Yes oldmannie 100%correct in a previous post i dribbled on about the tightness of rolling a sheet and having a good man who knows how to roll it helping the other end ,then lift-struggle -to put on your shoulder,it they were full of air bulkie no chance plus the important advice is make sure all the rope/small cord ties are put inside the sheet before rolling , or you could leave one each end out ,if you wished to tie around the tightly rolled sheet,job done . if any young modern day driver read this they will think we were shot -away…it sounds so petty however it would, or could ,make your life back then easy or hard,Asheet.
oldmannie:
Weight of Rolled-Up Sheet. More years ago than I care to remember I was taught by my father (a career BRS man except for war service) that when rolling up a sheet “The tighter it is, the lighter it is”. Obviously whether rolled tightly or loosely the weight was the same but there is no doubt that a tightly rolled sheet felt lighter and was much easier to handle. I followed his advice until my retirement a few years ago. Did anybody else find a tightly rolled sheet easier to handle??
Hiya,
A tightly rolled sheet a bit easier to move from deck to trailer, I thought of it as Scottish
caber and I handled it likewise, I always left a couple of ties hanging out to keep the roll
nice and tight ready for the next usage, no lighter but easier to throw about.
thanks harry, long retired.
As a young lad I remember roping and sheeting I would get the job of rolling up the sheets when we had tipped never learnt how to tie dollies but remember my dad going out to work in the evenings roping and sheeting trailers after driving all day wouldn’t be allowed these days
All i can say is we all must have had the good old gnarled hands all ingrown with grime .mind you if you were lucky to have managed to take a sarnie with you they tasted that much better…bit extra grease, I think mr BERWICK you have well earned your place to have run a company, not many owners i new of ever were trailer mates on a leyland octopus.you would not have needed any teaching after that.just a bit before my time.
deckboypeggy:
All i can say is we all must have had the good old gnarled hands all ingrown with grime .mind you if you were lucky to have managed to take a sarnie with you they tasted that much better…bit extra grease, I think mr BERWICK you have well earned your place to have run a company, not many owners i new of ever were trailer mates on a leyland octopus.you would not have needed any teaching after that.just a bit before my time.
This is a shot of the actual Octopus “dbp”,but that’s not me stood on the back ! I was a wee bit older than that when I started as mate ! 
Cheers Bewick.
What year were them leylands then.i was thinking of the old bristol type cabs a octopus… the old BRS wagon and drag i had heard of or maybe i got the octopus wrong ,because i drove a 6 wheel cattle truck same type cab but was a beaver type not 2 pedal ,i think.1968/9 it was not mine, just for the odd trip 3 decker .for sheep. must admit i was not a driver that was brought up with them, as i am sure a lot of you were with your dads. i think that is the difference as me not being a truck enthusiast i just worked them…and earned a living .
Where was that photo taken Dennis - it looks like the old Athersmiths garage on Hindpool road, now ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ and yet, it seems too small?
JEO reg - 1964?
John.
John West:
Where was that photo taken Dennis - it looks like the old Athersmiths garage on Hindpool road, now ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ and yet, it seems too small?JEO reg - 1964?
John.
Now,bearing in mind I’m not a Barrovian ( Shudder the very thought!! 
) but in years past I was forced to spend a few days and many hours in the area ( surely Lord I couldn’t have deserved such a severe punishment!!) Hiya John,the shot of the Brady motors was taken further down Duke St. where they had their origional garage,I think it was on the site where they had the Vauxhall/Opel dealership but it was before my time mate as they were located in their new depot at the top of Duke St. when I was there.My wife Anne only ever visited Barrow once and she got Legionaires from that alley past Forum 21? I thought it was funny at the time as there was Pidgeons lying on their backs with their legs in the air.We were only walking through to Debenhams ! and Anne finished up in quarantine in WGH. Cheers Dennis.
Glad to see you’re in a good mood Dennis!
Okay, that garage, now you’ve said it, used to belong to my Dad up to nationalisation, at which point Athersmiths and Pickfords took over - Athersmiths on the general and Pickfords on the removals.
Brady’s did turn it into a car garage when they moved up to where Broombys/Travis Perkins are today.
They had the Triumph dealership as well and Barrow Police had about 20 triumph heralds as panda cars in the early sixties. 
My uncle also walked down that alley & caught legionnaires. He was in his eighties and it finished him. There was some high level slapping on the wrists, but I don’t think anyone went to prison.
When I ran the parcels, I had a lady phone to say she’d missed a delivery on Friday & could she come for it Saturday morning - think she lived in Kendal, you know, that rich town on the edge of the Lake District. She asked where we were and I said Barrow. I might as well have said Penzance. I filled the silence by saying ‘we’ve got a Tesco and a Debenhams - you could do your shopping.’
Her reply was ‘Oh, I always thought Barrow was like Beamish…’
We even have electricity here now Dennis!
John.
Now come on John I’m always in good humour it’s some of you ■■■■■ that get my goat at times eh! 
Sorry I was jumping the gun a bit and forgot about Bradys having the Standard Triumph dealership which is what they had when I was there,I even got to go home in a Triumph 2000 a couple of times by kind permission of The Big’un but I had to bring a driver back next morning from Kendal and also one from Warton IIRC. What a siege Legionaires was as far as we were concerned the useless ■■■■■■■■ at FGH convieniently “lost” Annes blood samples then argued that although she had had a bad virus they said it may not have been Legionaires,bollox,if you seen the state of her a week later prior to her going into hospital it was bloody criminal what those tossers on Barrow borough got away with and all to save a few ££££.Sorry about the loss of your relative John but anyone elderly at the time who caught the “plague” it was a death sentence without a doubt,bloody diabolical ! Oh! and Anne wouldn’t join in the Class action which a Solicitor in Barrow organised,I don’t know what the final outcome was but we got nowt ! Cheers Dennis.
What I always liked about the Big’un was his total lack of edge. He was happy in that house in Bath street, although he insisted on someone washing a car for him to take the Mrs out on a Saturday night.
Every other word was ■■■■, whatever the company.
My step-brother used to report the rugby in the Evening Mail, so he saw a lot of big Bob socially. Bob used to say ’ now then David, were you and me at the same match on Saturday?’
Got to add, my favourite story from David on the rugby. Barrow lost the 1967 cup final to Featherstone Rovers. When they were going up for their losers’ medals, Princess Anne presenting, one of the Barrow lads said ‘Alright Luv? Ows yer mam and dad?’
John.
Thinking about the legionnaires. Anne should have joined the class action Dennis. There was a payout - I can’t remember what it was. Not sure whether she would have felt it fair compensation for the misery.
It didn’t do uncle Jack any good - it went into his estate.
John.
I’m fully aware that there are those on here who will disagree with me (what do I know, anyway?!) but I just couldn’t get my head into thinking how wonderful those 600 & 680 Leylands were. The smaller Leyland engines were brilliant, in my opinion but when I graduated to bigger lorries, I preferred the ■■■■■■■■ AEC and even Gardner engines, in that order. Later I learned that foreign makers not only fitted more modern engines but they supplied things like heaters, bunks and comfortable seats as well.
Dad bought another transport garage on Duke street, across the road from his original garage - the one the Brady’s bought.
Wilie Horne, the great Barrow rugby league player, has a statue on the site of that garage.
Originally, Dad bought it to house ‘Haythorn Bros.’ who had 2 A licences, so were too small to be nationalised, which he bought in about 1952. He sold that company to Alan Cooksey, who eventually sold out to Blue Dart.
I remember being in the office on the front, when Brady’s were rebuilding the transport garage which had been Dad’s and became Brady’s car garage.
Unfortunately, the contractor went too close to the foundations of the coop next door and caused the building to collapse. We watched the building totter over. It didn’t actually fall and everyone got out, but it had to be demolished. The ‘temporary’ building is still there today!
John
Sorry to interrupt your Barrow Memories, chaps- I was rambling after seeing the Octopus on the previous page.
I’ll go back to sleep now! 
Retired Old ■■■■:
I’m fully aware that there are those on here who will disagree with me (what do I know, anyway?!) but I just couldn’t get my head into thinking how wonderful those 600 & 680 Leylands were. The smaller Leyland engines were brilliant, in my opinion but when I graduated to bigger lorries, I preferred the ■■■■■■■■ AEC and even Gardner engines, in that order. Later I learned that foreign makers not only fitted more modern engines but they supplied things like heaters, bunks and comfortable seats as well.
Hi ROF,
Have to agree with you, my first lorry was a 1962 Lad cab Leyland - 375?
Apart from the fact that it used a gallon of oil a day (think it went through the compressor) the engine was very reliable. The 600/680 series was also a good power unit (ask our mutual friend Bewick!)
Daf saw the potential and worked on it I think (I’m sure you, Robert and others know more than me!)
Leyland surely invested money into the fixed head concept, which would have been better spent on simple development of the 680.
Having said that, I can’t claim to have had Dennis’s perfect foresight either!
John.
I did rate the four- and six-wheelers with the 375 and even the 350 but when I was “awarded” a 1961 Octopus which had been modernised into an artic I threw it in after a single trip!
I have to admit that I liked the LAD cab, especially the Dodge version with the extra axle and the AEC power plant, but I don’t think that Dennis would have operated anything as common- probably waiting for another load of Gardner 8s to be delivered for his fleet of Big Js.
oldmannie:
Weight of Rolled-Up Sheet. More years ago than I care to remember I was taught by my father (a career BRS man except for war service) that when rolling up a sheet “The tighter it is, the lighter it is”. Obviously whether rolled tightly or loosely the weight was the same but there is no doubt that a tightly rolled sheet felt lighter and was much easier to handle. I followed his advice until my retirement a few years ago. Did anybody else find a tightly rolled sheet easier to handle??
There’s no doubt about it they were easier to handle when you folded them up tight, but they only felt lighter because they were easier to pick up and throw onto the back of your lorry or trailer, they were also easier to open out on top of a load, it was the knack of a good driver knowing how to fold them up tight.
I also saw a few Italian older drivers who were better off loading flat lorries, they didn’t fold them up quite like we did, but they always folded then as tight as they could, but the young driver’s didn’t have a clue it was too much like hard work for them just like this country today, which is why an older driver can get a job almost anywhere today if there’s a few flat trailer’s on the fleet.
John West:
What I always liked about the Big’un was his total lack of edge. He was happy in that house in Bath street, although he insisted on someone washing a car for him to take the Mrs out on a Saturday night.Every other word was [zb], whatever the company.
My step-brother used to report the rugby in the Evening Mail, so he saw a lot of big Bob socially. Bob used to say ’ now then David, were you and me at the same match on Saturday?’
Got to add, my favourite story from David on the rugby. Barrow lost the 1967 cup final to Featherstone Rovers. When they were going up for their losers’ medals, Princess Anne presenting, one of the Barrow lads said ‘Alright Luv? Ows yer mam and dad?’
John.
I always thought that the Big’un lived in Hawke St. and Jackie lived in Bath St.I know it’s a long while ago and the memory isn’t what it was ! 
Cheers Dennis.
John West:
Where was that photo taken Dennis - it looks like the old Athersmiths garage on Hindpool road, now ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ and yet, it seems too small?JEO reg - 1964?
John.
Down Duke St at their old garage as far as I know John,that little lad is John Thompson ( his dad was the dark faced 'un !!) JEO192 Octopus,Chassis No 620855 first reg.31/5/62 scrapped 31/12/68 after a very hard life !! Cheers Dennis.