trip down memory lane cannons old yard in milton village period pic don’t know why i took it but wish i’d took more from that time .where the F7 is down the ramp is the old bagging plant for PFA to the right is a little scania:(
still the old yard in milton village,think this was taken when the FL7’s were coming off the coal & being put onto the general fleet.the little F6 was used on paint for basf & the silver box used mainly on habitat for aberdeen.
Hi Andrew, I know what you mean mate I wish I had took more pics of the old yard, offices/wash/workshops/sprayshop, it all went on there didn’t it! The old silver box, I’d forgot about that, if my memory is clear Mike Longbottom & Brian Graves used to take it in turns to do that run didn’t they? Brian’s F7 was the only 1 with VOLVO mudflaps down off the front bumper in front of the steer-axle!
Just looking at the pic of Fuzzy’s Transcon’, now this is gona look really sad, but the wagon in front of it with the black chassis, looking at the shape of the fuel tank & the only horse I can remember in our yard with a black chassis/wheels was old Morris the owner driver’s Ford Cargo, I liked the old boy, had a night out with him once, he’d been around a bit!
Regards
Chris
Hi Chris & Andrew, Thanks for posting all your great pics. some of firms I had not heard of, but of interest all the same. Cannons of course, I do remember, but I have no knowledge of their history, so wondered if it was possible, you might be able to fill us in on that score please, how, when and where they started etc. I seem to remember going to their place, right alongside the A34 at Didcot, to look at a Volvo, 4 wheel Curtainsider, that was for sale. It was pale blue in colour, and looking very tired indeed, so I don’t know if it was an ex contract motor or did they have a second hand sales site as well?
Andrew morrison when you were at Cannons was philip white theie then, he came and ran oldhams of barford then sold to cannons in the end then tried to buy it back when cannons went pop, he was gutted like we all were.
Hello,heres an old Bubble having a go at the Lorry Driver of the year competition. 
Cheers Bubbs, 
Dont remember that volvo bubbleman , chris dont knock the commandos they did my firm pround in the 8os , when my brother was told his was going i thought he was going to smack me in the jaw 
.
bubbleman:
Hello,heres an old Bubble having a go at the Lorry Driver of the year competition.
Cheers Bubbs,
Hi Bubbs, great pic mate, never seen one of a F86 in Cannons colours! Don’t recognise the driver, maybe Andy will when he gets back & has a look, he lived more local to Milton so new more local drivers than me.
You are right Steve I remember seeing the Dodge’s in your colours, as always polished to the hilt, they were good motors for what they did, some of the mileage we put on them on Minty’s was pushing them a bit but they kept going! P.S. You got any re-fills for your pens mate, 1 of the ones you gave me has run out, good pens tho’!
Regards Chris
adr:
Hi Andrew, I know what you mean mate I wish I had took more pics of the old yard, offices/wash/workshops/sprayshop, it all went on there didn’t it! The old silver box, I’d forgot about that, if my memory is clear Mike Longbottom & Brian Graves used to take it in turns to do that run didn’t they? Brian’s F7 was the only 1 with VOLVO mudflaps down off the front bumper in front of the steer-axle!
Brian & Fuzzy used to do all the habitat work alternately i think 
then mike cut the job up 
then boris really carved it up 
& fozzy refused to do it again but that is all rumour & a long time ago all of em still good blokes no matter what 
BigG-Unit:
Hi Chris & Andrew, Thanks for posting all your great pics. some of firms I had not heard of, but of interest all the same. Cannons of course, I do remember, but I have no knowledge of their history, so wondered if it was possible, you might be able to fill us in on that score please, how, when and where they started etc. I seem to remember going to their place, right alongside the A34 at Didcot, to look at a Volvo, 4 wheel Curtainsider, that was for sale. It was pale blue in colour, and looking very tired indeed, so I don’t know if it was an ex contract motor or did they have a second hand sales site as well?
hi big g by the way is that a referance to the guy? many memories!!!Cannons started in 1908 with a horse & cart like most of there day!!they started in milton village from johnsons farm high st milton if thats wrong someone will correct me i’m sure?after selling that yard for housing we were to move to a purpose built site at didcot by the power station but that fell through cuz money was needed to bail em out of the ■■■■(alegedly)so we moved to mte where the old lorry park used to be,tempararily?for about 2/3 years & when the packing yard was sold to mte(they been after it for years) the whole lot moved to 184 milton park as it now calls itself of which only a small bit remains now as the transport side is sadly no more 
as to the pale blue volvo it might of looked tired but would of been looked after pretty well!!hope this is some help 1908 is correct the rest is pure fiction regards Andrew x
Hi Andrew Morrison, Thanks for your reply, it is all now as clear as mud! 
Landlord, I’ll have a pint of what he’s on!!
Oh, as to your question, I’m not sure which man you mean, but my ‘user name’ is an amalgamation of what my drivers called me, Big G, I think, as a reminder to me, that although I often worked along side them, I was not really one of them! Then, later my Grand Kids called me G Unit, who, I think, was/is a ‘Rapper’ or D.J. and a very cool dude!. They considered I was as cool as him and deserved the title! 
Now though, the younger members of the family usually refer to me just as ‘G’ so I think I must have been rumbled!!
Andrew Morrison:
BigG-Unit:
Hi Chris & Andrew, Thanks for posting all your great pics. some of firms I had not heard of, but of interest all the same. Cannons of course, I do remember, but I have no knowledge of their history, so wondered if it was possible, you might be able to fill us in on that score please, how, when and where they started etc. I seem to remember going to their place, right alongside the A34 at Didcot, to look at a Volvo, 4 wheel Curtainsider, that was for sale. It was pale blue in colour, and looking very tired indeed, so I don’t know if it was an ex contract motor or did they have a second hand sales site as well?hi big g by the way is that a referance to the guy? many memories!!!Cannons started in 1908 with a horse & cart like most of there day!!they started in milton village from johnsons farm high st milton if thats wrong someone will correct me i’m sure?after selling that yard for housing we were to move to a purpose built site at didcot by the power station but that fell through cuz money was needed to bail em out of the zbso we moved to mte where the old lorry park used to be,tempararily?for about 2/3 years
Andrew----re Cannons Im certain you are right in that Cannons started in Johnsons farm Milton.I started with W.C Amey in 1949 and for the first few weeks i was put on daywork in Didcot Army supplies depot alongside two Cannon Bedfords,the drivers were Cannon family who were farmers --they would work weekends/evenings on the farm as well.they only had the two trucks at that time so obviously they went into haulage from that point onwards.—toshboy
McKennas are doing well keeping a tipper this old in this condition. They rebodied it a few years ago.
Thats the m reg one , they allways keep there wagons tidy .
Now my Air Products days (before Wincanton), this was my horse, I had her for 7 years, she had a 325 Perkins in her, I’ve driven Toplines/Globetrotters/Spacecabs etc, but this is my favourite for sheer guts & pulling she’d give anything a run for its money, Eaton Twin-Splitter box you could shift in a split-second with just a blip on the throttle, just a bloody good reliable old British workhorse! We only had 2 with the Perkins fitted, all the others had ■■■■■■■ 325s, the trouble with the ■■■■■■■ was they were high revving, so on the hills my Perkins would always out-pull them cos I could split that bit quicker cos the ■■■■■■■ revs wouldn’t drop fast enough for the split to go through, so they had to kick it through with the clutch-break, those couple of seconds just gave me the advantage every time! Good cab for nights out too!
I loved these old 411s, again a good solid workhorse! We had about 6 when I started on A.P. when Didcot terminal first opened, like the Strato’s they were double-shifted, same 2 drivers all the time, very reliable & well suited to tanker work!
This one they took off & did up as an experimental environmental outfit, as you can see it had various skirts/spoilers tec fitted, + a lift front axle on the trailer, it looked quite smart & apparently was better on fuel etc but they never did any more up like it! I had her this day & had just tipped a full-load to Brooks Foods, Norwich.
Here I am delivering to Allied Steel, Tremorfa Works, Cardiff (Docks), You had to angle in like this to leave the roadway clear for all the tippers etc. We had to deliver a 38 ton load of Liquid Oxygen every 4 hours, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. You can see the 2 Oxygen tanks behind me, as you were filling one you could nearly see the gauge dropping on the other tank! My shift was Wednesday to Sunday, 2 weeks days / 2 weeks nights, Monday/Tuesday off, I chose this shift-pattern cos young family big mortgage, & believe me you were financially rewarded for it! I would quite regularly get a run to Cardiff on a Saturday night, or a load to Sheerness Steel Works.
Here I am at the Esso Oil Refinary, Fawley (Southampton), this was the Marine Terminal tank, we had about 7-8 tanks around the Refinary. This one was a bit lonely particularly at night cos you were right down by the jetty, you just followed the pipework out to it, the sea was only 50 yards away to the right! This could be quite entertaining at night, if you look in the background you can see 1 of the huge Super-Tankers, they came up from the Gulf or where-ever, & often at night you could stand & watch the tugs pulling 1 in & trying to position it on the Jetty for un-loading!
