Oh! thanks for the reply anyway. I don’t recall Baynards Green at all, must be old age!! 
I do remember him at the scramble meetings though, along with John Avery. My dad used to take my brothers and I from East Oxford to Brill and Stokenchurch Hill, running alongside his bike and taking turns to ride on the cross bar! can you imagine getting the kids to do that now. 
I new Dave Curtis a bit,my mum and uncle grew up with his dad,Mike Curtis who was partially deaf, and come to think of it,it was him who ran the Esso at Baynards Green.I remember Dave had a nice AJS that he used to tear about the fields on when he was about 12 or 13. 
There was also John and Bob Curtis,Mike’s brothers ,who had a couple of trucks,called themselves JayBee transport.
Anyone remember the Limestone quarry at Croughton.There was a fleet of tippers there,mainly white Fords,but the company name escapes me.
Big G…Baynards Green was the roundabout where the Bicester to Ahyno road (number escapes me) now 4100, may have been the A41, how the mind fades, anyway it crossed the A 43, so coming from Brackley, just before the roundabout was a farmhouse with a yard set back behind some trees on the right hand side. The garage was on the opposite side, almost on the roundabout. Anyway that was Dave Curtis’s yard.
Longwayround… I think Jay Bee are still going aren’t they?
dieseldog : Ah got it now, been past there many times but had forgotten the name. Another place near there where I think we would have watched him ride was Stoke Lyne. When I travel along the new A43 now and pass a sign for Pimlico Farm (near the American base) it always reminds me of, as a thirteen year old, on a bitsa bicycle, riding from Oxford on a friday evening to spend the weekend working on the farm. My kids won’t believe me now, with the A34 and 43 being dual carridgeways and the M40 crossing but of course it was all very different then. I remember there being a track alongside the A34 so I guess more people made their way on bicycles in thoses days. Then I would cut up through Weston on the Green on the B roads so it was pretty steady from there on, still a fair old trip though, 
I must have been keen!
Big G asked me to copy this from the scrapbook,no problem mate
Cheers Marc.
Big G unit,you have a pm
Thanks longwayround, I have replied, if I pressed the right buttons, in the right order !!
hi
, I wonder if any of you lads can help me i have been racking my brain all this week trying to remember a firm i am sure they were from around oxford area i cannot remember there name and i do not recall seeing them for at least 25 yrs,In the 70s they used to back load from princes foods liverpool for london area deliveries they always had highly polished wagons the drivers never looked old enough to drive them ,they ran F88 units with box or curtian siders lite grey in colour,and i think they may have added ford transcontinentals to the fleet in the mid 70s ,i don’t know if they went bust or were taken over,so if any one can give me a name as my brain is not used to working this hard since i retired and i don’t wont to ware out what’s left so many thanks lads and stay safe by for now.
john
Cartmeljohn… the only one I can think of and there still going is Chris Hayter , they are sort of Grey with a Blue band.
hi dieseldog, I don’t think it was chris hayter as they only used to run erf’s up to the mid 90’s when they went over to volvo’s and these were fl7’s and fl10’s at a time when everyone else was getting rid of them. I think the newest artic unit they have got is an X or Y reg as they only buy (old) second hand . some of the erf’s they’ve not long got rid of were E’s and F reg’s and they are still running quite a few FL’s.
chazzer
hi dieseldog 6
Thanks for suggesting it may be chris Hayter but sorry to say its not them but i may be more precise regarding there base the town of Thame springs to mind i used to see them joining the A5 around Bletchley to go north before the bypass was built,This company always had new vehicles usually with chrome wheel trims i suspect they may have been on contract so got changed every few years ,I also think they may have been one of the earliest companies to buy tautliners when they arrived on the scene,I can usually remember things from years ago and forget things from last week but this one has stumped me upto now, so hopefully when the sun starts to shine again on my brain it will regenerate it,I live in hope regarding the sun shining,so by for now and hopefully we can arrive with a name fits the frame .
John
hi everyone iam from abingdon and i think it mite be a firm called bennets from thame which is now called interroute
pigpen:
hi everyone iam from abingdon and i think it mite be a firm called bennets from thame which is now called interroute
Bennets shrank in size or was closed down sometime in the 80’s and one of the brothers started a smaller new company by the same name nearer Bicester.
Inter-route is a subsidiary of Allied and has no connection with the Inter-route trailer operator previously using Thame depot and has only been operating for about 8yrs from there, employing mostly agency drivers 'cos the overpopulated supervisory staff have nothing better to do than pick on drivers and think up stuff for them to do when they get back to the yard. I had a spell in there about 8yrs ago. One “rule” was that drivers had to tighten all wheel nuts on a daily bases and a yard man that would grass you up if you didn’t.
The original question was about F88’s in the 70’s. I’ve been in the game since the mid seventies and lived in Oxford all my life. Any company running F88’s and Transcon’s in the 70’s would have stood out by a mile and never forgotten. The only company I can think of that would come close is Radcliff’s out of Faringdon but when I knew them they only did Euro with tilts and closed down sometime early/mid 80’s. I’m thinking Radcliff’s based on the F88’s and the “light grey”. Can’t say as I remember seeing any Transcon’s on there though.
Bennets sound about right to me, they had F88’s and Transcons, they were alway in that Portakabin place in Thame where I used to load,
As far as there not being many 88’s in Oxfordshire , well as already mentioned Dave Curtis, Connell and Griffin, still think Chris Hayter had one in the 70’s and the firm from Tysoe silos,
hi pigpen
Well you hit it right on the head as soon as the name Bennett’s appeared i new without doubt that’s the one funny how you can have a mental block and the harder you think it never comes to you or is it only me that it happens to,well a little background about me unemployed at the moment worked for EXEL/DHL for the last 17yrs on mostly scotland & south wales trunking but made redundant around this time last year so decided to take time away to do thing’s i always fancied doing,so the job centre said you are to old for any dole when over 60 send you to pension credit dept but due to getting redundancy and having savings no joy there told to go back when you have used most of your savings,so i am doing as they said i went over to the U S A last year spent a little time with friends in Buffalo and then 3 weeks traveling around ending up in san Francisco and flying home from there love to do i again but next time with a camper van lovely country and people are great ,anyway i look on the job centre site on the net but very little around at this time for any drivers let alone one nearing 63 so it may be looking like my transport career may be reaching its end which started in 1964 as a trailer boy on a eight wheeler & drag when Glasgow and back was a three day run from liverpool not a 12 hr shift as it is now how times have changed,well thanks again for you help much appreciated i will be keeping tabs on this blog and butting in when i think doing so is helpfull,I will only be on site for another week then away for two week’s well they did say go back when you have spent up and you always obey your last instructions by for now.
John
I know its not strictly Oxford area but another firm running F88’s back inthe early 70’s was Jillian Mary Miles int transport services out of Preston Bissett near Buckingham mainly on european haulage , bulk grain and bricks out of calvert. Also there was another firm in the same village called Bryants who ran Atkinsons mainly on bricks.
chazzer
Nah! we don’t mind, but if BuzzardBoy or someone has a Bucks thread going they might come and drag you off home. 'til then your welcome to stay. Can you expand with a bit more info, or anyone else for that matter, and a few pics would be nice. 
Hi BigG-unit, Jillian Mary Miles was owned by Keith Allen who continued the name of the company that he started up with his girlfriend Jillian after she was killed in a motoring accident near Calvert brick works, I worked for Keith in 1974/75 and had a brand new F89 which was my introduction into left hookers which I’ve driven ever since and hate it if I have to go to europe in a right ■■■■■■. JMM folded in about 77/78 I think after some nefarious activities came to the attention of the local constabulary. Bryants was run by Brian Owen who I’ve not seen for many years not sure when they packed up but I’m sure the locals were pleased to see the back of trucks spoiling the tranquility of their village. what a surprise! somewhere I might have a couple of pics of JMM I’ll see if I can find them and post them.
Chazzer
Interesting article running in Heritage Commercials mag the last few months following the life of Roy Partridge of R. Partridge (Cassington) Ltd. One or two names he mentions are chaps I ran across in my early years. Something I didn’t know was that, in the early '60s, he took on the maintenance of H. Tuckwells fleet of around 45 wagons, mostly Bedfords. It must have been just after I worked there, but his description of them and there condition is quite amusing and something I could well relate to. He later became an agent for Dodge trucks and now, I believe, is with Mercs. I often passed his yard in those days and always fancied calling in for a mog round as there were a lot of army trucks and old stuff about, sadly though I never seemed to find the time. Anyone out there who did? 
altitude:
Smiths had some nice trucks they looked the part.Anyone remember Pathfiellds Transport Alvescot.
I remember Pathfields Transport i worked for them at one time i work with you at thamesdown by Gordon GCWB