Hello to all our fellow black book holding chums,900x20 and myself must be the only ones left that used to work for UCC.Surely there must be more of us? Another days work I did was to deliver Xmas hampers to peoples home address s the sunday before christmas,it was fun taking an artic round the houses to deliver the goods two up.Bearing in mind we were on double bubble and the customers were very pleased to see us and generous with the “tea pot” made it a very happy occasion.Only did it for the one year.I think Davis brothers took over after by cutting the rate a bit.Have a Happy Christmas and properous New Year everybody put your feet up be waited on and enjoy you have all worked hard enough for it.
I agree with Michelin man; are there any of us old UCC men left out there? If so it would be great if they got in touch with this site as there are a multitude of stories to be told about those days. Nostalgia wise,I had a look at the old depot the other day- sadly it’s gone. I couldn’t see the “Mucky Duck” or the “Brunswick Tavern” which were watering holes in our day. Where we used to park up in the East India dock i.e. Jarl Wharf, all gone.That is not to say that all the drivers have gone too.I hope some see this site and get in touch as a book could be written about the job. More later, 900X20.
Happy Christmas to you all and may you all get the Queen’s Telegram. 900X20
michelin man:
[Hi Spardo,Its a bit gratifying to know that there are people interested in our previous lives.While at poplar we were involved in a big job for a frozen food Co.23 of us left on a sunday morning to go to Immingham docks to load frozen peas.Digs were arranged at Cleethorpes for us all,I should add it was winter and no sleeper cabs.Basically we were there all week cos the marks were not showing.I was among the first to arrive and the last to get back.I will leave it up to imaginations as to what went on.Needless to say it was brilliant.900x20 was one of them. Happy days. Has anybody info about the fridge man at the start of this page?Happy xmas to you all.Keep on with the comments its good.By the way spardo i never did either of the two weddel shops you were at must have done all the others.Bye for now.
The fridge man was stuart longhurst he worked there in the late 60s and until 1970 they had two other fridge men
Johnie Warren he came from bow
Russell Harris
In the 70s both Russell and Johnie came to work for my dad
Thanks to everybody that sent the write ups and the pictures
I have spoken to my dad he has a picture of one of the scanias and a new trailer at a show . I will try to scan it .
hi from dave a new member,having spent a few hours looking at past postings on companies like the ucc do any of these come to mind to any of the oldens amongst us
UCC two depots in south london lambeth bridge road and the other was behind the regal picture house off kenington road
J.Samson tpt. London welsh tpt . cornell tpt packer tp.kent bros tpt. sas tpt.
ritson haulage. paul rhodes tpt . molo tpt. quinell tpt. millar tpt. dsd tp
forwarding tpt. fairfield haulage bow. e w pearce tpt. davis bros tpt. P lock tpt.
bill stroud tpt. canford haulage. joe lowe tpt, London continental tpt BRS tpt
Grangewood tpt. monro tpt. arthur large tpt. Mcgregor cory.tpt turners tpt plus C O O P tpt and many more. drivers i recall on UCC midge braithwaite’ joe lowe ,tom bosher and his brother, jim macbarron, the yank joe macawley
and traffic clerk little Les barone cant think of any more at present.Only that i started my driving days in the 1960s with E A Hellmuth hercules road lambeth does anyone remember this company dave r
Welcome to TN Dave, another one with a prodigious memory 
, can only assume that you don’t know what happened yesterday though. 
My trouble is I lose it at both ends - bits in the middle are a little hazy too. 
Hello all,
Good to see more info on the site, pretty soon we’ll have the whole firm on it-I hope everyone we knew on the firm is still with us. Keep up the good work, regards to all from 900X20.
Sad that there’s no more posts on this old company,I’d have thought more drivers were looking in. When I look back to those days when we (and loads of other drivers) did journey work with things like Thames Trader Artics and Gardner 150’s and compare them with the modern times where the engines have enormous power I wish sometimes I had been born later. Still,we were all in the same boat I suppose.Good old life tho’,looking back.More later,900X20. 
Looks like the Michelin Man and myself are the last of the many - or on the other hand ,might be a lack of computers. I hope some more of the drivers see this site and get in touch:it’d be great to hear from them. While we are on this subject, is the little pub called “The Sun” still in Southampton approx. opposite the old Red Funnel line? We used to have a pint in there with Sid Pugh who used to run the Southampton Depot. 
Regards to all,900x20
900X20 sadly the Sun has gone there is a block of offices or flats there now, and Sid Pugh died a short while ago earlier this year I believe, Jumbo Lewis and Jim Coakley are also both dead although I believe Malcolm Gillam the fitter is still alive.
Regards Pat
Does anyone remember the night gate man at UCC Warley, George Wright, i’m his son Keith, sadly George passed away 30th June 1991, I used to go to work with him on Friday nights and school holidays, I can remember loads of names, Doug Hannant, George Effeny, George Hampshire, “Midge” Gailbraith, Vic Staples, Bill Sparrow, Dickie Hartshorn, Smith’s 1,2&3, Reg Revell, Bill Rutland, Micky Blakeway, Reg Revell, Kenny Liddiard, Tom Bosher, “Jock” Mckie, Billy Burge, George Barnes, Charlie Westgate, Jeff Hoey, “Filthy” Luker, Frank Evans, Charlie Kent, Chris Wilson, if I left anyone out , apologies, would be good to hear from any as a follow up on here.
Don’t forget Long John Browning,Reg Lintott,Jim Bellman.Pete Johnson,Jethro,Teddy Prendegast,Johnny Sadler,Mac the Yank,The Scout. There’s more but I’ve got to have another think. I hope they’re all alive,they were good old boys. Regards,900X20.
It takes time to remember but in the end it works. I’ve just remembered these—
George Curtis,his brother Eddie (sadly now deceased),Johnny Trim,Teddy Prendegast (2),Ronnie Vyse,Dave and Ted Townsend,Charlie West,Billy Denham the vehicle washer {who very nearly fell in to the hole in the Blackwall Tunnel} when it collapsed, Guinness,a character if there ever was one! More later as and when the brain livens up. Regards to all, 900X20.
THIS IS A GREAT SITE!!! Keep up the good work as nostalgia is a good thing. An EXTREMELY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL OUT THERE AND MANY MORE OF THEM.My best wishes for a good year ahead,regards,900X20.
hi has any one got more pics of the UCC scanias , my dad ended up with a few of them we used to subbie for geo,davies out of liverpool and we run the scania,s by then they had been cut down we had LWC 654 655 656 J / AMP 654 / 655 H & a couple of the AGU we also bought some of the scrap ones these were great trucks in there time surprised no one has mentioned the bunk conversion,s it used to be quite scary going down the road sitting on the passenger,s side always felt like you would fly through the windscreen used to have some pics in our colours but they went missing
THIS IS A EX VESTRY GROUP WAS ORIGINALLY ROCKFIELD CONTRACTS USED TO BE A LIME GREEN COLOUR
THIS TRUCK USED TO RUN CHANGE OVER TO DOVER DOCKS FROM LIVERPOOL FOR UCC
900X20:
hi to all happy new year from a newbie
900x20 I worked for Geo.Davies&son at the Tilbury depot from1977 till 1989 when we were all made redundant.This was just after the take over by the Vesty group when we merged with Ucc and moved into their depot just off the a127 at warley st Brentwood.
There were three Ucc drivers there at the time do you remember Tommy Bosher,Ray Trenkel and Kieth Forrester?oh and Albert Jordan who was shop steward.When we moved up to Warley we had a load of new Mercedes all day cabs but the three Ucc men already had brand new double sleeper Mercs which put a few noses out of joint,all these new lorries were supplied by A D Forsey’s who had been taken over about the same time as GDS.
Hope this jogs a few more memories.
cheers steve.
Did Keith Forrester have a stutter?
newmercman:
Did Keith Forrester have a stutter?
hi,yyyes
didnt john forsey have an office in a car park on the south bank near waterloo stn, ? i seem to recall a bloke name jimmy giving me notes to pick up a load, once again a lot of yrs ago, but somebody may remember it.
pollystag:
newmercman:
Did Keith Forrester have a stutter?hi,yyyes
Was he a ssssshit ssssstirring bbbbbbackstabbing bbbbbastard on there too, I worked on a couple of firms with him in the 80s/90s & he was then