Ray Smyth:
Hi Ropey Sheeter, Welcome to Trucknet. I have just read your very interesting post, and I wonder if
because you mentioned Canal Street, and red and white lorries, did Dad work for Jarvis Robinson Transport ?,
also in Canal Street was Thomas Wilson Transport whose fleet of lorries were deep maroon in colour.
I started a thread on here for Jarvis Robinson a couple of years ago. You mentioned Blackledges breadvans,
I remember their vans very well, and also Taylors breadvans from Buchanan Road in Walton.
I hope you manage to find some interesting pictures of local lorries and vans, please post them on here.
Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
Hi Ray
He was (to my knowledge at least) self employed at that time and had a yard where Maghull Coaches are now, next to the coopers.
I remember him talking about Jarvis Robinson and Wilson’s, I’ll have to ask me mum if he was employed by Wilson’s for a while. Would also explain the livery on the AEC/ERF that he had.
He also worked for Perris & Kearon, but I’m not sure of the dates.
As for Blackledges, besides working on the trees, as he put it, that was his favourite job. Was there a Bootle link with Blackledges? I remember his 1930s/wartime stories and one that always sticks out is of him being asked to go and buy the loaf that the cat had been lying on all day in the baker’s window.
I also recall a tale of a fella who was on the continent in a newer tractor (maybe an ERF) and he’d put pure methanol into the screenwasher bottle and eventually died at the wheel due to the cab heating circulating the fumes into his face. There was something about the recovery and identification of the drive that he was involved in, but it’s all a bit blurry now.
He was known as Tommy Von back then. Drank in The Railway on his dinner, which would explain all the Higsons beermats we had back home
Morris LD van with coachbuilt bodywork in the M.A.N.W.E.B. fleet in the early 1960s,
and a Leyland DAF 45 series van from the 1990s. The M.A.N.W.E.B. initials stand for
Merseyside And North Wales Electricity Board.
Ray Smyth.
Ray Smyth:
Morris LD van with coachbuilt bodywork in the M.A.N.W.E.B. fleet in the early 1960s,
and a Leyland DAF 45 series van from the 1990s. The M.A.N.W.E.B. initials stand for
Merseyside And North Wales Electricity Board.
Ray Smyth.
My dad would have been responsible for that 90s 45 series. He was chargehand at Manweb until he retired some time in the mid to late 90s. Said it was the best garage he’d worked in. No Baltic conditions with early hours diesel fog start ups. Loved training apprentices and mentoring them.
One of several Wholesale Fruit & Veg areas in Liverpool before the modern new wholesale market was
built in the late 1960s. These pictures are Roe Street & Queen Square wholesale markets in what looks
like the late 1940s or early 1950s, and the second picture looks more like the early 1960s.
A couple of hauliers in Liverpool had a mobile crane which occasionally would need to move
from one dock to another. From what I remember, the cranes were not taxed for road use,
so when a crane needed to move to a different dock, it would be attached to a ballast tractor
by a wire rope, and went for a steady trundle along the Dock Road, albeit under its own power.
Ballast tractors and drawbar trailers were a regular sight in Liverpool until the mid 1960s.
The origin of this James Gilmore AEC would be interesting to discover, it has a London number.
Photo by Arthur Ingram.
An S Type Bedford of James Rimmer of Liverpool, well loaded with what looks
like sacks of carrots or onions. Rimmers were a wholesale fruit & vegetable
company, and were possibly also farmers and growers. Large swathes of land
between Liverpool and Southport, known as the West Lancashire Plain are still
very large farms, and the name " Rimmer " is to be found a lot the area.
Ray Smyth.
Reading this site has brought back many memories from my time in the haulage industry in Liverpool, I started serving my diesel apprenticeship with Ulster Ferry Link Line, this company was made up of two companies, Ulster Ferry and Link Line, when they merged the name was eventually shortened to Ulster Link, the workshop I first worked in was in Cotton street opposite the Clarence dock, this was a dark and dismal place, we then moved to newer premises in Errington street and the container / vehicle park was in the next street, Holme street.
Northern Ireland Trailers also had an office / tranship yard in Errington street, all of the eggs from Ireland came through their yard, Ulster Link was part of the P & O group and we serviced vehicles belonging to Ferrymasters in our workshop.
Ropey Sheeter
You made mention of your Dad working for Perris and Kearon in Crown Street, my Dad was workshop foreman for them in the late 60’s early 70’s I have bought a photograph from a company called Reflections, 20thcenturyimages.co.uk this photograph taken from above the workshop of Perris and Kearon shows several vehicles, an E.R.F of A .Darlington ( Heswall ) Ltd, an Atkinson tipper of J.W. Rigby ( Garston ) and several other goods vehicles including two recovery vehicles belonging to Perris and Kearon.
Ray Smyth:
A couple of hauliers in Liverpool had a mobile crane which occasionally would need to move
from one dock to another. From what I remember, the cranes were not taxed for road use,
so when a crane needed to move to a different dock, it would be attached to a ballast tractor
by a wire rope, and went for a steady trundle along the Dock Road, albeit under its own power.
Ballast tractors and drawbar trailers were a regular sight in Liverpool until the mid 1960s.
The origin of this James Gilmore AEC would be interesting to discover, it has a London number.
Ray Smyth.
Ray, this is a well known photograph taken by Arthur Ingram. The AEC is a shortened Matador Mk.II, (4x2 model that pre-dated the WW2 O.853 4x4), and it was new to J. Lyons of Cadby Hall West London. The protruding radiator suggests that a Gardner 6LW had been fitted at some time, probably to replace an original AEC petrol engine.
Ray Smyth:
A couple of hauliers in Liverpool had a mobile crane which occasionally would need to move
from one dock to another. From what I remember, the cranes were not taxed for road use,
so when a crane needed to move to a different dock, it would be attached to a ballast tractor
by a wire rope, and went for a steady trundle along the Dock Road, albeit under its own power.
Ballast tractors and drawbar trailers were a regular sight in Liverpool until the mid 1960s.
The origin of this James Gilmore AEC would be interesting to discover, it has a London number.
Ray Smyth.
Ray, this is a well known photograph taken by Arthur Ingram. The AEC is a shortened Matador Mk.II, (4x2 model that pre-dated the WW2 O.853 4x4), and it was new to J. Lyons of Cadby Hall West London. The protruding radiator suggests that a Gardner 6LW had been fitted at some time, probably to replace an original AEC petrol engine.
Graham, Thank you for your interesting reply and comments, Kind Regards, Ray.
A typical sight in the 1950s and 1960s on the Dock Road in Liverpool.
The ERF Artic is in a long queue for unloading at the Canada Dock
and has what looks like a “Royal Warrant” symbol on the cab door.
Perhaps it is loaded with Royal Doulton Ceramics from Stoke On Trent.
Princes Landing Stage at the Pier Head in Liverpool in the early 1960s. It looks like the tide is in,
judging by the beams linked to the floating landing stage. Many Liverpool Corporation buses at the
Pier Head terminus, including one of several that were supplied unpainted, which remained like this
throughout their existence. A solitary lorry carrying what looks like an insulated container may have
been heading to the Isle Of Man ferry which is alongside at the landing stage. Between the two brick
walls beyond the buses is the Floating Roadway which went up and down with the tide.
Ray Smyth.
Another scene at the Princes Landing Stage in Liverpool, The Isle of Man Steam Packet Co
ferry “Monas Queen” is unloading a white minibus through one of its side loading doors.
Three other loading doors are on this side of the ship, and these are for when loading and
unloading at other ports which don’t have a floating landing stage, and depending on the
state of the tide. The black and white BMC FG van is nearing the bottom of the Floating Roadway.
Two more images of the Floating Roadway at the Pier Head in Liverpool.
The first picture shows Princes Landing Stage at low tide on the Mersey
at an earlier date than the second picture.
A Bedford of Walter Culling Ltd., crossing the junction of Duke Street and Berry Street
in Liverpool in the early 1960s. I am not certain, but I think that the Walter Culling firm
was one of many wholesale fruit and vegetable dealers in Liverpool. The Bedford has a
Belfast registration number, GZ 1114.
Ray Smyth.
Fordson Thames van of Lunts Bakery in Liverpool from about 1949.
I seem to remember that some of these vans had a V8 petrol engine.
The Mersey Group of North Western Gas Board had a large number of
“Bonneted” Ford Thames lorries, some had the V8 petrol engine, some
had a 4 cylinder petrol engine which we called a Cost Cutter, and the
later ones which were badged 4D had a 4 cylinder diesel engine under
the bonnet. The Ford Thames lorries of the Mains Department had a
canvas tilt body, Some of the Fords were 5 ton tippers carrying coke,
and some were artics with Scammell Hitch coupled to Brockhouse
tipper trailers. I worked on all of them at the vehicle maintenance
workshop at Bond Street, off Vauxhall Road. The 2nd picture is from
the late 1950s at Linacre Lane Gasworks in Bootle, Liverpool.
Click on 2nd picture for a better image.
This is Cazneau Street Wholesale Fruit & Veg Market in Liverpool in the early 1960s.
Some interesting print on the boxes of vegetables, Cucumbers from Lea Valley, and
boxes of veg from Robert Hunter from Banks, which is just up the A565 road from
Southport. Just a few miles further up the A565 is William Hunter, a major grower
of Produce, who also have a fine fleet of preserved lorries. Perhaps both of the
Hunter companies are connected ?. I imagine that some of Hunters lorries appear
here on Trucknet. Ray Smyth.
Most of the vehicles in the queue are heading for the tollbooths at the Mersey Tunnel in Liverpool.
The Morris/Austin/BMC and the Bedford appear to have just come along Whitechapel, having left
the wholesale fruit & vegetable market at Queen Square or Roe Street which are just to the left
of the picture. I cant make out the name on the Thorneycroft lorry, it may have also come from
the fruit market. The 2 Liverpool Corporation buses at the end of Victoria Street will be en route
to destinations toward the outskirts of the city. The Leyland PD2 bus on route 6C on the right is
about to go up Manchester Street, on its way to its terminus at Pier Head.
Ray Smyth:
Jarvis Robinson Transport vehicles carrying insulated containers, late 1950s or early 1960s.
Two heavy horses and a Morris Commercial ballast tractor.
The reason why horses prevailed in Liverpool was they jumped the queue at the docks . Animal welfare .
Elder Dempster Lines “Aureol” alongside at the landing stage in Liverpool.
Aureol was a cargo and passenger liner that regularly went to destinations
in West Africa from Liverpool. A lot of produce was brought to the UK on
this and the companies other vessels. We called them the “Banana Boats”.
The Royal Mail Austin/Morris van is loading incoming mail and parcels.
Click on picture for full image.
Ray Smyth.
