Tel, if my memory is correct it was a YM, which was a maiden ewe pronounced yo, in meat trades parlance. I do remember the bloke who made the models and he was a smashing quiet spoken man, but as I said earlier a bus driver had it in for him. I also remember Faircloughs, they were still going under the MTOL after the BRS started selling up. The foreman of our wheelwrights who worked in the area on the opposite side of our yard was if I remember called Wally Prentice and they made all of our wooden insulated containers. Sid Jarman’s (our TM, ) son in law worked as a yard man and if he was out trailer mating with you would keep singing the old song “Sugarbush” exept he didn’t know the words and kept singing " All the fishes in the sea" over and over again. If Sid said take Johnny with you the old heart sank a bit.But you could still have a dodgey night out with him, and Sid said nowt. Incidentally Ive still got my old meat drivers card . Keep on Trucking. Bill.
Taken out by Meritor
I remember them when i worked there blue and white Atki and A series ERF remember the Brains lorrys in there and copsey C.P ships and ACT were a big user of our depot spoke to John he said Conserve looked after the container side
Taken out by Meritor.
Taken out by Meritor
Taken out by Meritor
Taken out by Meritor
Taken out by Meritor
Meritor, the site seems to have gone a bit quiet with regard to the old UCC drivers. I think that it may be a bit disconcerting for the old drivers to see photo’s of their old trucks and trailers being driven by foreign firms under the auspices of the UCC name, and probably for less wages after we were made redundant, due I think to the mistake of John Cooper UK operations paid the price.When Mac and myself informed the axeman Norris that Freeman was giving our work away he wasn’t surprised, in fact it seemed as if he was in on it. I hope that we will hear more from the Townsends, Midge and young Terry, but when we see snaps of our old motors which have been sold off, as I say it upsets people. Regards. Bill.
Here Here Bill I have never had a job like it since ut sure upsets me ive feel like I had a taste of it and it all went retire in 2 years never realy done anything waited all my life for some thing lake that again and it never happened blees you all WHO is Meritor Bill its not a coops is it how comes his got all our stuff we never saw it lol
Taken out by Meritor
Meritor, perhaps you didn’t get my drift. The only people to pull Union Cartage trailers were UCC employees which it included Van Dem of Antwerp and Brain Haulage, who were part of the meat carting fraternity, and even they were frowned on for over hours running. The cloth badge that you enterred was never seen or issued whilst I worked for the company, so who it was made for Christ only Knows. You say that Dave Butcher gave permission for those items, but very shortly after we were made redundant Dave took the market superintendants job at Billinsgate fish market, so when did he get asked. I remember being on the drivers works commitee and the only time we had dealings with Gondrand was mainly if we were going to have trouble clearing loads at ports. You did not explain when entering the photo’s that they were out of a book, but when would the shots have been taken. There would have been riots backed by the meat trades drivers if other non meat firms had been seen with our trailers, that is what would offend my old workmates, who it looks as if we were dumped to make way for cheaper labour. At the onset of continental ops we were issued with racing overalls. And the only namebadge we were issued on working gear was UNION CARTAGE. Regards. Bill,
Taken out by Meritor
(I know about Brain’s and Vander’s pulling UCC trailers. )
my dad run wagon,s in liverpool we bought some of the the scania,s from UCC
but we also used to subbie for them and geo davies out of studholme street
one wagon used to run trailors down to dover change over and run back this was on this job for a while
we also done night change overs for UNION DISTRIBUTION
Well said Bill who is this bloke i cant picture him I sure he worked for conserves because early on in the thread some one called him Raymond and the only Raymond was the scouser from conserves the container people but whats more whys he have stuff we aint even seen ps Bill do you remember nice ole boy called Bill think was stroud or miller had sed atki was Jimmy Buckles mate is he still around
Hi edlight, I cant remember either of those names and when i worked for the company we had old Fowler motors converted to tractors, Guys and Scanias , but some others like Scammel tractors and a couple of ERF units were sold when we left Polar depot. Whether the Lambeth depot had any others, I wouldnt know, perhaps 900x20 or Michelin Man aka the Townsend brothers would probably know. The only Ray that was a traffic operator for UCC was Ray Smith, who lived locally to the Warley depot. Ray and Ken were the two main blokes that we dealt with, both nice people and the funny thing was that they used to know and speak to all the drivers wives. It was at that time a real family orientated firm. Mind you, when I took redundancy from Warley, it did me a favour because I got the position of night foreman for the GLC based at Blackwall Tunnel and worked there until Maggie Thatcher abolished the GLC, so I now enjoy a pension from them. My father retired from UCC at Poplar and got a salt beef sandwich and a cup of tea at a cafe in Aldgate and a glass of whisky in the managers office, and that was all.With regard to Meritor, I dont recall him and if as he said his job was checking drivers log sheets, it was probably only a matter of months before the breakup. regarding subbies pulling for UCC, I reiterate what I said earlier, NO firm other than Vandem or Brains would have been allowed to pull our trailers, as trouble would have ensued from us backed by the meat haulage community. By the way, it was Midge Galbraith and myself who negotiated the redundancy package for the office staff, before we left, so most if not all would have been known to us. Regards Bill.
Hello lads here again,Loved Midges comment about log sheets and comuters,just about right but we all could count the last tier of lambs didnt need fingers.Ref Bill Sparrows comments about Lambeth depot,This was before my time I joined UCC at Yapsley Street Poplar,before the fleet of guy Big Js arrived what a turn up twin heaters no holes in the floors for the pedals, doing night trunks or Castle Brom changeovers without needing an overcoat and long johns oh happy days.Can anybody remember the Blue Boar now watford gap when it had a separate transport section with a glass partition deviding the cooking Area HA HA from the seating area lots of stivky buns and cakes used to fly over this obstical on nights care of Johnny trim before he went on the transfer gang with Mike Usher and co.Was one of the office guys at poplar an ex Bow Common Lane man Roy Walker? Mr Bruce was the manager,Charlie King was No2 and some drivers went into the office before I left whose names escape me (too many beers affecting recall) .Keep it coming smashing to hear from terry Keating Very sorry to about how filthy lucre passed away another one of lifes genuine people gone to the old road in the sky. re the hole at poplar I do have a photo of Frank Evans and Billy Denfrew having a ■■■ and mug of tea standing by it,little billy was lucky he was inside the trailer washing it when the earth under him moved probably for the first time in his life.Sorry I jest but he was lucky.Food for thought boys keep it coming.Best wishes to all of you.Dave Townsend.
.Michelin man, yes Roy Walker was employed at BCL as the night operater, but only for about 9 months before we moved. When we moved to Warley, he got a job with Tesco as a manager in their social department. Jimmy Mc Barron was also a tractor man who worked in the office at Yabsley St and later, worked as a runner in Sheerness Docks. Joe Palmer and Fred Venables were taken on by UCC when we moved to Yabsley St, they were previously employed by the BRS who we took Yabsley St depot from. We also inherited a bloke called John as a runner, you may remember him with a curvature of the spine. Regards, Bill.
Hi lads, our site seems to have died with the demise of meritor. Lets look at the facts that led up to him chucking his dummy and throwing his toys out of the pram. After Cooper got sacked, Morris was put in to close us down. It started with continental operations. Brains cowboys were running bent with our trailers and one day I was asked by Nick Goodwin to take a load overnight to Glasgow fruit market and be there by six am. there would be fourty pounds in my hand. I refused and told him that at that time 450 ks was the max allowed by law and that would have been Carlisle, so the answer was no. Again Mr Yogi Bear of Brains did the job, Shortly after the continental men were made redundant, it was then that Midge and I were asked by the TandG officer to negotiate a redundancy package for the office staff which would have included Meritor. After we had gone the domestic driver were then told that their operations would be out of Sheerness, so the dom drivers were redundant also. Now we are being shown a nice bunch of subbies who then pulled for UCC, and MERI WHO wants us to be pleased that he has photo’s of them, and also in Warley depot. I can only think that Meritor was a Brain imput with little brain.What do the real UCC men say?. Incidentally I later heard Nick Goodwin on the radio Lauding HIS Forsey middle east drivers, Makes you Wonder, Bill.
william sparrow:
Hi lads, our site seems to have died with the demise of meritor. Lets look at the facts that led up to him chucking his dummy and throwing his toys out of the pram. After Cooper got sacked, Morris was put in to close us down. It started with continental operations. Brains cowboys were running bent with our trailers and one day I was asked by Nick Goodwin to take a load overnight to Glasgow fruit market and be there by six am. there would be fourty pounds in my hand. I refused and told him that at that time 450 ks was the max allowed by law and that would have been Carlisle, so the answer was no. Again Mr Yogi Bear of Brains did the job, Shortly after the continental men were made redundant, it was then that Midge and I were asked by the TandG officer to negotiate a redundancy package for the office staff which would have included Meritor. After we had gone the domestic driver were then told that their operations would be out of Sheerness, so the dom drivers were redundant also. Now we are being shown a nice bunch of subbies who then pulled for UCC, and MERI WHO wants us to be pleased that he has photo’s of them, and also in Warley depot. I can only think that Meritor was a Brain imput with little brain.What do the real UCC men say?. Incidentally I later heard Nick Goodwin on the radio Lauding HIS Forsey middle east drivers, Makes you Wonder, Bill.
hi bill, i have posted on here before . i was on for geo,davies & son from 1977 until we to were finished up in 1989.we moved into warley depot in 1978 and at that time there was four UCC men still there( tommy bosher,ray trenkel and kieth forrester and albert jordan)as well as joe palmer and jim mcbarron. after moving to warley we ran all the remaining UCC fridges for a few years until the contracts ran out i suppose but they were never renewed and the reefers were then parked up and eventually disappeared.we did get one new contract for Premier foods out of thamesmead south london but that was about it.in liverpool there were three men on regular UCC contracts and there were still one or two men in southampton. i must say though at no time when gds was in warley did brain haulage do any of our work so it must have been before my time.
anyway thats my fourpennath keep the memories coming.
steve.