Gidders:
I spent some of my teenage years in Newark.In those days there was no bypass and there was a 24 hr.cafe opposite the castle.I particularly remember F.and F.Robinson half cab Fodens and their 8 wheelers with a single axle semi trailer on the back.My schoolmate’s dad owned a 24 hr.cafe at Long Benington before that village had a by pass.I also had a school holiday job working on the by pass while it was under construction.I wanted to drive the Dodge 6 wheelers delivering materials along the site but I had to settle for working with the gang who erected all the traffic signs.They are still standing to this day ! Those were the days;young and care free.
. Would this cafe be Fords ?, I used to enjoy their food it was on of the good ones in the 50/60s Era. Larry.
I don’t recall the owner’s name.I only remember it was on Castlegate opposite the castle and open 24 hours.Lorries would park on both sides of the road.It was wide enough.My teen mates and I would go there for a midnight fry up.
My first lgv driving job was with Bell’s Warehousing and Haulage who had warehouses opposite the above cafe and just before Warwick’s Brewery on the way out of town.Their head office was Brayford Yard,Lincoln.As a total newbie I learned a lot there.Then i moved to BRS at Balderton.
Sounds like Fred Robinson was one of several “eccentric” haulage operators of that time.I also remember Sam Longson of chapel en le Frith and Alec Fox of Rankins in the north east.
Gidders:
I don’t recall the owner’s name.I only remember it was on Castlegate opposite the castle and open 24 hours.Lorries would park on both sides of the road.It was wide enough.My teen mates and I would go there for a midnight fry up.
My first lgv driving job was with Bell’s Warehousing and Haulage who had warehouses opposite the above cafe and just before Warwick’s Brewery on the way out of town.Their head office was Brayford Yard,Lincoln.As a total newbie I learned a lot there.Then i moved to BRS at Balderton.
Sounds like Fred Robinson was one of several “eccentric” haulage operators of that time.I also remember Sam Longson of chapel en le Frith and Alec Fox of Rankins in the north east.
If my memory serves correctly, that would be the Wharf Cafe, as I knew it; I grew up ten miles from Newark so am fairly familiar with it.
Back in the mid 1970’s when I first started frequenting it, it was still an old-fashioned transport caff; basic, cheap and cheerful. Food was good, but the staff, although friendly enough, seemed to have been kept in a timewarp since 1962. There was one lady who always had her hair in a beehive and wore heavy mascara, obviously quite the beauty in her younger days but mutton dressed as lamb by then; and another really ancient woman who was so slow getting to the table with your dinner that it was half cold by the time she reached you, experienced hands sat close to the kitchen! Furniture was classic 60’s with metal framed chairs and formica topped tables, every one of which was adorned by the obligatory battered metal Park Drive ashtray; it was always clean though and today’s hipsters would probably charge you a fortune to sit in a similar place and sip your decaffeinated vegan mocha latte.
If you went upstairs to the loo, you were greeted by the ghosts of the old-time lorry drivers; rows of old army-style bed frames from the days before sleeper cabs, still set out in a neat row and a reminder of how much tramping has changed. By that time there weren’t so many lorries using it but it was popular with those attending the mart, and also naturally with the bikers; which is how I came to find it.
It soldiered on as a cafe until the early 1990’s if I remember correctly, getting slowly dingier and more decrepit; it’s actually a Grade 2 listed building and survives today as a Pizza Express. Happy memories of simpler times.
The Wharf cafe was on the left by the river bridge as you enter Newark from the north.Lorries could reverse towards the river to park up.There is something there today but I haven’t been to Newark in ages.