any body out there remember MJ Swallows from Penn street or Phillip Crouch from appledore in kent or how about cadwalladers from oswestry?
dickyboy:
any body out there remember MJ Swallows from Penn street or Phillip Crouch from appledore in kent or how about cadwalladers from oswestry?
Yep! Joined Swallows in may, 1981 as a holiday relief. They then took me on permanently but by the end of the year Cadwalladers took them over and I continued to work for them until january, 85. Caddies was OK but in my estimation the two brothers were the worst bosses I’d ever worked for!
rgds Ron
yeah i worked for mj for 5 years jacked in just before he closed down mike was a good bloke,like you say the caddy boys were not the best people to work for.I know at one time they had a private investigater follow some of his drivers checking they hadnt done any plus on the derv,made me laugh one day when one of the guys was in the office and one of the lads came in to the car park in a new car ,Russel cad straight away said thats new check his expenses for the last year.Do you remember Mo Berkley? or Mac or Alan cant remember surnames Bob Lea he died from cancer shortley aftre leaving? rgds Tricky Dicky
dickyboy:
yeah i worked for mj for 5 years jacked in just before he closed down mike was a good bloke,like you say the caddy boys were not the best people to work for.I know at one time they had a private investigater follow some of his drivers checking they hadnt done any plus on the derv,made me laugh one day when one of the guys was in the office and one of the lads came in to the car park in a new car ,Russel cad straight away said thats new check his expenses for the last year.Do you remember Mo Berkley? or Mac or Alan cant remember surnames Bob Lea he died from cancer shortley aftre leaving? rgds Tricky Dicky
Hi Tricky Dicky
Didn’t you have an American sports car, TransAm or somthing similar? I remember Mac,Big Al, Mo Berkley and ‘Burglar Bob’ Here’s a few more names who you might recall:
Roy Watt
Kevin Scully (went on to ACH afterwards)
John Baranowski (aka ‘The Baron’ moved to the States)
Micky Prior (first met him when on the Middle East runs) Ended up with his own haulage company.
Johnny Edwards (mad keen golfer)
Johnny Warren
John Marshall, the fitter ( went on to work for Cave Wood)
rgds Ron
the caddy brothers owned 2/3 of swallows from day one and in fact the first two trailers fleet numbers SIT 001 and SIT 002 came from the caddy fleet and were pulled by subbies untill swallow started getting his own tractors.
the reason swallows were started was because mc cain chips would not give the export work to caddy so they got mike swallow who was with salveson to start up and get the mc cain work to france which was the bulk of the export work together with south african avacados ex boat at southampton and one load of horsemeat a week from huddersfield to holland
cotrali supplied most of the import loads from france which was mainly wine but swallows also carried fruit and veg imports depending on the time of the year
mickharrow:
the caddy brothers owned 2/3 of swallows from day one and in fact the first two trailers fleet numbers SIT 001 and SIT 002 came from the caddy fleet and were pulled by subbies untill swallow started getting his own tractors.the reason swallows were started was because mc cain chips would not give the export work to caddy so they got mike swallow who was with salveson to start up and get the mc cain work to france which was the bulk of the export work together with south african avacados ex boat at southampton and one load of horsemeat a week from huddersfield to holland
cotrali supplied most of the import loads from france which was mainly wine but swallows also carried fruit and veg imports depending on the time of the year
So what was your connection with MJ Swallows?
Have just remembered another couple of names. Pete (can’t remember his surname) in the workshops. He went on to work at the Amersham Council yard and there was another Alan apart from ‘Big Al’. Alan Woods seems to ring a bell or was that Big Al’s surname?
rgds Ron
i joined swallows in mid 1970s when he operated on his own from a shed at the bottom of his garden in holmer green
i was the first transport manager and from the shed we moved to earl howe road and the fleet increased in size but all trucks were fridges plus a hired dry box from gilflex at dunstable.
drivers at that time i remeber were mick baker from the west country . harry from huddersfield and john edwards who i took on as i knew john from our days on SCA
i left swallow shortly before the move to penn street
Hello Ron yes I had a 1970 shark nosed Camaro running 400 big block pontiac v8 with 400 turbo gear box red with gold stripe it used to go well. Iremember all those guys we had some good laughs then A Mo works out of Royston now cant remember what the firms called.I went to Adams foods from there, but i didnt get on very well with the other driver what a bunch of nancy boys they were,half inch of snow ooooo cant drive in that we might get stuck they had all the flags up plastic TIR drivers t…s did a couple of other jobs my last one was Fullers of slough great untill the son took over so i told him to stick it. Retrained as a plumber started me own thing.gave up driving in about 97 still do a bit keep my hand in, to many rules and spys every where. wot you up to these days?
Does anybody know why Caddies took over Swallows and how many trucks were involved ? Was it just for the Mccain contract ? KK
kingswinford kit:
Does anybody know why Caddies took over Swallows and how many trucks were involved ? Was it just for the Mccain contract ? KK
Definitely not for the McCain contract…that had finished before I joined Swallows in !981. After the McCain contract ended Swallows had no export work at all apart from the odd one now and again that Caddies would throw them. All we were doing was going out empty to Holland usually via Zeebrugge and bringing back bacon. Five trips a fortnight. The writing was on the wall…couldn’t survive just doing that!
There were about a dozen units and fridge trailers when Caddies took us over.
Tricky Dicky, you were asking what I’m up to these days. The answer is a big NOTHING. I came out to to Thailand to live fifteen and half years ago after coming off the wagons (last job was with Ridgeway International, Wallingford carrying explosives all over Europe.) I had a bar for the first 18 months but packed that in and then had a shop renting out motorbikes to the tourists and did money changing (bit of a grey area that one) for the next two and half years. I then bought some land and had a house built and have been retired ever since. I’ll be 65 this year.
rgds Ron
Hello fellers, New name for me forgot password on previous name which was michelin man,have been around since 2007.I did nearly two years with birdman as how he was lovingly known I was his forth full time driver the other three were Alan Mccoy everybody knew that bloke one of the very best to have known sadly passed on to the motorway in the sky what he didnt know was not worth it the first place,Micky Baker was No 2,all of you that knew him know how much he kept his lorry clean.Third man was Harry Evans from Huddersfield it was him that got the horsemeat job for swallow and never did One Load.More of that another time.Subbies were LGB transport of maidenhead Alan Veal Brian Hendy the drivers,Basingstoke haulage were in it too.The 1050 out of Dover on a Sunday morning was nick named caddies boat.A question for mickharrow did you come off Kwikasair onto swallow if so we know each other? Update on drivers,Mac has gone, not sure bout micky baker last I heard he was on Hardings,Harry Evans is still about Chatted to him last week,Alan Veal is still here the three of us still meet up from time to time for the odd cup of tea.Forgot to mention Johnney Edwards and Ricky Hoare who followed on after me.More another day.Regards to all black book holders,Dave Townsend.
yes indeed i was with kwikasair before coming to swallows
left kwikasair as they were moving to cambereley from greenford and that journey did not suit me
joined kwikasair from SCA along with john alan who was the first transport manager at kwikasair and then he went over to the paris office / steve holman also worked out of the paris office and he ex SCA
your name rings a bell dave but the old brain is finding it hard to put a picture to it
good days
Hi Mikeharrow,I took over Micky Bakers outfit when he left.Unit and trailer were brand new together.You may remember an incident I had with the truck.It was serviced at Monks before a trip.OfAnother clue is that I lived in Mitcham Surrey at the time we go on the trip but the gearbox failed on a saturday night at Tours France on the way home.A big feller turned up on Tuesday with a bar and towed us back home.The splitter gearbox had been drained of oil during service but had not been refilled.Praise to Volvos engineering for it to last so many miles before flaking out.Princes at Canterbury put a recon box in and it was a bucket of ■■■.Very stiff notchy and hard work to drive,eventuaaly Princes at Southampton replaced this box with another problem solved.I have often thought about me ringing you at home on the sunday morning with the good news about the breakdown and wondered did I interrupt anything or were you grateful for the call so you could start being happy? At the time I lived in Mitcham Surrey.I too remember the garden shed at the house.Regards D
if i remember correctly you were broken down at blois and it was tiny lee from leighton buzzard that came a dragged you home
its all coming back now so what are you up to and indeed what have you been up to since the swallow days?
To mikeharrow,You got it in one the grey cells are still working.I will fill you in later bout life after swallow.Regards dt
At the start Philip Crouch was mentioned, my dad drove for them from about 74 I think till they finished. He started with a Bedford TK, then a Guy non sleeper (plank across seats), then a Daf 2200 and finally a Daf 2800. I can rembember a few names from going with him in the school holidays.
For a few years he did Paris every week, then near the end did Italy (Como I think) on a weekly groupage service. I have some pictures some where.
Funnily enough after Philip sold up he went to work for lumsdens who now work from Griffin Farm where Philip Crouch was based.