Not posted on here before, so here goes. Anyone got any old pictures/stories of Topcliffe Transport, now known as the Potter Group from Melmerby near Ripon in North Yorkshire.
My Dad worked there as a driver for alot of years from the 1970’s. He eventually got fed up with long hours, traffic, hassle etc, & all the other things you guys have to put up with & got a job which got him home every night! Or maybe he packed in the driving because he missed the ‘good old days’ of digs & day cabs & roping & sheeting.
Anyway, I went with him as much as I could in school hols & his first wagon there was an old Atki Borderer with a 180 Gardner I think. Then he got his first MAN, a 232 day cab (RPT 76M), then another MAN (MVY 853T) with a sleeper, still only a 232 so a bit underpowered when weights went up to 38 tonnes. Both MAN’s had the column change. This was my favourite, 2 bunks meant I could now go on nights out.
After that they went to Volvos but luckily he avoided an F7 & he got an F10 (B232 RWX), after that an FL10 in the 90’s, then Scania & now onto Mercs. Bit sad remembering registration numbers but there you go!
Most of the work was bulk tippers, alot of brewery visits, with backloads from farms in the South to MFP in Northallerton where they dried out & baked wheat or Barley to go back to breweries. Also did Urea out of ICI at Billingham, that stuff was used in Fertilizer I think & really smelt of Ammonia, could even knock you out. Can’t imagine a place like ICI letting kids in these days.
The work was fairly varied depending on time of year, sometimes sugar beet & sugar beet pellets in bulk & bagged/palleted on flats, they had a couple of powder tankers as well, & potato bulkers with the conveyors in the bottom.
They also had a low loader for the odd bit of machinery movement or vehicle recovery.
Anyone remember the bulk tippers with drop down sides so you could change them to a flat? They always leaked so a fairy liquid bottle of water was used to dampen the load in the gaps & stop it leaving a trail down the road.
They also ran Sed Atki’s one ERF, one Foden & one F86. I remember when the first F7 was the pride of the Fleet in a company brochure!
Hope some of you might have some pics. They were bright yellow & red wagons with a P (for Potter) in a circle on the side.
Not a driver myself, my Dad talked me out of it for some reason. 
Wouldn’t mind a go sometime though.
Now then I dont have any pics as of yet but I used to help a fella in our Village cut Derek Potters grass I will ask him if he has any pics as hes truck daft (as I am too). I used to live about 2miles from their yard and the FL10’s used to come through the village but since they put the weight limit in thirsk not many motors go through baldersby any more.
Hi,
Found this pic of an F7,I took it in Haverfordwest about 81/82. The driver was a good ol’ boy and gave me a real nice shot of the Volvo with a powder tank on its back which I’m trying to find.
Hope the pic is of interest.
Cheers Marc.
Cheers bubbleman, excellent pic.
There was a driver called Ray (big bloke) who liked the stickers & stuff including Michelin men, & he was always on flats, so it could have been him. Not sure how he managed to fit in the bunk of an F7!
K.Adams - I remember going through Baldersby loads of times, on the way to MFP at Northallerton. Didn’t one of Alfred Hymas’s roll over on one of those bends once? Luckily only took out a garden wall.
Yep Thats right near the old post office a FL10 he was about 25yds passed the fone box. You might know the fella I am on about who is truck daft Colin Benson he lived next door and use to stand on one of those bends waving @ all the drivers who went passed.
No, sorry, don’t know a Colin Benson.
Anyone else remember them?
I used to chat to one of Topcliffes drivers over the CB in the 80s he went by the handle of
“slippery” and I was “greenhorn” from Fashion Flow York. regards Tony