Does anyone know if the company Hulland Wards in Derby is still going ? The world and his brother used to go in there for return loads, in the 1970’s, they made paving slabs and kerb stones etc. I have never known a place to load you so quick, their fork lifts had grabs on which rotated when they put the slabs on your trailer.
It used to be a terrible place to come out of if it was your first time there, as you came out the gate you had to turn right to go back to the M1, but there was a hill immediately you turned right, so you had to hope that you got a good run out of the gate without stopping, as if you tried to change gear when you hit the hill, all your load of slabs would fall back like dominos . I saw this happen a couple of times. Did anyone ever pick up a load out of there ?
When I drove for Tilcon we used to take Limestone dust in there, at one time there was around 5 eight leggers doing 6 or 7 loads apiece daily plus the other wagons in the fleet would take a load up to finish their day off! I think that Longcliffe supply it nowadays, I am guessing that the amount produced these days is nothing compared to a few years ago.
Pete.
Hulland Products is now called Charcon, used to get really busy in there. I used to collect for Browns Builders Merchants from there, the main queue was on the left as you went down the yard but we used to load ex-works and were allowed to queue with the shunters on the right, so getting loaded in preference to the main queue, didn’t need pallets with having a crane on, otherwise you could be in there hours. It was only if we had to go down to the bottom of the yard and load Bradstone that we had to join the main queue there.
Hi I worked out of products many years sometimes doing two a day but we had loaded trailers. I had the first hiab in there on a regular basis(Harrisons) Stoke
That was in 1978. I’d worked for AT Richardsons in there 72/74ish.DO you remember the canteen pint mugs of tea for 3d The woman with blue hair was my mates mother in law she produced a stunning daughter.One friday after noon i was loading it was 3 30pm. There was 103 lorries infront of me mostly artics
there was 5 loaders i came out of the yard at 6 45 and the loaders had a quick tea break.
A mate of mine has just finished restoring a 1960 Thornyecroft. This lorry only ever carried flags and kerbs its in Hulland Products livery and out next Easter.
John
used to back load from their mainly stock for their place in south cerney
drove for bh freight downtons and ainsworth and martin out of their
when weighing out nearly always got a sweet from the skuse bird in the office
I used to load out of Hulland Ward in the mid 80’s on 40ft flats while on Lambert Bros Eastleigh, we’d tip ‘Boots’ (the chemist) at Beeston with baby milk and then run over through Derby for a backload of kerbs etc.
Always had return timbers in the landing leg braces, also used to load ECC/ Charcon at Coalville. Is that still going?
Loaded out of there a few times when working for the Wild Group in the early '70’s for mostly delivery to road building sites down south.
It may have been quick loading,but it was all handball at the other end!
That was the only problem with it, drops were normally to either building sites or local councils. With the building sites it would be unload a few hundred, then drive down the road a bit and unload a few hundred more etc, the two foot ones weren’t to bad, but the three foot slabs were a killer after a while.
If you had a short trailer ie 33ft. That wase’nt to bad 3fts was 2 full rows one each side. But 40 ft trailers you had 90 flags in the middle so you had to roll them twice to get
them off. I’ve been on good sites and tipped 420 (20 ton) flags of in under 20 mins (i was in my early 20s)and i had the knack as i used to do 2 loads a day sometimes.
I went to Newmarket Racecorse one day nice and flat slightly soggy 20 ton off in 18 mins, That was better than sitting in Tesco (Daventry)for 15 Hours and not even a cup of tea
supplied.If you had 2fts on a 40ft trailer loading was 2 rows of 60 on the headboard and 3 rows to the back of about 115 ending up with 465 lots of handball. Our return work was London brick P/Bro’gh 10 000 bricks all hand stack the driver +2 labour’s 2 hours graft.Ah Ah the good old days
John
Why did I always get the kerbs?
Mind you, I was as fit as a butchers dog in those days!
I REMEMBER loading out of Hulland Wards only once during the late 1980s but the firm I used to work for (Jwq Transport of Reading) has over the years done countless loads out of the place-as I remember it was in the middle of nowhere. Of course, there’s always one story that always springs to mind and this is it. A Jwq driver was backloading out of there for Slough, He found the site ok, got there about 12-45 and of course prepared himself for at least an hours lunchbreak. Anyway, a genial Irishman walked up to him in his cab and gave instructions where he wanted the artic for unloading, the said Irish chap proceded to start pushing off the slabs from one side of the flat off the other and straight onto the deck. Driver: “Hey mate you’re going to smash them all!” Unloader : “It’s ok they’re to be used for crazy paving!” Tickets were sighned and off we go! On arriving back in Reading it was found out that the said Irishman had just been sacked and as it was lunch hour no one knew what he was up to! How we all laughed, eventually.
mikey1964:
also used to load ECC/ Charcon at Coalville. Is that still going?
aye, as with Hulland ward, its still going, and now all falls under the ‘Aggregate Industries’ banner.
Thank you for the answer.
i loaded out of there this week! its called Aggregates now, (when i was given the address the bloke in the office who used to drive for Bartrums when my dad did, in the 70’s-80’s, said to ask my dad about it, i rang my dad and he couldnt believe they were still going, he said it was all handball) i loaded for a builders merchant at Waterbeach nr Cambridge, 25.5ton, the first forklift you see checks your paperwork and puts the relevant amount of pallets on trailer, the 2ndforktruck driver tells you where and how to lay the pallets out, then he loads you. luckily, it isnt hanball anymore!
kindle530:
i loaded out of there this week! its called Aggregates now, (when i was given the address the bloke in the office who used to drive for Bartrums when my dad did, in the 70’s-80’s, said to ask my dad about it, i rang my dad and he couldnt believe they were still going, he said it was all handball) i loaded for a builders merchant at Waterbeach nr Cambridge, 25.5ton, the first forklift you see checks your paperwork and puts the relevant amount of pallets on trailer, the 2ndforktruck driver tells you where and how to lay the pallets out, then he loads you. luckily, it isnt hanball anymore!
In the 80’s we used to have 8ft timber/bearers laid out across the bed and the kerbs or oblong slabs would be drop onto them, they always loaded with forklifts but it was common to have a handball tip and sometimes the groundworkers would want to bump them off all around a site.
A bit like GKN’s you’d have a chit for the timbers and they had to be returned or paid for at some point.
Marshalls at Brighouse is a good place to load as well, you just have to watch the road coming out and down the steep hill and bends.
kindle530:
i loaded out of there this week! its called Aggregates now, (when i was given the address the bloke in the office who used to drive for Bartrums when my dad did, in the 70’s-80’s, said to ask my dad about it, i rang my dad and he couldnt believe they were still going, he said it was all handball) i loaded for a builders merchant at Waterbeach nr Cambridge, 25.5ton, the first forklift you see checks your paperwork and puts the relevant amount of pallets on trailer, the 2ndforktruck driver tells you where and how to lay the pallets out, then he loads you. luckily, it isnt hanball anymore!
How long were you in there? And who did you see at the in gate? Chris? did you have all your safty gear? the jobsworth won’t let you in otherwise 
…Its not as bad this time of year for loading, but in the spring/summer, you can easily waste half a day in there I bloody hate the place.
you still sometimes get the bearers for the slabs, and get loaded by a clamp truck, depends on the customers requirements. All the site work is now done by the cranes, flats/curtainsiders will be just builders merchants and your favourite DIY stores.
I used to do load after load out of Products (thats what the regulars called it)I must of put 50 loads of kerbs between Thomas cooks office
A47 Peterbourough to Dogsthorpe brickworks A47 Wishbech rd. In stretches you would have 4 chaps on the trailer. I would select Super low (Foden)
the chaps slid the kerbs off in a string(Kerb layers slang)as i drove along for 200 yards then go to the otherside of the road and do the same.
You could tip in 20 mins or so.
(Try doing that nowadays with HSE)Then pop into London brick and back home easy.The bad drops was council yards you had to get close to a
loading bay and walk paving slabs off the trailer onto the loading bay it took for ever even with three chaps helping.In later days i had a crane
I could lift 30 flags or 52 kerbs at a time and be unloaded was easy but the the kerb layers wanted the kerbs put down in 9s at intervals this
made it so you was in and out of the cab like a idiot it was easier to string kerb likes years ago.What always made me smile kerbstones
travelled to every county in the uk, But from Hulland to Ashbourne or Hulland to Brailsford there was’nt a kerb to be seen except 1 or 2
in the edge bottom (oops)
John
Went to Hulland for job in 1970. They gave me a roadtest in old Foden four-speeder with splitter-box by right hand. Some kind of gate on main box, too, that you lifted so you could get reverse. Got back, examiner said I was fine, when do you want to start. Took a look at blokes lifting concrete slabs with hands as rough as the granite they were made from and declined the offer!
1 of the loads was a multidrop to Texas (remember them) it was just as they went bust or got taken over, the load ended up sitting in our yard for weeks, coincidentally around that time I did a lot of work in my back garden & renewed my front path 
