Lawrence Dunbar:
Great pictures John, Thanks for posting them. Could the A K Tanker shot be Tony Kents outfit that was part of the Sellers & Kent firm I wonder, I did know that he started up after S & k ceased trading, Regards Larry.
Aye, that’s Tony Kent’s outfit Larry. Possibly Albert Bates driving it? W.R Wood: they were also based on Ashbourne airfield estate at that time having taken over Webster’s of Wirksworth’s tanker fleet and running them in Websters old livery. Bill Wood was originally based in Kniveton and had several Foden (and later MAN) tippers running from the local quarries. They were painted grey back then, some of the MAN’s had sealed back doors to carry liquid waste and did work in the Southampton area at one time. However Bill retired, his old yard is housing now, and his lad took it on and moved to Ashbourne and bought Websters tanks. He kept a couple of tippers on though, the Late Tony Waring drove the last one they had (a Volvo ) and ran out of Tilcons Kevin quarry with it until he retired and then Nigel Fletcher bought it and ran it for a while as an OD. The company eventually sold out to (I think?) AK Transport, Malmic will know more about it than me though.
Pete.
Jim sold out to Turners of Soham they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. It was the yard they wanted more than the trucks.
That would have been around 2001? I started for Turners in May 2002 and had a Turners Scania with a Woods Spitzer tank for a year, before being promoted (I told the manager I was leaving if I had another week out in the P cab) to a EC10 and Feldbinder.
Didn’t Sam Longsdens take over AK? and then they got bought by Lomas?
T’tother way round , AK took over Longsons and eventually Lomas bought AK . To be fair Longsons was a shadow of it’s former self by that point . Lomas still has the old Longson yard at Chapel .
rigsby:
T’tother way round , AK took over Longsons and eventually Lomas bought AK . To be fair Longsons was a shadow of it’s former self by that point . Lomas still has the old Longson yard at Chapel .
Knew it was something like that, as worked with a couple of the AK lads on the Tarmac dry silo work out of Meriden for a while before Lomas bought them out and they left
rigsby:
T’tother way round , AK took over Longsons and eventually Lomas bought AK . To be fair Longsons was a shadow of it’s former self by that point . Lomas still has the old Longson yard at Chapel .
Knew it was something like that, as worked with a couple of the AK lads on the Tarmac dry silo work out of Meriden for a while before Lomas bought them out and they left
Steve, was that out of Cornets End Lane? If so we used to collect concreting and asphalt sand for Ballidon from the Tilcon pit on the left (40 or so years ago they also had dry sand in silos for the many foundries in the West Midlands area and had three Foden eightwheeler tankers based there, but they closed that part down in the late eighties) and Tarmac also had a pit on the right hand side as well. Are both pits still there?
rigsby:
T’tother way round , AK took over Longsons and eventually Lomas bought AK . To be fair Longsons was a shadow of it’s former self by that point . Lomas still has the old Longson yard at Chapel .
Knew it was something like that, as worked with a couple of the AK lads on the Tarmac dry silo work out of Meriden for a while before Lomas bought them out and they left
Steve, was that out of Cornets End Lane? If so we used to collect concreting and asphalt sand for Ballidon from the Tilcon pit on the left (40 or so years ago they also had dry sand in silos for the many foundries in the West Midlands area and had three Foden eightwheeler tankers based there, but they closed that part down in the late eighties) and Tarmac also had a pit on the right hand side as well. Are both pits still there?
Pete.
That’s the one Pete. Looks lite the quarries have swapped around though as Tarmac is on the left and Cemex on the right just before it. The silo job we were doing was a new mortar plant the built in 2003/4. There was also a wet mortar plant, concrete plant, bagging plant and a bulk site in there. Not been in there for over 10 years though so not sure now.
I regularly go into the Cemex quarry now, delivering compost into there to mix with the sand.
One of C Websters from St Marys Garage, Wirksworth, Derbyshire, has tried to access a Double Diamond pub before opening time! Looks like a Seddon? Not my pic.
I had cause to travel to the oldest industrial part of Matlock this week (the Lumsdale Valley and Tansley Wood) to get some printing done, 20 years since I was last there and I thought I would take some pics of the garage that the haulier I last worked for (Gough Transport Ltd) used. The premises were part of a mill complex, the mill itself is a listed building but hasn’t been touched since closure around the year 2000. We, and the other tennants there, were given notice to move out asap back then as the outbuildings were due to be demolished so the partners found premises at Wirksworth recently vacated by another haulier. However the buildings are still there so there was no need to rush!
First pic is of the actual garage, it had an electric roller door on back then and was large enough inside to house three six wheelers plus a diesel tank, office and a very long inspection pit.
Second pic is of the previous garage from before I started there, just room for one truck but it was heated!
Third pic shows the narrow 1 in 5 drag from the valley bottom up to the main road, had some ‘fun’ on that in winter!
Three Foden’s fitted in there easily, this pic is of my ‘gaffer’ Eric’s truck and mine was similar. Not my pic though.
Have to admit that I loved my time there, I would go down on a saturday when there was no work and wash and grease my truck, reline any brakes etc and make sure that it was ok for the following week. Great days, they couldn’t last of course and eventually they had to let me go but many happy memories of my five years with Eric and Frank!
Aye they were Mick, they were good to me overall despite the ending! Would have been just the same outcome (with far less notice!) if I had stayed with STB though. Also we all got on with each other at Ballidon and got the work done. A few ‘moans and groans’ here and there but that’s drivers for you! Some laughs as well. I called on Cliff Wigley a couple of times recently and he is looking well considering he is in his mid eighties. I see Eric very occasionally in town and he is doing ok considering. Frank has long gone of course. Losing Joan so early after retirement hit Eric hard but he has a few grandkids to keep him on his toes, although I suppose they are out of bounds at present. I think his biggest regret was not going to live in Oz, he loved it over there. It would have been a fair old journey to work for me though!!!
“Rogues gallery” Dan? Do you mean the pic of the three Foden’s that were not actually rebadged DAF’s?
I saw this photo on FB,of a road I know well,Mam Tor.It was originally the A625 running from Sheffield to Chapel en le Frith and I used it several times late 60s/early 70s when on steel and tanker haulage. Continuous subsidence eventually closed the road,you can still get to Chapel via Castleton and Winnats Pass,but cars only.I wonder who the ERF belonged to,it’s got a 1939 BU Oldham reg plate,and I’d like to bet it’s carrying something out of Blue Circle Cement works a few miles away at Hope.I think the last time I used it was 1971,after tipping phthalate at Bollington one saturday,Castleton village were a bit of a handful with an 8-legger AEC MK5,loaded or empty,and it were a long drag up to Rushup Edge.
Chris Webb:
I saw this photo on FB,of a road I know well,Mam Tor.It was originally the A625 running from Sheffield to Chapel en le Frith and I used it several times late 60s/early 70s when on steel and tanker haulage. Continuous subsidence eventually closed the road,you can still get to Chapel via Castleton and Winnats Pass,but cars only.I wonder who the ERF belonged to,it’s got a 1939 BU Oldham reg plate,and I’d like to bet it’s carrying something out of Blue Circle Cement works a few miles away at Hope.I think the last time I used it was 1971,after tipping phthalate at Bollington one saturday,Castleton village were a bit of a handful with an 8-legger AEC MK5,loaded or empty,and it were a long drag up to Rushup Edge.
Quite a climb even with a Morris Oxford estate and caravan (which I did in about '74)!
Chris Webb:
I saw this photo on FB,of a road I know well,Mam Tor.It was originally the A625 running from Sheffield to Chapel en le Frith and I used it several times late 60s/early 70s when on steel and tanker haulage. Continuous subsidence eventually closed the road,you can still get to Chapel via Castleton and Winnats Pass,but cars only.I wonder who the ERF belonged to,it’s got a 1939 BU Oldham reg plate,and I’d like to bet it’s carrying something out of Blue Circle Cement works a few miles away at Hope.I think the last time I used it was 1971,after tipping phthalate at Bollington one saturday,Castleton village were a bit of a handful with an 8-legger AEC MK5,loaded or empty,and it were a long drag up to Rushup Edge.
I see the bank side is freshly tipped with stone , about that time I spent several days carting chatter from Eldon Hill quarry , tipped down the bank to try to stabilise it . Many thousands of tons went down , to no avail in the long run . Eldon Hill were pleased though , got rid of most of their waste heap .
I never drove down Mam Tor in any vehicle, no need to really as it wasn’t on a route to anywhere we went. However when I was in the quarry garage back in the mid 70’s and work was slack our trucks were employed carting clinker from Blue Circle at Waterhouses to their place at Hope so they used it daily. Several times I had to go out to the steep pinch above ‘The Marmaid’ pub near Thorncliffe to replace a propshaft, air clutches/small diameter shafts and grabbing quickly for bottom gear was not a good combination! Also holding 30+ tonnes of Foden on that bank with just a single transmission brake drum usually either soaked in diff oil or rusted up was scary as well!
windrush:
I never drove down Mam Tor in any vehicle, no need to really as it wasn’t on a route to anywhere we went. However when I was in the quarry garage back in the mid 70’s and work was slack our trucks were employed carting clinker from Blue Circle at Waterhouses to their place at Hope so they used it daily. Several times I had to go out to the steep pinch above ‘The Marmaid’ pub near Thorncliffe to replace a propshaft, air clutches/small diameter shafts and grabbing quickly for bottom gear was not a good combination! Also holding 30+ tonnes of Foden on that bank with just a single transmission brake drum usually either soaked in diff oil or rusted up was scary as well!
Pete.
I used Mam Tor in my early driving days. In the 60s , usually had to pull the cold start on an s type Bedford to make the pinch round the hairpin bend . As to the Windmill , it was no use trying to rush the hill , just bung it in low gear on the flatter part and trundle up the hill . It was bad later with a DAF when the second axle wouldn’t lift loaded , any wet on the road and it would spin to a stop .
Some day work laying tarmac at the rear of our house today. I worked with Mick twenty years ago, haven’t seen him since 2002 yet he knew me straight away. Some of the lads barrowing the tarmac were the sons/nephews of drivers I knew…I feel old! Nice to see a 32 year old truck still doing the same work that a fancy new Scania on finance can do! Click on pics to enlarge.
Some laughs as well. I called on Cliff Wigley a couple of times recently and he is looking well considering he is in his mid eighties. I see Eric very occasionally in town and he is doing ok considering. Frank has long gone of course. Losing Joan so early after retirement hit Eric hard but he has a few grandkids to keep him on his toes, although I suppose they are out of bounds at present. I think his biggest regret was not going to live in Oz, he loved it over there. It would have been a fair old journey to work for me though!!! 
I doubt that there are any Fodens around still on finance? Anyway they did me a little tarmacking job as well so I’m happy enough! 
