A pic ‘borrowed’ from elsewhere, Reading’s Rag Day parade in 1964 showing a J Lawes Seddon. Pic of this company are very rare, infact this is the only one I have ever seen. My father drove for them at this time and they ran a few different Seddons (some ex Christopher Hill) and Bedfords but his had a Tamplin bulk grain tank.
Pete.
Just to bump up this thread here is a rarity, a Seddon SD8 bulk flour tanker before painting into its livery in 1964. The photograph was in a pile of Spillers Milling photos, but was it a Spillers Milling vehicle? Certain aspects of it, such as the rear mudguards are typical Spillers shape, as is the centre mounted ladder. Any information about this rarity would be very welcome.
A nice photo of a push bike…
A little tale involving a Seddon. As a whippersnapper of about 17 (in 1965) I worked at the BRS Parcels depot on Smithpool Road in Fenton, Stoke on Trent. There were two Scammell coupling Seddon units that were used on day and night trunk runs to Leicester, Derby etc. The longest run was to Rhos on Sea (Colwyn Bay) in North Wales. To leave the Fenton depot drivers had to leave the loading/unloading warehouse and negotiate a tight right-hand bend before driving up an incline and turning left on to Smithpool Road. At the top of the incline all staff had a parking area where cars would be left. On this particular morning, the driver, Ken, was leaving with a trailer load of parcels for Rhos on Sea. I just happened to be watching him from the canteen window, and saw him stop at the top of the incline and go to his car. The next thing was the unit and trailer starting to roll backwards, slowly, back down the incline. Instinctively, without any thought at all, I ran out of the canteen towards the vehicle. Meanwhile Ken had realised what was happening and managed to jump back into the Seddon unit and stop the whole lot from coming to grief. By then I was half-way up the ramp and continued on to speak to him. The outcome? We agreed that it hadn’t happened and sometime later I went with Ken on the Rhos on Sea run. As far as I know we shared that secret - until now!!!
A big user of Seddon’s,the Seddon fleet was mainly based at Maddiston.(nmp).
I know nothing of Seddon lorries but I do know a little about T J Poupart and especially their Southampton depot. When I worked for Mitchell & Robertson, fruit hauliers from Staplehurst we would have one of our lorries delivering to them most nights of the week often driven by one of our drivers by the name of ‘Long John’. John reckoned he’d done the trip so often his lorry knew its own way. However, coming home in the early hours on one trip his lorry got lost in Cranbrook and ended up in someones front garden. I passed by a few hours later and the lorry was still there but no sign of John. I reckoned he’d gone home to bed as he didn’t live far away.
I was over in the U.K. a couple of months ago and I had arranged to go for a drink with an old workmate of mine called John Harrison. Some time during the evening I asked John if he had any old photograph’s of lorries and he said hundreds of them in the attic, I shall send you some. That was all that we said about the matter but two weeks ago I received a large envelope and I had no idea what it was. When I looked inside it there were about 50 photos of old lorries. 35 of them were photos of Seddon’s taken over 50 years ago, John said “they are yours Steve, do what ever you like with them”. So I think that the best thing I can do is share them, I hope that some of you will enjoy them. As John was a fitter in 1973 when I first worked with him in Oldham, he might of known somebody at Seddon’s
Thank’s John and Eunice. 
Here are a couple for Rapidgem 
Here are a couple for Wull in Scotland.
Wull, has the signwriter spelt Cleland wrong. 
And here’s one for Bonkey Dollock’s, he is always on the look out for old tippers.
Mate,the last one is fantastic ! 
Owned by the Dowlow Lime Company just a few miles south of my hometown of Buxton.I certainly don’t remember it as when I was born (1970) the quarry was owned by Steetley.Then it became Redland,now it’s owned by Lafarge.
Have you any other old 'uns from Derbyshire way ? 
Who did you work for in Oldham, my dad used to work for Courtaulds? and a guy who lived over the road was an owner driver before going to Aussie.
Thanks Mushroomman and i think you’re right, he has spelt it wrong
What surprises me more is that you noticed it 
Thanks for sharing the pics too.
I personally think,that if he’s sent you a parcel containing 50 photos,then you should scan and show them all,regardless of the fact that 35 were Atki’s.
Ken.
WOW!! Great stuff!!! Mushrooman - thanks for sharing them with us!
Hi all
This Seddon Atkinson was my first truck on my first Class 1 driving job.I was just 22yrs old
S reg (1978) I had loaded Reels of paper out of Convoy’s for Aylesbury press.
Those days were when you got a chance to gain experience.
GS
Great job that.I used to do reels out of Convoys for Glasgow in the early '70’s
Yeah when I got back to the yard, Bobby Fox the Guvnor would come out to inspect your ropes and sheets, and all your dollies had to be in line and your ropes crossed front and back,ready for an early start the next morning.
A properly sheeted load did look smart didn’t it.No fly sheet flapping !!! It was almost regimental eh !
And then out of nowhere, along came the taughtliner…that’s when I started tilts to Europe and then onto the Middle-East.
The rest is just good memories.
GS
If you aint roped and sheeted,you aint done much!
I used to load out of Convoy’s for Brum late 70’s early 80’s, bring back roping and sheeting I say.
Hi B1 GGK, no I never drove for Coutauld’s although I did do quite a few loads for them from Sponden near Derby and Greenfield near Flint, mainly for Turkey and Rumania. I actually worked for Blue Dart Transport who were part of the British Vita Group ( Vitafoam ) in Middleton, are they still going ?.
Here is a picture of the first Seddon that I ever drove taken in June 1973.
As I was on the foam contract for a couple of years nearly all the loads had at least one drop with mattresses on. Very often I would park up on a lorry park where there were no decent digs available and another driver would come over and ask if he could sleep in the back of my van. Usually these were tanker drivers or drivers with flat trailers as there were not that many sleeper cabs doing U.K. work in the early seventies. No drivers were ever refused and we would end up finding a café or a pub together. Sleeping in the back of the van was a good way to keep your night out money and the guys who used to use digs every night used to call us Cab Gypo’s.
I met a lot of great drivers, I had a lot of great times and I still have a lot of great memories.
Talking of early sleeper cabs, here are a few Seddon photo’s the first two look like a Seddon sleeper but I can’t remember ever seeing one. As it’s a left hand drive then it was probably for export (or did it break down on the production line ). Was this an experimental vehicle and have you noticed the wooden panelling at the back of the cab?.
Come on lad’s, I know that we all like a bit of nostalgia but when it comes to roping and sheeting, then I have to take my rose coloured glasses off and if it’s a case of ropes and sheets v tautliner , then on this one I am in the tautliner corner. I know that a properly sheeted load looks good but they always looked better in the rain, if I wasn’t doing it.
I remember all to well starting work at 6 a.m. on a cold dark winters morning in Manchester, climbing on top of a load of 45 gallon drums, sometimes two pallets high. Rolling out the sheets and hearing the ice cracking on top of the drums where ever you put your feet. Clinging very carefully to the drums or the pallets as you tried to make your way down to the ground safely, often in dimly lit places. Tying a dolly knot with one leg further behind the other, in case the knot slipped and stopped you ending up sitting on your arse. Pulling on the ropes and feeling that icy cold dirty water running down your sleeve, often you would be dirty even before you turned a wheel. Loading flat trailers at 2 a.m. when you are the night loader and trying to fold the sheets when it was very windy. 
And I have never met anybody who has roped and sheeted a load of Carbon Black in one ton bags and said that they had enjoyed it, I certainly didn’t. My wife and I were having heated arguments years ago about Carbon Footprints, the ones that I usually left behind on the hall carpet. I never even went around with a yard stick to make sure that all the knots were in a straight line above the chock rail.
If I felt that I could get away with just using a fly sheet or a barrel net and felt confident that the load was safe and secure, then I was happy with that. If it didn’t look like it was going to rain then I never messed about using two sheets and a fly, O.K. if I was doing distance work, then I might of used the lot.
I.M.H.O. a few of the things that made my job better in the 70s/80s were the sleeper cab, the night heater, the taut liner and the pot noodle.
This was one of mine, probably loaded from Manchester to Ellesmere Port, I never lost a load and as far as I know I never lost a package and yes it’s not a Seddon.
The longest rope and sheet job that I ever did was from Samsun on the Black Sea coast in Turkey to a warehouse in London Docks. It was twenty tons of Hazelnuts in 15 kilogram sacks and I must admit that I used three straps and checked the ropes for tightness often, very often.
Could I rope and sheet a load today?, in theory yes in practice no. The reason being that when ever it gets cold the arthritis in my fingers start playing up, this I believe was caused through using wet or damp ropes years ago.
Must admit these next two lorries would not look right with tautliners on the back.
On the back of this photo it says Seddons 1957, so these may also be going for export.
Anybody want any more?.
excellent stuff Steve hope your going to post lots more pic’s
mushroomman:
Hi B1 GGK, no I never drove for Coutauld’s although I did do quite a few loads for them from Sponden near Derby and Greenfield near Flint, mainly for Turkey and Rumania. I actually worked for Blue Dart Transport who were part of the British Vita Group ( Vitafoam ) in Middleton, are they still going ?.
Vita’s still there, alot of their work is subbied out to Boarhurst of Stalybridge.
Know a guy called Dave Fearn who drove for Vita for years.
