve got. 
Chris Webb:
They ran a lot of V8 Mandators as well,twelve according to an excellent book I’ve got.
Yes indeed, most of them ended up back at Southall in the AEC Works Transport fleet. 
The firm I worked for used hippys yard as a depot till moving to another location.All been developed now into houses and flats.Clockface pub still there tho.
regards dave.
I’m sorry to have to say that by the time Hoyer took the tankers over a lot of the kit was well past its “best before date”
We got a couple of cracking ERF B series with 320 ■■■■■■■ in them, they had been worked hard but were looked after well by H&G.
Hi Carlc I knew somewhere I had a picture of an H&G motor and today I was having a rummage and came across it, a scania 110, The reason I have this photo is that in my early days I also owned a 110 but it was a non sleeper with a five speed gearbox, I decided a little more comfort was in order so arranged for my truck to have a retro sleeper cab added, this work was carried out by a company called Unity Conversions and they were in Little Lever Street, Bolton, if my memory serves me well and they had converted the H&G truck and sent me the photographic evidence of there work, my god when I got there, they were in an old warehouse and I remember seeing a Scania 80 half done with the back of the cab cut off and began to think if had made a mistake but all turned out well in the end, cant remember how much it cost but it served me well, cheers Buzzer.
Hippies motor looks well Buzzer. Do you have a photo of your old 110. Did you live in the Bolton area?
Cliff
Buzzer that 110 scania is parked outside my old firms depot.
regards dave.
Hi Carlc I have two pictures of my 110 the first is loading at Manitou in France before the conversion and the second is waiting to offload outspan oranges at Superior at Offord Cluny, Huntingdon after the job was done cheers Buzzer.
PS. my 110 was a K reg 1971 and I thought the cab was huge, but nothing to the 480’s we are running today
Wrights Transport Bamber Bridge used to sub to them doing Waste Paper all around Bolton, Salford, Shotton ect.
They had at least 2 trucks every day when I worked in the Garage for Nick and Bob Wright.
Cheers Welly
The company and the depot ended up being owned by Elite Transport in Manchester, I think as part of an insurance against losing their operating facilities when they were still based in Manchester Containerbase. That would have been the early 2000s. The Hipwood & Grundy legal entity was wound up a year or two later
I think that I still have quite a bit of info from a former Transport Manager of Hipwoods that I will attempt to find. Just off the top of my head the original Hipwood & Grundy was formed in conjunction with the Lawton family afer partial de-nationalisation of transport in 1953. Jonathan Lawton of that same family became a very successful solicitor specialising in transport law.
gingerfold:
I think that I still have quite a bit of info from a former Transport Manager of Hipwoods that I will attempt to find. Just off the top of my head the original Hipwood & Grundy was formed in conjunction with the Lawton family afer partial de-nationalisation of transport in 1953. Jonathan Lawton of that same family became a very successful solicitor specialising in transport law.
Now there is a name from my past, Jonathon Lawton. Some evil b—ard wrote a poison pen letter to the Ministry and accused us of running bent, the long and the short of it was we had Mr Lawton take our case and although not cheap was worth every penny, he tied the court room up in knots and we actually had costs awarded. Good old days in the past best forgotten cheers Buzzer.
I worked for Hipwood and Grundy at their Edmonton Depot in Stacey Avenue London N18 I was on nights doing a change over trunk with a Bolton lad.