A photo from 1973-4 My dads Mercedes with our van 1372UP new 1962 so about 12 years old at the time. The photo taken at Atkins Transport Derby. The driver had been delivering a load of Tricity Fridges round the Midlands and was to pick a removal up when empty, and my Dad who was going down to that area, dropped a porter off to help him load . Atkins took that photo & used it in their publicity material
The photo was taken by Picture Post in 1952 , a magazine equal to ‘Hello’ today. Put on the centre page with photos of the then new town, Newton Aycliffe, along with the Queen officially cutting the tape to open the town. This was, in fact, the first removal of a family into the first newly built house in Newton Aycliffe. The photographer had my dad (On the left) who was the driver of the Bedford OB (Passenger chassis) Bedford, along with the porter, Jackie Birch (Who had at that time worked for us about 25 years) stand in a puddle to illustrate it was still a building site.
A photo taking us back to the 1950s showing my Grandfather William Henry Williams in our Garage in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor. These were the days when you parked overnight in a garage and Marmaduke street could accommodate (at a pinch) 9 vans.
The car is my Grandfathers Rover 60 bought new from Fred Dinsdale and son , Rover distributors of Yarm Lane Stockton in 1955, who we had a history going back to 1930s. My grandfather had this car and all subsequent & no doubt previous Rovers washed and polished (Not by him) after each journey, no matter how short.
The van (At least the one that is clearly visible) HTH882 was the youngest of our 3 Petrol Bedford SBs registered in 1953 with bodywork by Spurlings of Edgware a company we had known since 1948 when they exhibited a Bedford O model 5 tonner they had built for us at The 1948 Commercial Motor Show in Earls Court.
Our second had been built by Marsden of Warrington, which was as always an excellent body, but in fairness the Spurling was the Rolls Royce of van bodys built like a battleship and quite well styled. Very modern for its day.
The Garage built 1946 had been built on the huge garden of 14 Marmaduke Street replacing a much smaller one, and going back even further stables.
I suspect from the clear skill of the photo, blacking nearly everything out, it had been taken by me.
Carl Williams:
A photo taking us back to the 1950s showing my Grandfather William Henry Williams in our Garage in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor. These were the days when you parked overnight in a garage and Marmaduke street could accommodate (at a pinch) 9 vans.
The car is my Grandfathers Rover 60 bought new from Fred Dinsdale and son , Rover distributors of Yarm Lane Stockton in 1955, who we had a history going back to 1930s. My grandfather had this car and all subsequent & no doubt previous Rovers washed and polished (Not by him) after each journey, no matter how short.
The van (At least the one that is clearly visible) HTH882 was the youngest of our 3 Petrol Bedford SBs registered in 1953 with bodywork by Spurlings of Edgware a company we had known since 1948 when they exhibited a Bedford O model 5 tonner they had built for us at The 1948 Commercial Motor Show in Earls Court.
Our second had been built by Marsden of Warrington, which was as always an excellent body, but in fairness the Spurling was the Rolls Royce of van bodys built like a battleship and quite well styled. Very modern for its day.
The Garage built 1946 had been built on the huge garden of 14 Marmaduke Street replacing a much smaller one, and going back even further stables.
I suspect from the clear skill of the photo, blacking nearly everything out, it had been taken by me.
Blimey Carl that brought back memories! First car I owned, 1970, she was near the end of her life but she was mine all mine. She broke her back so I lashed/bodged
a railway sleeper between boot n passenger area n got a good few more months out of her. Must have been nuts. 
coomsey:
Carl Williams:
A photo taking us back to the 1950s showing my Grandfather William Henry Williams in our Garage in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor. These were the days when you parked overnight in a garage and Marmaduke street could accommodate (at a pinch) 9 vans.
The car is my Grandfathers Rover 60 bought new from Fred Dinsdale and son , Rover distributors of Yarm Lane Stockton in 1955, who we had a history going back to 1930s. My grandfather had this car and all subsequent & no doubt previous Rovers washed and polished (Not by him) after each journey, no matter how short.
The van (At least the one that is clearly visible) HTH882 was the youngest of our 3 Petrol Bedford SBs registered in 1953 with bodywork by Spurlings of Edgware a company we had known since 1948 when they exhibited a Bedford O model 5 tonner they had built for us at The 1948 Commercial Motor Show in Earls Court.
Our second had been built by Marsden of Warrington, which was as always an excellent body, but in fairness the Spurling was the Rolls Royce of van bodys built like a battleship and quite well styled. Very modern for its day.
The Garage built 1946 had been built on the huge garden of 14 Marmaduke Street replacing a much smaller one, and going back even further stables.
I suspect from the clear skill of the photo, blacking nearly everything out, it had been taken by me.Blimey Carl that brought back memories! First car I owned, 1970, she was near the end of her life but she was mine all mine. She broke her back so I lashed/bodged
a railway sleeper between boot n passenger area n got a good few more months out of her. Must have been nuts.
Hi Coomsey,
Yes that model Rover was a very good car, with a lot of components common to first Land Rovers. They used the Rover 60 Engine in the LandRover for many years, long after the car had stopped being produced. My Grandfather & Father between them had a 1961 Rover 80 and a 1963 Rover 110 which I can state did 110 mph as well as a 1960 Rover 3 litre and a 1966 Rover 3 litre Coupe.
My Grandfather got a new Rover 75 in 1946 which he didn’t like or keep long & I have vague recolections of riding in black Rover 12s & 14s but the 1955 Rover 60 I remember well & drove it occasionally when I started driving.
I probably was at school the day they bought it but remember my mother saying she went along in the back of the Rover 14 to collect it with £1150 cash in her handbag which my Grandfather had counted out & given her the job of carrying it. In those days (1955) that was a lot of money, & my mother had never held that amount in her hands before.
My Grandfather kept it until 1964 The longest he ever had kept a car in his life, and he really liked it. He sold it to one of my Grandmother’s sisters’ husband for £350 with about 30,000 miles on the clock and it was mechanically perfect, almost like new. He kept it years, used & misused it like a van then often as a taxi carrying various millionair’s widows from St Albans where he lived to and from Heath Row, and he said even though it was old, they liked riding in it.
On another site someone said ‘I bet you wish you had that reg no today?’ and I replied I wish I had kept the car, but when we sold it we thought it was just an old car. How things have changed and increased so much in value
Something triggered my mind back to about 1976 & the 2 days I visited the Saviem (Renault Trucks) factory in Normandy
It was quite interesting as a party of us including, I remember Wendy Craig the TV actress’s brother Alistair left Darlington on a Scots Grey Coach to Southampton sleeping in cabins for two nights on overnight trips by Ferry to & from France.
It was quite interesting as we were taken and shown where the first British troops came on shore to Liberate France in the D Day Landings as well as guided tour of the Truck Assembly Plant.
On the way home on the A1 about Ripon on the Horizon I saw one of our vans in ATM (Advance Textile Mills) livery and I asked the bus driver to catch him up & pull him over, so I could return home directly to Spennymoor. ‘At the speed he’s doing I’ll have a job’ he said. And if proof was needed our Bedfords couldn’t half move. I stood at the front of the bus and as he pulled alongside I saw it was Dennis Lee who lived in Crook.
In 1974 Advanced Throwing Mills as it was then had a large factory at Crook and a smaller one in West Auckland. They ran 9 vans like the one in the photo, which had originally been in ATM livery but repainted in our own when the factories sadly closed about 4 years later. They had belonged to the Pretty Polly group (Famous for nylon stockings) and about 40% of production went to Pretty Polly. ATM was sold (in 1974) to Monsanto a massive American Company & were told they had to close their inefficient Transport department & contract to a company like ours.
I was fortunate to negotiate a mutually agreed deal that we would buy the 9 vans which were from almost new to oldest 5 years old. 2 AEC Mercuries 16- ton GVW 2 Leyland Boxers 14- ton GVW 4 Bedford KG’s 14.5 -ton GVW and 1 Ford D800. We would offer employment to their 9 drivers however on our base rate wage which was slightly less than they had plus our productive commission which would greatly enhance their take home pay but they wold need to be much more efficient & productive. We also agreed that we could park 9 vehicles at their factory at New Road Crook, not that we needed additional parking space at our Spennymoor depot but so that the 9 drivers who mostly lived in Crook occurred no additional travelling costs travelling to & from work. We also agreed that we would keep 5 vehicles in ATM livery repainted at our cost with the new name Advanced Textile Mills.
So, 4 vehicles were repainted into our livery and mostly used on Courtaulds work, at their Worcester Spinning Division factory in Spennymoor where we also provided all the transport replacing 4 older vans in our fleet. 5 ATM drivers accepted & came to us 4 declined and found work elsewhere.
Dennis Lee who lived in Crook was one of the ex-ATM workers that transferred to us and it was he who I had seen in the distance & I got into the cab with as I thanked the Scots Grey bus driver & bid farewell to my fellow travellers. I had never got to know Dennis too well until the time travelling back to Spennymoor as he was always a quiet type, often sat on his own in our drivers rest room, not mixing that well with the other drivers, but sitting together in the Bedford Cab it broke the ice and the journey passed in no time as we talked from subject to subject. Dennis as all the other five stayed with us after ATM closed, the vans got repainted as the one in the photo did and were used on different work that often dried up as factories after factories closed and when we closed in 1986 Dennis found work as a tipper driver.
Years later I made friends with his niece, Pauline Lee and her partner and we spoke several times about her late uncle Dennis. I don’t wish to cast aspersions but to put it mildly the tipper Dennis went on to drive had not been given the standard of maintenance as our vans and one day driving down Crawley side bank the brakes had failed. Being very heavily loaded the suicide lanes put in at the side of the road to hopefully stop vehicles going over the top had failed to impede such a heavy mass. Dennis, seeing there was no hope had opened his cab door and jumped only for his coat pocket caught itself into the door handle and trap him between the cab and a tree and he died immediately.
For my part the journey from Ripon to Spennymoor is always a thought I will remember coupled with his tragic accident as it gave me a chance to really get to know such a nice quiet but deep-thinking man
I always enjoy reading your posts on here Carl. Some, as above, poignant.
You may have said before, what happened to WH Williams at Nationalisation? My dad’s removals operation wasn’t huge, so it was subsumed into BRS and Pickfords, which I think was run by the biggest local haulier at that time, Athersmith Brothers.
My next question is, which again may have been answered earlier on this thread, what did you personally do when you closed the business down?
John.
Carl Williams:
coomsey:
Carl Williams:
A photo taking us back to the 1950s showing my Grandfather William Henry Williams in our Garage in Marmaduke Street Spennymoor. These were the days when you parked overnight in a garage and Marmaduke street could accommodate (at a pinch) 9 vans.
The car is my Grandfathers Rover 60 bought new from Fred Dinsdale and son , Rover distributors of Yarm Lane Stockton in 1955, who we had a history going back to 1930s. My grandfather had this car and all subsequent & no doubt previous Rovers washed and polished (Not by him) after each journey, no matter how short.
The van (At least the one that is clearly visible) HTH882 was the youngest of our 3 Petrol Bedford SBs registered in 1953 with bodywork by Spurlings of Edgware a company we had known since 1948 when they exhibited a Bedford O model 5 tonner they had built for us at The 1948 Commercial Motor Show in Earls Court.
Our second had been built by Marsden of Warrington, which was as always an excellent body, but in fairness the Spurling was the Rolls Royce of van bodys built like a battleship and quite well styled. Very modern for its day.
The Garage built 1946 had been built on the huge garden of 14 Marmaduke Street replacing a much smaller one, and going back even further stables.
I suspect from the clear skill of the photo, blacking nearly everything out, it had been taken by me.Blimey Carl that brought back memories! First car I owned, 1970, she was near the end of her life but she was mine all mine. She broke her back so I lashed/bodged
a railway sleeper between boot n passenger area n got a good few more months out of her. Must have been nuts.Hi Coomsey,
Yes that model Rover was a very good car, with a lot of components common to first Land Rovers. They used the Rover 60 Engine in the LandRover for many years, long after the car had stopped being produced. My Grandfather & Father between them had a 1961 Rover 80 and a 1963 Rover 110 which I can state did 110 mph as well as a 1960 Rover 3 litre and a 1966 Rover 3 litre Coupe.
My Grandfather got a new Rover 75 in 1946 which he didn’t like or keep long & I have vague recolections of riding in black Rover 12s & 14s but the 1955 Rover 60 I remember well & drove it occasionally when I started driving.
I probably was at school the day they bought it but remember my mother saying she went along in the back of the Rover 14 to collect it with £1150 cash in her handbag which my Grandfather had counted out & given her the job of carrying it. In those days (1955) that was a lot of money, & my mother had never held that amount in her hands before.My Grandfather kept it until 1964 The longest he ever had kept a car in his life, and he really liked it. He sold it to one of my Grandmother’s sisters’ husband for £350 with about 30,000 miles on the clock and it was mechanically perfect, almost like new. He kept it years, used & misused it like a van then often as a taxi carrying various millionair’s widows from St Albans where he lived to and from Heath Row, and he said even though it was old, they liked riding in it.
On another site someone said ‘I bet you wish you had that reg no today?’ and I replied I wish I had kept the car, but when we sold it we thought it was just an old car. How things have changed and increased so much in value
Good memories I reckon Carl. In the mid 80s I was working on an opencast site n one of the shovel drivers,Bob Chadwick,had a mint 110, he took to me n the outcome of it was that he offered me first refusal on her at a very reasonable price. I was well chuffed so had a test spin in her. Nostalgia is all well n good but unfortunately the reality was a bit of a let down n I,in hindsight, stupidly turned him down.cheers coomsey.
John West:
I always enjoy reading your posts on here Carl. Some, as above, poignant.You may have said before, what happened to WH Williams at Nationalisation? My dad’s removals operation wasn’t huge, so it was subsumed into BRS and Pickfords, which I think was run by the biggest local haulier at that time, Athersmith Brothers.
My next question is, which again may have been answered earlier on this thread, what did you personally do when you closed the business down?
John.
Hi John,
You ask a really good question there about Nationalisation and I don’t know the answer. I’ll over the next few or four days set out three accounts of where we were & what was happening just before war broke out, then, what happened during the war, & finally where we were & what was happening immediately after the war, and perhaps you or someone else can put the jigsaw together & give me the answer.
However I don’t know how comprehensive nationalisation was because I know Alfred Bell at Newcastle who had about 30 vans & Hoults both avoided it, but one thing I do know my Grandfather would have done anything to do so. He would not have broken the law & bribed but all knew him would understand. In my life I have met many people but no-one like him. Things he achieved he never told me but I’ve heard from others. He never threatened to do things just did them & never mentioned afterwards.
As for me. I trained for 3-4 years to be an accountant after we finnished, and opened my own practice. I had lived through part of my life when my dad was paying 19/6 in the £1 tax with Supertax. He told me I want you to learn about tax when I was at school & many accountants don’t. Many have never been in competitive businesses and I had an advantage when I started my accountancy business of hating Tax collectors.
I was fortunate that it was a time when many self employed were starting out. I could advise which most accountants could not but my big advantage was I couldn’t stand to think HMRC got 1 penny more out of anyone than they needed. I got my first break by a Chancellor-PM that personally I think was more suitable for a place in a backward school for liars. Gordon (Gormless as I called him ) Brown. He came up with an idea (Which obviously had not been thought through as he soon cancelled after about three years) that Limited Companies should not be charged tax on the first £10,000 profit. Many of the brain -dead accountants in our area didn’t understand either, that your average Self Employed could for about a tenner could form a Limited Company and from that alone save themselves about £3500 per year Putting that together with paying themselves the minimum needed to pay just a little National insurance to maintain their pension & taking the remainder in dividend (Paying Cororation tax which was about equal to income tax but saving on National Insurance) made it a bargain
So I was in a possition to offer a big saving to so many new clients, and quickly had over 700 with a staff of 7. However one of these was a person I gave a chance to who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and I was assured provided he kept to his medication he was as good as the next man.
After working for me about6 years I had a complaint that he was bullying other members of staff in particular the females. I suspended him & he went off sick with me having to pay sick pay or speak to him. Eventually we had a meeting where upon entering the meeting room I had hired at independent location he told me that he had been advised if I said anything he didn’t want to hear he should walk out. To which I said ‘Well we’re not going to get very far’ & after a few more words sacked him.
He did me for Unfair dismissal He got legal aid I did not. The legalities prior he hearing lasted 2 years incurring huge legal fees for me. I also was advised as he had mental health issues there was no restriction to the amount he could be awarded up to 1 million pound was quoted. I could go onbut in the end he got about £30,000 plus it cost a small fortune in legal fees.
At the same time, in parallel the financial crash which I haven’t a shadow of doubt was caused in UK by Gormless Brown meant my clients, a lot in the building trade experienced destruction in their work and I was with all the pressure experiencing headakes like my head was exploding. My short tem memory had gone I was making mistakes which finally ended with me driving to the doctors after waking with me loosing the ability to move oneside of my body. I stuck the car into third with my right hand & drove about 3 miles with one arm unable to change gear. Went in saw the nurse, who got the doctor who said I was having a heart attack & got an ambulance & took me to hospital where they decided it was not but in about 2 month I was diagnosed with Frontal Lobe dementia. I sold my business to the six members of staff, 3 taking a share each & retired.
I am now, I’m pleased to say in happy retirement with my 1 year old little Pug dog keeping me company I have my son who phones me while he travels to and from work every day & we squeaze about 1 meal out a week together. My daughter keeps in regular contact & I have three heathy young grandchildren. I also have a wonderful female friend who I see three or four times a week. My main activity is twitter where I have apprioching 5,000 followers. I mainly tweet about politics and have several MPs as followers and one politial journalist well known on TV who has about 40,000 followers and only followas about 40 one of whom is me (So my tweets mustn’t be that stupid) Ive said one or two things which I’ve seen by politicians being quoted word for word on TV (It might be coincidence )
So John that brings a bit up to date & I’ll get my mind back to what I was told 1939-1952 & perhaps explain how we were’nt nationaised.I have one hell of a memory of the past 1960-80 my specialist area, but with a computer & Twitter I recon I can keep my brain going, and all in well I think I am keeping dementia at bay
Hi Carl,
I also love to read your interesting stories of your time at the helm with WH WHILLIAMS…look forward to the next chapter.
Regards Mark
As I said, John I would answer your question about Nationalisation & how my Grandfather avoided it in three parts.
Just before the start of the war 1939
My dad was 18 years old and had worked officially in the business since he left school at 13 years old, although like me had had served his apprentice from being about 5.
My Grandfather ran 6 wagons oldest 1934 Morris Commercial Luton van 4 Bedford 2 tonners all under 2 years old drop siders which could be used as platforms or built up into cattleboxes one year old Bedford 3ocwt dropsider A New 1939 reg black Rover 14 (My dad & he collected it new from the Rover Factory which had been closed for Car Manufacturing to switch for war production) My dad’s car a Clemment Talbot sports car (Fairly new)
I don’t know when friendships were cultivated but 2 very good friends
One Mr Murray Durham City MP covering Spennymoor
Other Major ( Can’t remember name) Commanding officer of the army camp at Brancepeth (3 miles from Spennymoor)
He spent quite a lot of time visiting House Of Commons meeting Mr Murray saying he had done enough in 1st world war and was determined his son, my dad was not going into the army in second something he never gave up on until he got my dad discharged. Anyone might think it was 'Love and Care of his only child but my dad was convinced he was not wanting to loose the use of a slave (Which he felt he was) I’ll go into what the average day’s work our drivers and porters did 5.00AM till often 9.00PM 6 days a week. No work was done on a Sunday (Not I’m sure for religious reasons)
Murray was a Labour MP. My Grandfather was a Conservative through and through and would never compromise his views yet somehow they got on and on occasion Murray asked questions in ‘The House’ that came directly from my Grandfather’s lips. I once said to my Grandfather didn’t he ever get sick of arguing and he said their was nothing he liked better than a good argument.
The Major loved to go Horse Racing and my Grandfather spent many days with him at York races. I think he was hedgeing his bets thinking he might be able to keep my dad at Brancepeth camp should he not be able to stop him being called up.
My Grandmother was certainly no cook but often on a night at teatime (about 6 o’clock) the table was set for the MP, Major, our local Doctor to have tea finnished with Whisky no doubt as they discussed world affairs.
In 1939 nearly all goods brought into Spennymoor came by train Long distance road transport was in its infancy.
My Grandfathers business broke into three parts. Delivery of Groceries & furniture from local shops Carrying cattle from Farmers to Market at Darlintgton Mart, Sedgefield Mart, Ferryhill Mart occasionally Newcastle & then after the cattle had been sold delivering back to local butchers. Removals which had since the 1920s been carried on platforms built up to twice wardrobe height & roped & sheeted.
Bearing in mind not many people in our area were going to move during the war and new furniture was going to be quite rare as all manufacturing was going to be consentrating on war effort the army comandeered the Morris Commercial Luton van & my Grandfather’ luckly’ located a two month old Bedford 2 tonner dropsided which he had adapted identical to his others to convert into a cattletruck which could be knocked down to dropsided or flat when required. They never took any other vehicles with the 6 Bedfords lasting right through the war years. Lucky? Convenient? Makes you wonder?
My dad said throughout the war & after they never experienced what rationing was. He went for his cigarettes which he smoked for England to a local tobaconist on a night after the shop closed so no-one saw how many he bought.
Finally and perhaps most amazing my Grandfather got the job of allocating the petrol coupons to everyone in the Spennymoor area so he decided how much petrol everyone got. Needlessly he never had to worry how much he used .
Very interesting Carl! Keep up the good work.
My dad was born in 1905, so when the war came, he was just about old enough to keep out of it, besides being needed to run a business that was necessary to the war effort.
Dad of course bought his petrol in bulk. He used to slip the wagon driver ten bob to ensure his petrol wasn’t dyed, so he could use it in the car as well as the vans; but that kind of pales into insignificance compared to dishing out the coupons!
John.
John West:
Very interesting Carl! Keep up the good work.My dad was born in 1905, so when the war came, he was just about old enough to keep out of it, besides being needed to run a business that was necessary to the war effort.
Dad of course bought his petrol in bulk. He used to slip the wagon driver ten bob to ensure his petrol wasn’t dyed, so he could use it in the car as well as the vans; but that kind of pales into insignificance compared to dishing out the coupons!
John.
Hi John, We too had our own tank & pump, and sold petrol as well as using it ourselves.but mostly to the local doctors. I was taught from an early age totake careful note of the dips when tanker drivers delivered. Our petrol tank was 600 gal & we bought 500 gal at a time. (We used our own pump until about 1977 for our cars) The tanker drivers used to take a dip A full compartent was 500 gal deliver the petrol & than take a second dip showing it dry but an experienced driver could keep the end of his fingers over the top of the dip stick to show dry when he had some left in which he could sell. One driver tried to sell to my Grandfather & he immediatly rang Shell and reported him as he always said it could be him who the driver was stealing from next time.
Like you said we were classified as a ‘Essential service’ and as I shall explain when I deal with the war years we were regulated by the Ministry of Food which trumped the ministry of transport and GV9s etc could be ignored, and it was this that my Grandfather was relying on to keep my dad out of the army.
The next parts are about Cattle Carrying and haulage of meat which I hope perhaps Cattlecarrierman or Tyneside read and correct any gaps I leave as I have very little experience in this area, as our last Cattle Truck was sold about 1954 and although I have slight recolections of riding in it I was very young. Its strange but the smell of a cattle truck, even though I was so young is something you never forget. I was walking through the village of Coxhoe a few weeks ago waiting to be picked up by my son, Paul and there in the air was the smell. Its not an unpleasant smell something quite unique and as I looked arround there in a kind of farmyard amogst houses was a cattletruck.
As I said removal trade here in NE will have dropped very low during the war but I was told of one they did from London up to West Cornforth, a small village near Durham. I don’t know if you remember Billy Cotton and his Band from Sat night BBC or Sunday noon radio in the 50-60s. Well one of his musicians moved with his family to West Conforth. The war had just begun and the government closed all theatres & night clubs and I don’t know if he or his wife’s family came from County Durham but our van had just arrived to unload when a telegram arrived ‘We’re back in business so get yourself back straight away’ The government had realised that entertainment kept the moral high and reopened theatres & night clubs. I think he left his wife & family up here and was pleased he had done so when the blitz came.
The final thought I have is how you felt taking over from your father. Often people said to me ‘I had been born with a Silver Spoon in my mouth’ but Unless you have experienced it the pressure to prove yourself is very hard. Especially for my dad.
My Grandfather and dad had to say the least a very difficult relationship and didn’t get on whereas with me my dad & me worked very well together, which I’m pleased to say carried on with my son & me. I can only once remember being in a car with my Grandfather & dad together. I was very young and for some reason they were going together with my Grandmother, Mother & me to see a van they were going to buy.I think I must have just been about 5 and remember they had to go accross The Snake. A section of road I never have needed to cross. Where they were going I don’t know but The Snake stayed in my mind. I can only think it was the days as ownership was passing from my Grandfather to my dad. I thik Dad ran the business but my Grandfather controlled the money & signed the cheques, I never have or wish to have a journey again like it as there was continual arguing.
This was particularly noticeable when my dad had a heart attack and spent over a week in hospital. I was at school & too young to drive but given the job of running the business. I planned each day in advance (As best you can) and went into hospital on a night & told dad what I was doing, drew the wages out of the bank & made up the pay notes throughout that under no circumstances should I discuss or involve my Grandfather, who was curious but knew to keep his nose out. Whatever I did it was up to me and my decision.
For my part my driving started when I was in 6th form at school studying for my ‘A levels’ so it was confined to school holidays. What ever I did I was expected to do better than any driver we had. Although as I explained by then my Grandfather was not involved in managing the business he and my dad had their ‘Expertations’ of me, and neither of them wanted to see me slacking, When I finally left school the amount of time I had available for driving reduced & reduced as I had so much work to do checking on drivers and seeing to customers etc, and very soon the only chances was filling in when drivers were sick etc and collecting new vans. How often I just wished to go out with a van even if it was just on a removal.
Hiya,
Brilliant Carl, a great read and eagerly await the next episode.
thanks harry, long retired.
marktaff:
Carl Williams:
The driver in this Ford Transcontinental was Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper The police coming regularly to our office to check the drivers records to see who had been in the area following a murder A young DC Eddie came regularly who I understand went onto being a very senior officer. His parents had the fish & chip shop near the Variety Club. So they were correct in suspecting a lorry driver. One or two of our drivers were near the murder scenes, but one in particular was every time, until when they checked next murder he was in North Scotland, or he would have been a suspect. One of our drivers from Ferryhill area who drove a D series artic, & often gave a lift at dinner time to girls in our office to Smart & Brown’s canteen was a masked ■■■■■■. He had broken down in Southampton with a minor problem & was towed to the local Ford agents and as they hadn’t got the park had to stay from the afternoon until the next day and was caught with a mask on after committing a ■■■■ and they really thought they had got the ripper as in his cab they found ■■■■■■■■■■■ where he had attacked the photos with a knife and thrown darts at the naked women. I think he was a Laurie PetchHi Carl,
You have jogged a memory for me with this story you tell here…it was around 1979…80 I was portering at the time I was around 17…18 years old…we were taking a removal up to Middlesbrough. …we were in a Ford D series D1311 T reg Vanplan body pretty new at the time…on the way back from Middlesbrough we stopped for the night in Ripon Yorkshire…at this time the Yorkshire Ripper has he was known was still at large…early hours of the morning we were woken by the local Police …they made us get up get out of the vehicle with loads of questions and serched the vehicle…obviously at that time looking for Peter Sutcliffe. …something I will never forget…obviously they never found Sutcliffe in our vanI’ve seen that pic of Sutcliffe driving that Transcon many times over the years…very chilling to think what he was capable of.
Hello Carl, great stories and memory joggers. The “ripper” brings back many thoughts, Wetheby was a regular stop for us at Waughs in the 70s/80s. The police were always on the cattle market lorry park usually just cruising around. One of our drivers had a more serious encounter with them when he got pulled for speeding on the A1. The police obviously had a good description of the monster they were looking for, and the now infamous “Jack” with the North East accent was leading them in the wrong direction. Anyway, the lad they stopped for speeding, (Derek Scullion) fit all the criteria they were using at the time, he had black curly hair and a beard and a Geordie accent, which although not the same as the Wearside accent of the hoaxer was close enough to confuse the plod. Also Derek was about 6’2" and built like a heavyweight boxer!! But he still got a night in the cells. It really shook him up!! Keep the stories going Carl, they’re great. Regards Kev.
Just when I thought all photos had appeared this turned up on E-bay
Thorn Heating had decided to base their central nationwide spares department at Team valley Gateshead and they invited me along for a discussion about their nationwide deliveries to their service departments.
They had decided to provide a weekly delivery to each depot throughout England, Scotland & wales and wanted a vehicle and driver to do a weekly bus service. We agreed that we would provide a new vehicle painted in their livery and CUP 305L was the result.
Our natural choice would be a Bedford KG Marsden integral van built to our standard specifications complete with Radcliffe tail lift however Marsdens had been building us a series of Seddon Pennine pantechnicons all of which had been very protracted deliveries and months late. In fact on the day I got agreement from Thorn Heating we had a Seddon chassis with them with no sign of delivery and an Leyland 350FG which had been with them months waiting to have the body built (Which in fact only came two weeks before CUP 305L)
A week or two earlier Gerry Crowe had called (To be told off for late deliveries) but told us he was leaving Marsdens to start Vanplan, so we gave him a ring to build us a va quickly. As it happened he could help as they were having a problem with the mould for the Fibreglass cab & front for the pantechnicons and he could build us a boxvan (In Fibreglass) in three weeks. Bill Peacock from Adams & Gibbons Durham, the Bedford Main agents had a KG chassis cab in stock which we bought & sent down to Vanplans new factory. They cut the chassis and extended it built the body & painted and within four weeks we had the new van loading its first load at Thorn Heating. I believe it was the third van that Vanplan built after starting production. Although a boxvan apart from having no luton it was same size as our Bedford Integrals of the day and when it was 5 years old we replaced it with a new Bedford KH boxvan built by our company Coachskill Ltd. CUP 305L was repainted in our cream & brown livery and stayed with us till we closed in 1986.
CUP was given to the late Tony Kirk who drove it for 5 years on Thorn Heating job, and I suspect that will be Tony sat in the cab in the photo. David his son might recognise his dad when he sees this, and I bet almost every day he wished it had been a pantechnicon rather than the cramped standard TK cab.
One thing I noticed I have a photo when it was bran new ex-Vanplan and it had no illuminated cab-top sign , so we must have fitted the Hatcher top we used on all boxvans & tractor units so it will have been written by Peter Butler whereas the rest of the van by Vanplan’s sign writer, and its thanks to that illuminated sign that I got the photo as without it, it would not have been identified as one of our vans
In about 1972 Bill Peackock, Commercial sales manager of Adams & Gibbons, Vauxhall, Bedford agents Durham, asked if we were interested in buying two Bedford KF Luton vans he had supplied new two years earlier to a Durham Company Halls who supplied Glasses & catering equipment to pubs, cafes etc in Durham County. GPT233H HUP326H.
They were Bedford KFs 330 cu in diesel engines built on standard length chassis cabs HUP326H about 1400 cu ft and GPT233H 1000 cu ft. (Being built with a much lower body to its higher sister and a totally useless luton which hadn’t any useful height) They both were built to use as more or less travelling shops with almost totally enclosed rear with just a pedestrian door into the rear which was racked either side with shelves) Halls had decided that two Bedford CF lutons would be handier as they didn’t need HGV drivers. Both vans had less than 10,000 miles on the clock
We bought them and modified the rear in our workshops with Marsden style rear frame, underslung tailboard & shutters. Thankfully they had been built with wheelboxes & drop wells. They were both used almost exclusively on small-medium removals and HUP being larger did a few long distance whereas GPT was too small to be economic. However at the time local authorities were carrying out refurbishment of their housing stock and we covered Sedgefield District, Wear Valley, City of Durham and Barnard Castle, and GPT was ideal for this work.
However it was doing very low mileage about 1974-5 we decided to remove the small body which was put up the far Western end of our warehouse and used for storage of tyres. We cut the chassis and extended the wheelbase to take 28ft body and it was fitted with demountable equipment and the photo shows the results with it spending many years carrying new furniture for New Equipment Steel Style Furniture.
Hi Carl.
Just read your latest post and (as you do) some earlier ones, and noticed your family was peripherally involved in politics. I was at school with Rodney Atkinson (Rowan’s older brother) who was part of the early set up of UKIP until falling out with N Farage. I realise that he’s a bit further north than you, but wondered if you knew him? We exchanged emails a few months ago, but apart from that haven’t kept in touch.
Which also reminded me that one of the ‘prefects’ was Bill Elliot, whose family had a removals business at Morpeth. Do you remember them?
John.
Hiya,
Carl would like to wish you and your family a very happy New Year and to
thank you for the very interesting posts you have put out over the past
year and look forwards to more posts in this new year. Thank you.
John West:
Hi Carl.Just read your latest post and (as you do) some earlier ones, and noticed your family was peripherally involved in politics. I was at school with Rodney Atkinson (Rowan’s older brother) who was part of the early set up of UKIP until falling out with N Farage. I realise that he’s a bit further north than you, but wondered if you knew him? We exchanged emails a few months ago, but apart from that haven’t kept in touch.
Which also reminded me that one of the ‘prefects’ was Bill Elliot, whose family had a removals business at Morpeth. Do you remember them?
John.
Hi John,
My involvement in politics is mostly via Twitter & strangely I have almost 4,500 followers including several well known political journalists & a few MPs, some of which have thousands of followers but follow only a few. Why they chose me ■■? to follow. However I have made comments on Twitter that I have heard repeated a week or two later on TV. Coincidence ? However they have to get their ideas somewhere.
My Grandfather was different, however I think he used his political connections for his own benefit. Friendly with a Labour MP but not in anyway surrendering his Conservative thoughts & beliefs. He did however put up to be a Durham County Councillor as an Independent, which was the excuse for Conservative thinkers in County Durham, where 80% of the population would aproach a conservative with a cross & garlic. Remarcably he nearly won in a seat that had been Labour for ever. There were three re-counts and my mother who was watching the count & had been helping him campaign, swor the ballot papers had been interfered with to ensure Labour Win, but even then just by a handful of votes.
My dad never took much interest in politics apart from agreeing if my Grandfather had won he would have entered County Hall like a bomb blowing up as he would have done a lot of good. My dad always said Business wise we always did better under a Lab Gov as they threw money arround, but paid the cost afterwards. However all of us knew to keep our political & any religious views to ourselves in business.
I did not know either of the Gentlemen you mentioned. The only Elliot I knew was Fred Elliot Removals Durham. However I went to Bow School Durham and then onto Durham School, and during a school holiday when I was 17 and driving, I drove my mother to Newcastle, and at tea time we went into Fenwick’s restaurant & sitting at a table were the two Miss Blair’s with their nephew Tony. They had been teachers at Kings Street school Spennymoor and had taught my mother. they asked us to join them at their table. As they talked I spoke to Tony who was a pupil at Chorister’s School Durham (Bow & Choristers were rivals). He had just taken his Common Enterance Exam & I asked was he going to Durham School & he said no he was going to Fettes. Rowan Atkinson had been in his year at Choristers.
Such a small world isn’t it
Best wishes for 2019
Carl
