That Keetch’s lorry brings memories. I never worked for them but our Banger Racing Club (SSSSCC*) used some of the lock up garages that shared their yard at Stapleford, Nottingham. As such I had contact with their rather rotund transport manager, who could well be the driver reversing the 4 in line in the photo.
He later moved to Dixon’s of Derby at Shardlow, where I did work casually for a time, though I took most of my instructions from Oscar Dixon and therefore I still can’t remember his name.
BTW, love the TK driver talking to the bloke riding a bull.
That Keetch’s lorry brings memories. I never worked for them but our Banger Racing Club used some of the lock up garages that shared their yard at Stapleford, Nottingham. As such I had contact with their rather rotund transport manager, who could well be the driver reversing the 4 in line in the photo.
He later moved to Dixon’s of Derby at Shardlow, where I did work casually for a time, though I took most of my instructions from Oscar Dixon and therefore I still can’t remember his name.
BTW, love the TK driver talking to the bloke riding a bull.
Also can you remember Keetch,s moving to Marshall’s yard in BulwellNottingham they later ran Maggie Deutz lorries
That Keetch’s lorry brings memories. I never worked for them but our Banger Racing Club used some of the lock up garages that shared their yard at Stapleford, Nottingham. As such I had contact with their rather rotund transport manager, who could well be the driver reversing the 4 in line in the photo.
He later moved to Dixon’s of Derby at Shardlow, where I did work casually for a time, though I took most of my instructions from Oscar Dixon and therefore I still can’t remember his name.
BTW, love the TK driver talking to the bloke riding a bull.
Also can you remember Keetch,s moving to Marshall’s yard in BulwellNottingham they later ran Maggie Deutz lorries
We used to load crude benzene out of Stanton and Staveley Ilkeston int 60s and 70s and I well remember the banter between Keetch tipper drivers and others in that weighbridge office.I loved it,I think another tipper firm in there was Chettles and maybe Marshalls?
gazsa401:
Also can you remember Keetch,s moving to Marshall’s yard in BulwellNottingham they later ran Maggie Deutz lorries
I don’t Gazsa, but I can see why, Marshall’s had a great big yard whereas Keetchs had only that scrappy one where we kept and armoured the bangers.
Chris, I bet we crossed paths many times in Stanton then, I was always in and out of there in those early days with one firm or another. Shaw’s, Ilkeston Haulage, Midlands Storage, etc., along with many I didn’t work for like Keetch, Watts and Chettle’s. I knew Chettle as we were later on the RHA committee together, along with many other of the smaller hauliers in the area. Some of them, like Beardings for instance, did nothing else as I recall, carried no sheets, just ropes and hurried back empty each time.
That weighbridge office was a haven of warmth in the winter, small as it was. We would park up on arrival and go in there to wait for our notes, then on to the bridge and off to the loading point. We never knew where we were going till then.
gazsa401:
Also can you remember Keetch,s moving to Marshall’s yard in BulwellNottingham they later ran Maggie Deutz lorries
I don’t Gazsa, but I can see why, Marshall’s had a great big yard whereas Keetchs had only that scrappy one where we kept and armoured the bangers.
Chris, I bet we crossed paths many times in Stanton then, I was always in and out of there in those early days with one firm or another. Shaw’s, Ilkeston Haulage, Midlands Storage, etc., along with many I didn’t work for like Keetch, Watts and Chettle’s. I knew Chettle as we were later on the RHA committee together, along with many other of the smaller hauliers in the area. Some of them, like Beardings for instance, did nothing else as I recall, carried no sheets, just ropes and hurried back empty each time.
That weighbridge office was a haven of warmth in the winter, small as it was. We would park up on arrival and go in there to wait for our notes, then on to the bridge and off to the loading point. We never knew where we were going till then.
David,Watts was the one I couldn’t remember.,Watts of Notts.Before a new road was put in we had to go out of the plant and take a road round the back,double shunt at top of a hill to do an acute r/h turn,and down to benzene loading point.
Chris Webb:
David,Watts was the one I couldn’t remember.,Watts of Notts.Before a new road was put in we had to go out of the plant and take a road round the back,double shunt at top of a hill to do an acute r/h turn,and down to benzene loading point.
Yes, a very well known haulier back in the day, and it was one of their drivers, Reg I think it was, who would go anywhere off road with his little Atki 4 wheeler. I suppose being so small it had a lot of weight over the drive, he never got stuck in a far field to my knowledge and earned himself a regular 2nd income in tips. The rest of us, especially with artics, in the days before the Swedes came in with diff locks used to keep our wheels firmly on the tarmac.
Reg and his wagon was one of those, along with Beardings, who was dedicated to Stanton, always running back empty.
I did once venture onto the dirt, when I was with Econofreight at Leicester. A load of Stanton pipes to a roundabout on the N. Circular and I was tempted onto it with my Atki for just a few yards. Firmly bogged, they hooked a D 9 on the front and he duly ripped my crash bar off.
More likely the Mastiff from the Leyland Redline Bathgate models , I believe the Clydesdale was the four wheeler goods and drawbar chassis then. Franky.
We did business with both J W Graham of Embleton nr. Cockermouth and also James Cropper PLC of Burneside nr, Kendal. J W Graham Ltd was run by Maurice Graham the brother of George who founded, in 1970, what has become probably one of the finest Scania Dealerships ( as well as Chris Kelly’s Keltrucks) in the UK. I dealt with J W Graham from about 1972 as occasional subby but when I bought out McGuffie Transport in '74 we had 2 or 3 motors in west ■■■■■■■ every day tipping loads of new 45 gallon drums at Albright & Wilsons in Whitehaven so we loaded regularly out of Workington Steel as JWG subby’s down into Lancs /Cheshire mainly but also to Dagenham and London with pig iron and rail. Grahams were spot on to deal with and I along with John McGuffie previously bought quite a number of C/F trailers from Grahams and John would buy a couple of Atkinsons from JWG when they were Atky Dealers until 1971.
As regards Croppers well I started to serve my time as a trainee paper maker when I left school at 16 but I left after 3 years to pursue my “transport” dreams However after my “transport apprenticeship” as a trailer mate at T. Brady & Sons Ltd I kicked off as an O/D and my first loads with my new “A” licence were out of the Cropper Mill and 10 years later I came to within a “whisker” of taking on the whole of Croppers transport both outward and inward. My Bewick Transport operation did in later years operate as exclusive transport supplier for 6 paper mills and 3 major Converters as well as for other paper manufacturers where we had a share of the work. But failing to get hold of the Cropper business was always a bitter disappointment but it was nothing to do with the Bewick service levels but to do with the Cropper family politics as one of the 4 joint M D’s at that time, who was not a Cropper family member told me afterwards that if had been his sole decision Bewick Transport would have been awarded the contract !! Doh! and I will say that Croppers are still operating and are ,without doubt, the finest paper makers that remain in the UK and the years I spent in their employ stood me in great stead as I built up the Bewick Business within the the UK paper industry as I had a complete understanding of how the industry worked which came as a welcome surprise to the various paper mill managements I dealt with over the years . Enough rambling !! Cheers Bewick
We did business with both J W Graham of Embleton nr. Cockermouth and also James Cropper PLC of Burneside nr, Kendal. J W Graham Ltd was run by Maurice Graham the brother of George who founded, in 1970, what has become probably one of the finest Scania Dealerships ( as well as Chris Kelly’s Keltrucks) in the UK. I dealt with J W Graham from about 1972 as occasional subby but when I bought out McGuffie Transport in '74 we had 2 or 3 motors in west ■■■■■■■ every day tipping loads of new 45 gallon drums at Albright & Wilsons in Whitehaven so we loaded regularly out of Workington Steel as JWG subby’s down into Lancs /Cheshire mainly but also to Dagenham and London with pig iron and rail. Grahams were spot on to deal with and I along with John McGuffie previously bought quite a number of C/F trailers from Grahams and John would buy a couple of Atkinsons from JWG when they were Atky Dealers until 1971.
As regards Croppers well I started to serve my time as a trainee paper maker when I left school at 16 but I left after 3 years to pursue my “transport” dreams However after my “transport apprenticeship” as a trailer mate at T. Brady & Sons Ltd I kicked off as an O/D and my first loads with my new “A” licence were out of the Cropper Mill and 10 years later I came to within a “whisker” of taking on the whole of Croppers transport both outward and inward. My Bewick Transport operation did in later years operate as exclusive transport supplier for 6 paper mills and 3 major Converters as well as for other paper manufacturers where we had a share of the work. But failing to get hold of the Cropper business was always a bitter disappointment but it was nothing to do with the Bewick service levels but to do with the Cropper family politics as one of the 4 joint M D’s at that time, who was not a Cropper family member told me afterwards that if had been his sole decision Bewick Transport would have been awarded the contract !! Doh! and I will say that Croppers are still operating and are ,without doubt, the finest paper makers that remain in the UK and the years I spent in their employ stood me in great stead as I built up the Bewick Business within the the UK paper industry as I had a complete understanding of how the industry worked which came as a welcome surprise to the various paper mill managements I dealt with over the years . Enough rambling !! Cheers Bewick
Your closing sentences certainly confirm that “Knowledge is power”!
gazsa401:
Also can you remember Keetch,s moving to Marshall’s yard in BulwellNottingham they later ran Maggie Deutz lorries
I don’t Gazsa, but I can see why, Marshall’s had a great big yard whereas Keetchs had only that scrappy one where we kept and armoured the bangers.
Chris, I bet we crossed paths many times in Stanton then, I was always in and out of there in those early days with one firm or another. Shaw’s, Ilkeston Haulage, Midlands Storage, etc., along with many I didn’t work for like Keetch, Watts and Chettle’s. I knew Chettle as we were later on the RHA committee together, along with many other of the smaller hauliers in the area. Some of them, like Beardings for instance, did nothing else as I recall, carried no sheets, just ropes and hurried back empty each time.
That weighbridge office was a haven of warmth in the winter, small as it was. We would park up on arrival and go in there to wait for our notes, then on to the bridge and off to the loading point. We never knew where we were going till then.
David,Watts was the one I couldn’t remember.,Watts of Notts.Before a new road was put in we had to go out of the plant and take a road round the back,double shunt at top of a hill to do an acute r/h turn,and down to benzene loading point.
I can remember Watts of Notts they used be based on St Anne’s Wells Road in Nottingham at one time they ran ERF A series and Scania 110s a mate of mines Dad drove for them
Buzzer:
Well it’s Monday morning once again and the sun is breaking through here, some pictures to brighten your day ahead, Buzzer
That Wimpey tipper could have been mine if it was a bit muckier and not brand new, and yes Buzzer, I worked for George too.
There were I reckon up to 70 6 and 8 wheelers running up and down a 7 mile section of what was to become the M1 over the Trent to Sandiacre. As most of the planned bridges over the country lanes had not been started it was a case of down the slope off the bank and up the other side again, as you can imagine things got heated sometimes and I well remember one traffic jam caused by 2 8 wheelers nose to nose on the bank refusing to give way. One driver, in his thick Ulster accent said ‘I am not moving from here, even if George Wimpey himself was to come, I am not moving’. I don’t know which one backed up, or down, because I walked back to my own wagon in the queue to take a break, we weren’t paid by the load so I welcomed it.
There were so many collisions that the management said that any more, whoever was at fault, both drivers would be sacked on the spot. The next night, while waiting for the wagon ahead of me to tip, he got bogged and, with increasing frustration violently rocked it back and forward till it finally freed. Unfortunately he was going back at the time and, his boots slipping off the pedals crammed straight into the front of my motor. The metal was bent inwards trapping my feet against the pedals. Another driver soon arrived with a big hammer and, leaning in, knocked the dent out allowing me to drive back to base like a Christmas tree, all lights flashing on and off due to a damaged fuse box. Nothing was said and I was given another lorry, no idea what happened to the other bloke though. Lots more stories of that nature on that, very overcrowded, job.
A very tidy load on that 8 wheeler of Keetch’s Gazsa, all the ropes double hitched as well. Before chains and straps were available I had dozens like that which rode ok if you were careful. But beware the moonscaped parks of old time transport cafes though. My load out of Tilbury shifted within half an hour and, doubled up again I crept back to London and enlisted the help of a Pickford’s fork truck driver on the N. Circular to push it all straight again.
Do you reckon that drum on the front was a paying load, or more likely cheap base diesel? Handy for transfer to the fuel tank if so.
Regarding Watt’s, yes I remember them having those Scanias and their base on St. Annes Well Rd., I reckon they did crane hire too and maybe a bit of abnormal as well. Wasn’t BRS Nottingham in that area too? When I came back after a stint in Oz in around '65 I went to them for a job. The man asked me how I would get from here to Manchester and, after being away for some years, stopped to think for a minute. I resisted the temptation to say ‘I’d look at the map’, but still didn’t get the job. So I never needed to go out and buy a greatcoat and flat cap.
