Old Cafe's

[old_67]

Has anyone still got their “little red book” with a list of all the transport digs and cafes in?
This is a page from mine,ring any bells ?

[retired_old_fart]

Wish I still had mine. And all sorts of other paraphernalia that my mother/various wives called “rubbish”. If I could dig down fifty feet in the council tip…

[marshman]

A page out of my home made one. Mrs Watzman was known as Doris Day because she was always singing. Spencer Place was part of the stamping ground of the Yorkshire Ripper

[transporter_man]

old 67:
0Has anyone still got their “little red book” with a list of all the transport digs and cafes in?
This is a page from mine,ring any bells ?

Wish I still had mine sure it was green. A few blasts from the past on them two pages, we were regular at The Almel, Normans & the Haven where the Little Chief is now.

[prattman]

I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

[carl_williams]

prattman:
I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

Hi that brings back memories, I never went in, but if you stood on the roof of our offices at Green Lane Industrial Estate you could see it. Watsons were just on the left hand corner as you came into the estate so they must have known their drivers were killing time before returning home. i cannot understand why they allowed it. We certainly wouldn’t. My thoughts always was if a driver did the work required for the day and got back early, pay him and let him go home, but I always suspeted that Watson’s problem was they were not giving their drivers a full days work.

Also if you remember at the back of the cafe was a sort of caravan park

Carl

[v7victor]

Carl Williams:

prattman:
I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

Hi that brings back memories, I never went in, but if you stood on the roof of our offices at Green Lane Industrial Estate you could see it. Watsons were just on the left hand corner as you came into the estate so they must have known their drivers were killing time before returning home. i cannot understand why they allowed it. We certainly wouldn’t. My thoughts always was if a driver did the work required for the day and got back early, pay him and let him go home, but I always suspeted that Watson’s problem was they were not giving their drivers a full days work.
Carl,did you ever go up on your roof to check on if your lads were in ?
Also if you remember at the back of the cafe was a sort of caravan park

Carl

[carl_williams]

v7victor:

Carl Williams:

prattman:
I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

Hi that brings back memories, I never went in, but if you stood on the roof of our offices at Green Lane Industrial Estate you could see it. Watsons were just on the left hand corner as you came into the estate so they must have known their drivers were killing time before returning home. i cannot understand why they allowed it. We certainly wouldn’t. My thoughts always was if a driver did the work required for the day and got back early, pay him and let him go home, but I always suspeted that Watson’s problem was they were not giving their drivers a full days work.
Carl,did you ever go up on your roof to check on if your lads were in ?
Also if you remember at the back of the cafe was a sort of caravan park

Carl

Hi Victor

No because if they were they were on their own time, because when they came back in they clocked on and were paid extra for any hours they worked in our place Thorn or Courtauds etc.,
But I did have to get up on the roof from time to time, because when we built the local authority planners demanded we built with a flat roof, as they did in the early seventies. This was a very bad idea, and in our case the side walls were extended up and it was supposed to be made so the water would stay on the roof and the effect was we had an Olympic sized swimming pool up there, and water being what it is eventually found weak spots and was constantly leaking. We had a court case with the architect and the builder for faulty design and workmanship, and I often had to go up, in one case with a solicitor. What a wonderful view but quite frightening getting down as it was very high.
Hope you’re keeping well
Carl

[haddy]

jmc jnr:
Before being by-passed Red Lodge was always busy with 3 transport cafes a pub and a happy eater. The first cafe going london way they kept the bread ready buttered in a drawer below the till and I only went in once. The next one on the right wasa modern affair and clean. Then Red Lodge cafe which was some old railway carriages and a very busy pin ball machine. Anybody remember the big old girl that went round the wagons with the newspapers? I heard she went to heaven one day crossing the road. I used to use the Four Wentways, The Coronation or Harolds for my first or last coffee according to which route out of East Anglia I was using. I never used the A12 but preferred the A131 and occasionally stopped in Alpheton. Can’t remember any of their names - bet Haddy does. Jim

I can’t remember the old girl with the newspapers Jim, could have been before my time. I have used those cafes since the '60s and, before the by-pass, the A11 went past the front doors and it was a bit dodgey crossing the road from the park to go in the Red Lodge. The Snug had a park round the back. The Roadhouse,further back towards Norwich, was “a bit rough” to say the least.
Come to think of it, Nobby, who kept The Snug, lost his oldest son Arnold in a car accident just down the road from the cafe. This would have been in the '60s. Nobby’s other two sons, Kenny and David carried on working in the cafe till it closed in the early '80s.
I’ve a couple of photos that I’ll scan and put on here when I get time. Regards Haddy.

[v7victor]

Carl Williams:

v7victor:

Carl Williams:

prattman:
I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

Hi that brings back memories, I never went in, but if you stood on the roof of our offices at Green Lane Industrial Estate you could see it. Watsons were just on the left hand corner as you came into the estate so they must have known their drivers were killing time before returning home. i cannot understand why they allowed it. We certainly wouldn’t. My thoughts always was if a driver did the work required for the day and got back early, pay him and let him go home, but I always suspeted that Watson’s problem was they were not giving their drivers a full days work.
Carl,did you ever go up on your roof to check on if your lads were in ?
Also if you remember at the back of the cafe was a sort of caravan park

Carl

Hi Victor

No because if they were they were on their own time, because when they came back in they clocked on and were paid extra for any hours they worked in our place Thorn or Courtauds etc.,
But I did have to get up on the roof from time to time, because when we built the local authority planners demanded we built with a flat roof, as they did in the early seventies. This was a very bad idea, and in our case the side walls were extended up and it was supposed to be made so the water would stay on the roof and the effect was we had an Olympic sized swimming pool up there, and water being what it is eventually found weak spots and was constantly leaking. We had a court case with the architect and the builder for faulty design and workmanship, and I often had to go up, in one case with a solicitor. What a wonderful view but quite frightening getting down as it was very high.
Hope you’re keeping well
Carl

Yeah Carl i’m doing ok,hope your the same,i used Croxdale myself and never seen your lads in there,Watsons your right you could’nt move for them,we were the same group at that time (Tayforth) so can’t say we were not filling in time too Vic.

[transporter_man]

v7victor:

Carl Williams:

prattman:
I can remember calling into Croxdale café on the A167 just south of Durham,it was there that I first sampled black pudding. the only problem was in the mornings and mid afternoon you could never get in the place as it was taken over by Watson’s Bedford TK box vans, the café closed down years ago the building’s gone and they built a petrol station there if my memory is correct that’s gone now and its a hand car wash nowadays.
Another café a bit closer to home was Villa Real café at Leadgate near Consett spent quite a lot of time in there that is now where Villa Real roundabout part of Consett bypass is now, there was also a small café at Swalwell just up the road from Stanleys scrap yard can’t remember the name but I think it was nicknamed Ma Browns just as Normans was known as Ma Greens.regards prattman.

Hi that brings back memories, I never went in, but if you stood on the roof of our offices at Green Lane Industrial Estate you could see it. Watsons were just on the left hand corner as you came into the estate so they must have known their drivers were killing time before returning home. i cannot understand why they allowed it. We certainly wouldn’t. My thoughts always was if a driver did the work required for the day and got back early, pay him and let him go home, but I always suspeted that Watson’s problem was
they were not giving their drivers a full days work.

Carl,did you ever go up on your roof to check on if your lads were in ?
Also if you remember at the back of the cafe was a sort of caravan park

Carl

There was one on the right at Chester Moor Northbound, another one at Birtly where the motorway services are now & The Clock at Scotch Corner where the Little Chief is now.

[lawrence_dunbar]

[lawrence_dunbar]

[haddy]

Here we are Jim ( jmc jnr ) being as the weather has been rotten here on the east coast today I stayed indoors and did a bit of scanning and printing. The first one I bought at a model “Truck and Construction Equipment Fair” and the rest were taken by me over the years. Apologies for the poor quality of some of my photos. Regards Haddy.

[lawrence_dunbar]

Great stuff Haddy , Keep them rolling, Regards Larry.

[haddy]

Some more I forgot to put on.

[brs_fh66]

Here is a page out of my old digs book. how it survived the trip to Australia 46 years ago, I don’t know. The phone numbers at the bottom of the page are BRS depot numbers.

marshman:
A page out of my home made one. Mrs Watzman was known as Doris Day because she was always singing. Spencer Place was part of the stamping ground of the Yorkshire Ripper

[haddy]

Lawrence Dunbar:
Great stuff Haddy , Keep them rolling, Regards Larry.

Hi Larry, looking at your posting of the digs/cafes cards brings back a few memories, I wonder how many of us on this site have had nights out together in the past !
I got digs at the “West End” at Gloucester one night but gave the place a wide berth after that. What a dump !!! Cheers Haddy.

[lawrence_dunbar]

haddy:

Lawrence Dunbar:
Great stuff Haddy , Keep them rolling, Regards Larry.

Hi Larry, looking at your posting of the digs/cafes cards brings back a few memories, I wonder how many of us on this site have had nights out together in the past !
I got digs at the “West End” at Gloucester one night but gave the place a wide berth after that. What a dump !!! Cheers Haddy.

Aye same here once was enough it was just a dosshouse as far as I was concerned, That was way back in 1963ish on my way down to Avonmouth I.C.I Regards Larry.

[marshman]

I remember the West End. I was told by someone who was there, that when that place was demolished a huge hoard of rats was seen running away. I too wondered how many of us had shared digs in the past. Nowadays all they share is a layby.