1981 21 years old first driving job wh phillips me and my mate sam both had sedi atkis loaded burnt lime out off hill head for llanwern steel works then back loadeds scrap for smethick sams dad and hi mate on same job told us to get back to worcester lorry park got there bout 5 pm asked were the drivers pub was soon found it the blue dolfin sams dad said were you two bin get lost did you who remembers cabs with no curtains you had to put up curtan wire with some cut down old curtain then sleep across the cab beter still on a frosty morn get out and put the cold start button in good old days eh all the best lads …rod
Last year, in the middle of winter in a sleeper box on the side of the A1 just past Newcastle with no night heater. The worst one was the next night on a industrial estate in Edinburgh, that was a horrible night.
1997 alconbury truckstop and funnily enough I was in a Sedon Atkinson,a strato with eaton twin splitter box you didn’t just select D and put your foot down with one of those 
- Swansea ‘lorry park’ (waste ground between the river and the town). H reg Iveco Turbo. Twin splitter box. Happy days…
3 years ago in a 58 plate Volvo FH at the Colnbrook truck stop…
January 2002 in a P reg MAN 18t at the cold stores in Wolverhampton.
DAF95XF:
3 years ago in a 58 plate Volvo FH at the Colnbrook truck stop…
What is parking around Colnbrook like these days? Last time I parked that neck of the woods was late 90s.
Poppleton Garden Centre 6 years ago. The gardens centres were generally the place to park up as they didn’t mind as you either just did a delivery or going to the next morning.
1972 on my way to Redruth in Cornwall with a load of Helmsman lockers ex Bury St Edmunds in a day cab Commer with long gearstick and ratchet handbrake. I even took the ‘heap’ and parked it in Neil St Ipswich while I went up to the Woodbridge road driving test centre to take my driving test, which luckily I passed as the law was taking an unhealthy interest in the motor when we got back because of no tax or A licence, they asked to see my driving licence so showed them the pink slip. The rest is a long story but with no repercussions and done the delivery in Redruth. 
nodding donkey:
1993. Swansea ‘lorry park’ (waste ground between the river and the town). H reg Iveco Turbo. Twin splitter box. Happy days…
remember that place well 
1987 in a bedford tl 7.5 ton driffield cattle market , sleeping on the parcel shelf curtains tucked in the trim above the doors round the cab gas stove as a nite heater !
A Friday night in June 1970 at the Tower motel Catterick on the way back from Teeside,the last one was Shepshed in September 2012.
- I was a young lad doing a bit of nightwatchman work for a local haulier when he rang me up and asked could I take a roadrunner up to Carlisle with a load of 100 weight bags of rice. Being young and naive I jumped at the chance and ended up on way back in a ■■■■■■ laybye on the A1 getting rocked to sleep by traffic flying past about 6 inches away. Bed was a rolled up jumper for a pillow and sprawled across the seats. Woke up at about 1 am freezing my nuts off so I wound the tacho forwards to 6am and on I rolled back to the yard!
Needless to say I have never repeated this experience!!!
Oct 1973, location?.. Bobs Cafe on the A45 at Stretton-on-Dunsmore.
Vehicle…a 10 ton gross Bedford TK on a car licence (then it was OK as long as it weighed under 2 Ton 19 Cwt empty) returning from North Wales to Cambridge. Slept in the dormitory upstairs, bed legs in me boots so they didnt get nicked. Woken early by the massed coughing and snoring from the other occupants.
Rolled over and back to sleep only to be awakened by the massed noise of Gardners ticking over in the parking area and clouds of white choking smoke seeping through the windows.
Yep, those were the days
See my post on the “Finding a place to park up” thread!
largebloke1969:
1987 in a bedford tl 7.5 ton driffield cattle market , sleeping on the parcel shelf curtains tucked in the trim above the doors round the cab gas stove as a nite heater !
Those parcel shelves were handy for sleeping on but once in Sheffield I awoke and my socks were frozen to the window at the side, problem was my feet were still in 'em !! Was the same night the police came and told me to stop my engine ticking over as they had had complaints, ‘do one or arrest me cos a cell would be warmer than this’ was my reply, they walked away but after a while I relented and switched her off hence the frozen tootzies
reg. no. FRT 403C, bedford tk 7.5ton gross. I remember this well cos I smacked into the back of a broken down container wagon coming of a roundabout on the way to the BSA gun factory of the A5 at Lichfield and I spewed a load of Spanish made shotguns over the road, and the number plate from the front is still in my family.
1986 when I was 21. Got to the drop (a country show) in a 7.5 tonne Bedford TK and was told to wait until they could unload me. Phoned my boss (from a phone box…remember them?) to explain that I couldn’t get home and he said if I got receipts I could do anything I wanted. Stayed in a very nice Hotel in Moreton In Marsh but forgot to get a receipt for the bar bill, which was more than the room!
67 or 68, a little caff that was run by a queer on a corner right opposite Aston Villa football ground. Asked for a call at 4.00am only to find out that they were playing at home, what a bleeding racket. Still, it was nice to be gently shaken awake in the morning 
never woken up as quick in all me life.
Unplanned night out on a farm at Chalfont St. Giles, 20th February 1978, 1st day driving and 1st night out.
AEC Mandator with roll of canvas for a bed, only thing I had for a blanket was an old bath towel, stayed awake shivering most of the night, it was [zb] freezing.
Learnt my lesson and was always well prepared after that.
My first night out was not exactly sleeping in a wagon more like under the sod, a Bedford MK, see what I mean
My first proper night actually in a wagon was on the A49 in a layby near Colamendy, loved it as ill prepared as I was