Tubbysboy:
Oh dear. I knew him way back. His dad bought him a brand new 143 left ■■■■■■, Kim was 21 at the time I must have about 17/18… His dad and mine used to “sort of” work together as in share trailers and drivers etc etc…
oh rite, nice one. Did your dad used to ship out then?
I wish my dad bought me a brand new 143!
Yes I thought the same when I ended up with MAN 291 when I passed me test… Dad used to have about 8 or 9 motors doing Spain, Italy, and few Middle East in between, but Kim’s dad Bob did used to run a fleet of smart scanias and a few volvos doing Italy and Greek work. Not really Suffolk haulers thread stuff Both from Essex,
norfolktrucker:
Dads name is Mick “Danny” Bierton.
If my attempt to upload a photo is successful, heres a picture of me with him, we both look slightly older now !!!
Blimey your dad hasn’t changed much lol you have tho mate lol Unispeed were one of our best customers as they ran Transconti’s and we were the local dealer (Day’s)
norfolktrucker:
Dads name is Mick “Danny” Bierton.
If my attempt to upload a photo is successful, heres a picture of me with him, we both look slightly older now !!!
Blimey your dad hasn’t changed much lol you have tho mate lol Unispeed were one of our best customers as they ran Transconti’s and we were the local dealer (Day’s)
Some of us just get better looking with age… but, to be honest, I’m probably not quite as cute now
DEANO3528:
Does anyone remember MA LLoyds from Parham Airfield. He had various old bangers including D1000’s, Super Comet, Marshall’s, Reiver, Bedford TK etc etc. I worked for him late seventies as a grease monkey and relief milkman.
Yes, I worked there for a year when I was 21/22. I was a general assistant and did my HGV training while there. The vehicles were mostly old and the basic week was 50 hours before overtime (which there was lots of!) Most of my HGV driving there was on bulk grain, fertilizer and other agricultural products in Ford D series - one was a D1614 turbo the other had a troublesome ■■■■■■■ V8. Also a Leyland Super Comet Ergo-cab ‘flat’ which I sometimes took to load potatoes ready for the night driver to take mainly to the London Markets. I also did livestock transport occasionally - there was a smart Ford D1614 and a Bedford TK and a nice little Transit cattle truck. Although everything was, of necessity, run on a shoestring, the company did place an emphasis on animal welfare and I never saw any Lloyds drivers mistreating animals although some of the ‘drovers’ employed by livestock markets were quite brutal. I also worked as a relief milkman and I happened to be on one of the two rural milk rounds at the height of the 1976 drought, when it was unbearably hot by 10 am. I remember gulping down a pint of gold-top under scorching sun in a cloudless sky! Also lots of Corona fizzy - I think that was allowed ‘on the company’ during the drought! Being a general assistant I sometimes worked in the office, which was adapted from a large caravan, with the boss, the secretary and an alsation dog. I look back on my year at Lloyds as a happy but sometimes stressful time. When the night driver left I got some of the night runs but I found myself unable to adapt my sleep patterns and couldn’t face the prospect of starting a long night run at 2 am after lying in bed wide-awake since tea time.
During a rare quiet period the boss hired me out for a couple of days to another local haulier, T.G. Askew of Wilby, and I was to drive a very old primrose yellow Thames Trader “cat nose” tipper removing spoil from a building site near Framlingham and dumping it in the old railway cutting **. This lorry had terrifyingly feeble brakes and a driving position designed for the Hunchback of Notre Dame!
** I have since atoned for my sin by being part of the track-laying gang on a heritage railway in a different part of the country.
Seeing the picture of the Leggett’s of Beccles lorry reminded me.
In the early 1980’s I was a student but was back in Suffolk for the holidays. One day I got a phone call out of the blue from Leggett’s asking if I wanted to do a day’s work. To this day I have no idea how they got hold of my name. Leggett’s by then was a much smaller operation than a few years earlier and I’m not even sure if they still ran any of their own lorries. But anyway I turned up on the day in Beccles and the job was for a group of 4 drivers to collect some re-possessed lorries from Lockwood’s at Long Sutton up near King’s Lynn. We were driven up there by someone from the finance company, I think, in a brand new Ford ■■■■■■ Mk3, not long after it was launched on the market. Let’s just say that the ride was rather scary and the speedo showed 100 mph on at least one occasion, and with 4 passengers! - on busy single carriageway A-roads!! When we got to Lockwoods there were 4 white vehicles lined up. Two D-Series tractor units, a Seddon-Atkinson 300 or 400 tractor unit and a Leyland ‘Redline’ Clydesdale (or maybe Boxer)16-tonne flat. I chose the Leyland and, after a delay over missing keys, we set off for an uneventful drive back to Beccles. The only thing I remember about the Leyland was that the driver’s sun visor kept falling down! When we were back in Beccles we were asked if we were available the following day because the lorries all had to go back to Lockwoods, presumably because a settlement had been reached. This time I had a D-Series tractor unit. Again an uneventful trip back to Lockwoods. Ken Leggett himself drove us back to Beccles in a green Daihatsu Fourtrack, or at least I think that’s what it was.
PS my memory is at its limits on this and I’m now wondering if in fact this all happened on one day rather than spread over two.
norfolktrucker:
Dads name is Mick “Danny” Bierton.
If my attempt to upload a photo is successful, heres a picture of me with him, we both look slightly older now !!!
we cant put Norfolk pics on a Suffolk thread can we… quote]
its already happened mate!!! (transam were diss based, which is norfolk!!!)
Well at least they’re now Suffolk based, and they had Suffolk painted on the doors and the one in the pic had a Suffolk reg number!
Euromat, why did they claim to be from Suffolk in the old days when they were based in Diss?
The Trans Am 2800 had a suffolk registration because it belonged to peter harper , originally , who was a felixstowe docker who thought he could make more money at lorry driving.
Mace:
These pic’s sure have brought back memories, enough to make me sign up to trucknet! PROWLANDS, your spot on about Jock Wardlaw driving the List’s Volvo.
He was well known and respected. His brother David Wardlaw used to drive for Loadwells too, remember him? He used to take me out when I was a lad, first in an F12, then a 141, happy days
The f88 that Jock drove was a 240bhp, John Chapman drove the one in the picture which was a 290bhp. Jock later went on to work for Loadwell and John worked for British Fermentation. Jock was one of the first drivers on sub contract to Loadwell along with Dave Ball who bought a Guy Big J from Terry Ingram and when that went bang he bought the Scammel Crusader day cab that was Loadwells first vehicle, Ricki was the driver. There were a few who subbed, Mick Coggins, R. Wood who had a crazy Marathon.
can any one remember red square felixstowe. what was that all about .and is jock cowen still going ,avery funny man once told me that man could not run a bath let aloan a trafffic desk
norfolktrucker:
Dads name is Mick “Danny” Bierton.
If my attempt to upload a photo is successful, heres a picture of me with him, we both look slightly older now !!!
Blimey your dad hasn’t changed much lol you have tho mate lol Unispeed were one of our best customers as they ran Transconti’s and we were the local dealer (Day’s)
Some of us just get better looking with age… but, to be honest, I’m probably not quite as cute now
There was a George Bierton drove an 8 legger and drag for Fridged Freight in Diss in the sixties. After he left he used to park an 8 wheeler bulker up Shelfanger Rd. Any relation? Jim.
norfolktrucker:
Dads name is Mick “Danny” Bierton.
If my attempt to upload a photo is successful, heres a picture of me with him, we both look slightly older now !!!
Blimey your dad hasn’t changed much lol you have tho mate lol Unispeed were one of our best customers as they ran Transconti’s and we were the local dealer (Day’s)
Some of us just get better looking with age… but, to be honest, I’m probably not quite as cute now
There was a George Bierton drove an 8 legger and drag for Fridged Freight in Diss in the sixties. After he left he used to park an 8 wheeler bulker up Shelfanger Rd. Any relation? Jim.
Stupot:
One of the more obscure hauliers Bradshaw & Wright from Sudbury
wow these bring back memories. I drove for Freelance Transport on container tanks in the early nineties. Recently I was collecting wheat from a farm in Sudbury and the guy loading me was the old boss of Bradshaw & Wright.
Following on from the WOOLPIT thread, Heres a selection of Suffolk hauliers, most of these pics I took back in the 80’s (of course).
And Ive treid to put in some of the less well know and smaller hauliers to revoke the old memories. Anyone remember these…
This F12 was delivering bridge sections to the “new” flyover at Barns Meadow, Brackmills, A45, Northampton.
But not sure if this old girl would have coped as well…
M T Farmer. Took both these at Felixstowe.
MTF in Nippress colours
Anyone remember A and H Haulage?
Early twinsteer F12.
Where did this lot appear from?
And we all know these…
Is this Ralph’s relative?
Used to see these boys all the time on the “old A45”.
Photo courtesy of Rick Farrari
Look closely next to the Volvo:- Anyone got a photo of Frosty’s WHITE ROAD COMMANDER?
Some more traction boys:-
F W BOGGIS
JACK MORRIS, NEWMARKET
reet nice photos there truckerash, a bloke from Taylor-Balls saved my bacon one Sunday night, I’d thumbed back home to Cannock and left the tractor in Ipswitch and got dropped off miles from nowhere by a helpfull but clueless car driver that didnt know where the hell he was going. I walked miles in the darkness till one of their boys saw me and stopped! Brings back memories of doing unnacompanied in the early 80’s!
