Recently watching TV Series Dalgleish on Channel 5 (which I can recommend) reminded me of when Roy Marsden played the part of the P.D.James created detective and the day I met Roy and his wife actress Polly Hemingway on the set of the Prime Time TV series Airline a British television series produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in 1982. The series starred Roy Marsden as Jack Ruskin, a pilot demobbed after the end of the Second World War who starts his own air transport business.
The filming company had hired our 1937 Bedford as background for the scene where Jack played by Roy Marsden had returned home, jobless after being demobbed. In the street where he lived was our van at a neighbours house doing a removal and a horse drawn milk float was travelling down the street.
I had driven the Bedford down to Headingly near Leeds where the filming took place and parked the van where told and then proceeded into an old bus which was the mobile canteen. I was sat next to the sound engineer who told me quite a bit about the filming including that there was to be a air crash scene which was then the most expensive filming for TV, however he told me they would recoup their costs over & over again as segments could be re-used on any future projects when they needed an air crash. I particularly remember the day as it wasn’t long after the body of one of the Yorkshire Rippers bodies had been found near where we were filming.
I had a particularly enjoyable day as I stood with the producer and his team whilst filming took place. Actors played the removal van team milkman etc and it just involved Roy Marsden walking down the street saying good morning to passers by, but I was so surprised that what was just 2 minutes on the TV took nearly a full day to film.
We had enrolled our two vintage vans the 1937 2 ton Bedford I was using that day and 1938 30 cwt in a film agency and although we got quite a few film work to do it was the only occasion that work load allowed me to go to watch.
The 2 tonner was particularly popular I suppose because it was obviously pre-war and able to feature from late 1930s to mid 1950s as similar vehicles were common sights over those times. I remember it being used in A Kind of Loving and Dombey & Son which was set in the South East near London and in that case although the van still had our name Removals & Storage and phone number 93 the obliterated Spennymoor and added another town near London (I cannot remember where.
As I said sadly i was unable to spend the time to go to other locations apart from Leeds (Airline) and the van accompanied by Frank Morgan who kept both the vehicles clean & polished travelled with a driver with tractor unit and our low loader as seen carrying the 1938 30 cwt. I think the 30cwt only was used on one occasion as although only a year younger had the more modern radiator cowl that briefly appeared before the war and was discontinued during the war to re-appear in 1946 so it never appeared as old as its sister vehicle and not as adaptable for as many years.
The film companies paid quite well for days filming and transporting to and from locations with our low loader. On one day Frank had to travel down to The Granada TV studios and have a driver drop him and the van off with the low loader on a night and pick him & the van up the following night. When they got inside the studio they needed quite an area that was flat for the van to unload and the only area was the cobbles of the coronation Street set.
Frank had joined us as a class 3 driver and after a couple of years he had difficulty with his wife and family being unable to adapt to the lifestyle of his absence from home about 3 nights a week as a long distance driver and so he had left our employment to work in a saw mill and sadly within 3 weeks he had a tragic accident and lost an arm and when we heard we got him back as yard foreman responsible for the cleaning & turnout of the vehicles. Although he was not allowed to drive on roads he seized every opportunity of driving round our depot and finding himself on the Coronation Street set a Granada would take the van where it was needed for filming.
Frank was sleeping overnight in Granada in ‘The Bedford Hotel’ as he described the van body, but needed to satisfy his other hobby that night in Manchester. Frank will not mind me telling this and in fact will have a good laugh if he ever reads this. Had he not been a wagon driver he would have made an excellent beer taster. The only problem would be he drank it so fast he never really got time to taste. So asking where he could go for a drink he was directed to the Staff & cast’s club in the studio compound where he met and talked to several members of Coronation Street cast who apparently couldn’t help but laugh when he described he was staying in ‘The Bedford Hotel’.
Using the vintage vans on film work was quite lucrative and also provided us with free advertising and even today I get pictures sent to me from enthusiasts who photographed them at various vehicle rally’s etc. Sadly for me Id much rather see photos of our proper vans actually working, but still they are god to see. Our vans were caught however from time to time on TV. On one occasion I got told of one on ITV News at Ten. It was on initially on the headlines and then in the description. I think in London there had been a major bank raid and by the time TV cameras arrived outside on the street to photograph one of our vans featured mid screen delivering next door. On another occasion on the northern news a TV team in ■■■■■■■ in Kendal I believe Tommy Brophy was caught on camera being stopped in snow and asked where he was heading to be told the road was closed.
Sadly going back to Airline, it only ran for one season & was not taken up for a second series, which was a shame as I was enjoying it and never saw it past its first plane, Perhaps it was not popular enough or was costing too much to film
I have some very sad news Eddie Worthington has died of Covid. eddie joined us straight from school and took his car test with us when he was 17 and qualified as HGV driver under Godfather rights when he was 21. He must have been 74 or 75 So sad. I’ve known Eddie almost 60 years. Makes you feel so vulnerable
The other day I was so pleased that Peter Blackshire
had added a photo he had of one of two Bedford KF pantechnicons we ran with bodies by Bowyer Bros (who later traded as Boalloy) from Congleton supplied by Syd Abraham the Manchester Bedford agents/ Apparently the van was caught on camera in 1976 in Leeds obviously passing through roadworks where they appear to have been putting down new white lines.
I was so pleased as I hadn’t a photo of either of these vans and couldn’t remember how we had painted them but they were recognisable by the cream on the front of the cab. For any of our ex-drivers reading this one was driven by Peter Cawood (Known as the fisherman) and it may have been him driving that day. I cannot remember who drove the second.
I know Abrahams sold well over 1000 of these vans and many people swore by them, but in no way could they ever be compared with the standard of work of either Marsden or Vanplan, Although they had a fibreglass moulded cab and front end together with roof, Boalloy never managed to produce fibreglass panelling on the sides and the general finish in particular inside the cab was very poor. The van in the photo looks a lot better from a distance than it ever did close up.
Probably a lot of the reason for this was the price that Syd Abraham screwed Boalloy down to. They had started selling ready made Marsdens from an advert in Commercial Motor and approached Marsden with an incredible offer of 500 vans. As Ken Marsden explained to my father at that time the biggest catch was the price they were prepared to pay and the number they required would mean too much of Marsden’s production capacity would have been ■■■■■■■ and they would need to sacrifice some smaller operators like ourselves who bought directly from them.
Abraham then approached Boalloy who built to the price requirement but compromised on quality. I remember in 1959 my dad had taken our Bedford petrol Marsden along to Mr Noble of Sherwood Wynn coachbuilders of Darlington who had built a number of vans for us over the years. Looking at the Marsden he was appalled at how light weight the wood structure was as he was an old fashioned builder who built as strong as tanks, but that of course meant heavier unladen weight and higher taxation weight (In those days the rate of tax was fixed by the unladen weight) Nobel was wrong. Marsden certainly were not over engineered using the minimum size wood needed but it worked. Their secret was their domed fibreglass roof coupled with an excellent steel back frame that made the bodies very stable and provided the strength needed. The other secret they used was welding the subframe into the chassis and not using ‘U bolts’ that loosened with wear. We ran a lot of Marsdens and never ever had one case of water leak or a cracked rear frame.
We had regular problems with the two Abraham supplied Boalloys. With cracks in the cab mould couple with movement and rattles and leaking roofs, culminating with one of the drivers having a windscreen fall out as he was going down a motorway, so obviously they didn’t survive half as long in our fleet as similarly aged Mardens.
The biggest problem we had with Marsden was the delivery times, We didn’t finance our vans and originally paid cash for our chassis from Adams & Gibbons the Durham Bedford agency when they delivered the chassis to Marsden. Meaning we had bought and paid for them sometimes up to nearly a year before we paid Marsden for the bodies at the time of collection of the finished vehicle. This was frustrating as we were putting out money for up to a year before the van went on the road. This however changed when Marsdens sold out to the BAIRD GROUP who owned to Lancashire-Liverpool Bedford agency Garlic Burrell & Edwards and then Marsden supplied the completed vehicle and we paid them the total on completion. However that did not improve their long delivery schedule from order to delivery about 1 year.
Boalloy did however produce some better quality work. Inc two Seddon Pennine pantechnicons and a Ford Passenger chassis (See 2nd photo) that we operated They also built 3 of their Tautliner curtain siders on 3 of our 40 ft tandem axle trailers.
A recent post on Facebook talked of delivering into Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ In the 60s 70s & early 80s had at least 4 vans doing multi-drops in Northern Ireland each week using Stranraer Larne ferry They did deliveries during day returning to Larne each night to park up. The only damage we had was on 1 occasion children pulling off back marker but drivers never objected as we paid good cash bonus and as one pointed out he had been in the army there earning a lot less money than we paid
In the 60s our work was mostly delivering Tricity Cookers & Fridges made at Thorn Electrical Industries Factory at Spennymoor to retail outlets. This work was eventually taken by the Northern Ireland Company Dukes of Portadown as return loads as they were a lot cheaper having already covered the Ferry charges on the outward journey to England.
Then in 1969 onwards we did untold number of loads of Yarn from Courtaulds Wordster Spinning division to Northern Ireland clothing manufacturers which were very many and a few in well known areas where bombing was reported on our TV screens. One in particular was on the Falls Road Belfast. On one occasion one of our drivers turned up one morning to discover the factory had been blown u & totally destroyed the night before and he remarked 'I only delivered to them last week.
We only did a handful of removals to Ireland & several loads of new furniture, mostly chairs & tables for schools and hospitals for another of our customers.
In the early days before we joined the EEC (EU) and before the 'Operator’s Licences in UK when we were operating with our ‘A Licence’ we had to apply for a licence to operate vehicles in Northern Ireland and were granted a licence for 4 vehicles. The problem was at the time we were operating about 70 vehicles and you could guarantee the vehicle we were sending was never one specified so we just stuck a disk in the windscreen and fortunately the Northern Ireland Police never checked the reg number tally with the licence disk,
In the sixties Southern Ireland was a much different matter We had a load of new furniture to deliver to Dublin Our cheapest option would be Stranraer-Larne ferry & drive down through the border to Dublin, but we needed permission to go into Southern Ireland. I spent hours on the phone to Dublin submitting forms & information by Telex to their Ministry Of Transport before I got permission and even then we had to use the Liverpool-Dublin Ferry and not pass through Northern Ireland which was a lot more expensive. Even when I explained it was specialist made furniture for one of their hospitals and I got the official I was speaking to admit 'We do’t want any English made goods in our Country and we will do all that is possibly to stop or certainly make it as difficult as possible for you. After we joined EU we had several loads mostly household Removals for Southern Ireland and then we just used Stranraer Larne & down through Northern Ireland
house move of a different kind to belfast , we took this bungalow in 2 loads , my b series 240 gardner in belfast 1982 , wasn’t meant to do the job, but the original geezer was going to borrow Tingdene’s new 60 ’ low loader , which worked right up until he told them he was going to Belfast with it , and thats when i got the phone call. 2 nd bungalow went to lurgan later on , in 2 bits again .
tony
Carl Williams:
A recent post on Facebook talked of delivering into Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ In the 60s 70s & early 80s had at least 4 vans doing multi-drops in Northern Ireland each week using Stranraer Larne ferry They did deliveries during day returning to Larne each night to park up. The only damage we had was on 1 occasion children pulling off back marker but drivers never objected as we paid good cash bonus and as one pointed out he had been in the army there earning a lot less money than we paid
In the 60s our work was mostly delivering Tricity Cookers & Fridges made at Thorn Electrical Industries Factory at Spennymoor to retail outlets. This work was eventually taken by the Northern Ireland Company Dukes of Portadown as return loads as they were a lot cheaper having already covered the Ferry charges on the outward journey to England.
Then in 1969 onwards we did untold number of loads of Yarn from Courtaulds Wordster Spinning division to Northern Ireland clothing manufacturers which were very many and a few in well known areas where bombing was reported on our TV screens. One in particular was on the Falls Road Belfast. On one occasion one of our drivers turned up one morning to discover the factory had been blown u & totally destroyed the night before and he remarked 'I only delivered to them last week.
We only did a handful of removals to Ireland & several loads of new furniture, mostly chairs & tables for schools and hospitals for another of our customers.
In the early days before we joined the EEC (EU) and before the 'Operator’s Licences in UK when we were operating with our ‘A Licence’ we had to apply for a licence to operate vehicles in Northern Ireland and were granted a licence for 4 vehicles. The problem was at the time we were operating about 70 vehicles and you could guarantee the vehicle we were sending was never one specified so we just stuck a disk in the windscreen and fortunately the Northern Ireland Police never checked the reg number tally with the licence disk,
In the sixties Southern Ireland was a much different matter We had a load of new furniture to deliver to Dublin Our cheapest option would be Stranraer-Larne ferry & drive down through the border to Dublin, but we needed permission to go into Southern Ireland. I spent hours on the phone to Dublin submitting forms & information by Telex to their Ministry Of Transport before I got permission and even then we had to use the Liverpool-Dublin Ferry and not pass through Northern Ireland which was a lot more expensive. Even when I explained it was specialist made furniture for one of their hospitals and I got the official I was speaking to admit 'We do’t want any English made goods in our Country and we will do all that is possibly to stop or certainly make it as difficult as possible for you. After we joined EU we had several loads mostly household Removals for Southern Ireland and then we just used Stranraer Larne & down through Northern Ireland
Impressive line up Carl, I doubt there would be many operators running more pantechs than that.
Kempston:
Carl Williams:
A recent post on Facebook talked of delivering into Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ In the 60s 70s & early 80s had at least 4 vans doing multi-drops in Northern Ireland each week using Stranraer Larne ferry They did deliveries during day returning to Larne each night to park up. The only damage we had was on 1 occasion children pulling off back marker but drivers never objected as we paid good cash bonus and as one pointed out he had been in the army there earning a lot less money than we paid
In the 60s our work was mostly delivering Tricity Cookers & Fridges made at Thorn Electrical Industries Factory at Spennymoor to retail outlets. This work was eventually taken by the Northern Ireland Company Dukes of Portadown as return loads as they were a lot cheaper having already covered the Ferry charges on the outward journey to England.
Then in 1969 onwards we did untold number of loads of Yarn from Courtaulds Wordster Spinning division to Northern Ireland clothing manufacturers which were very many and a few in well known areas where bombing was reported on our TV screens. One in particular was on the Falls Road Belfast. On one occasion one of our drivers turned up one morning to discover the factory had been blown u & totally destroyed the night before and he remarked 'I only delivered to them last week.
We only did a handful of removals to Ireland & several loads of new furniture, mostly chairs & tables for schools and hospitals for another of our customers.
In the early days before we joined the EEC (EU) and before the 'Operator’s Licences in UK when we were operating with our ‘A Licence’ we had to apply for a licence to operate vehicles in Northern Ireland and were granted a licence for 4 vehicles. The problem was at the time we were operating about 70 vehicles and you could guarantee the vehicle we were sending was never one specified so we just stuck a disk in the windscreen and fortunately the Northern Ireland Police never checked the reg number tally with the licence disk,
In the sixties Southern Ireland was a much different matter We had a load of new furniture to deliver to Dublin Our cheapest option would be Stranraer-Larne ferry & drive down through the border to Dublin, but we needed permission to go into Southern Ireland. I spent hours on the phone to Dublin submitting forms & information by Telex to their Ministry Of Transport before I got permission and even then we had to use the Liverpool-Dublin Ferry and not pass through Northern Ireland which was a lot more expensive. Even when I explained it was specialist made furniture for one of their hospitals and I got the official I was speaking to admit 'We do’t want any English made goods in our Country and we will do all that is possibly to stop or certainly make it as difficult as possible for you. After we joined EU we had several loads mostly household Removals for Southern Ireland and then we just used Stranraer Larne & down through Northern Ireland
Impressive line up Carl, I doubt there would be many operators running more pantechs than that.
Yes Kempton and that photo only represents 25% and every manufacture that those vans were stuffed full of their goods has gone now as well.
tonyj105:
house move of a different kind to belfast , we took this bungalow in 2 loads , my b series 240 gardner in belfast 1982 , wasn’t meant to do the job, but the original geezer was going to borrow Tingdene’s new 60 ’ low loader , which worked right up until he told them he was going to Belfast with it , and thats when i got the phone call. 2 nd bungalow went to lurgan later on , in 2 bits again .
tony
Hi Tony, If you used the A75 route back in 82, I am sure that would have been an interesting journey.
Dave.
Kept quiet about this gal Carl ! NMP off FB
coomsey:
Kept quiet about this gal Carl ! NMP off FB
0
Hi Coomsey Thanks for adding the photo,
That Atkinson had a rather interesting story
Most of our tractor units were 20 to 26 ton GVW, however we had two 32 ton GVW a Foden and an AEC Mandator, which were usually used at 20 ton GVW but occasionally needed for 32ton GVW loads. We had bought 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units with the ill fated fixed head engines. Which were never ending trouble.
One of our longest serving drivers who had spent about a year in the Traffic office was Colin Watson and after getting fed up with office work had gone back on the road and been given a new Lynx. We used to do return Loads from John Lewis I cannot remember but their distribution centre was Milton Keynes or somewhere near there to deliver to their Newcastle or Glasgow or Edinburgh stores and Colin Watson had reversed into their loading dock to load and the Lynx had packed up. Ford & Slater had collected it and without telling us Colin who had from his traffic office days had spoken to a manager at John Lewis and borrowed one of their DAF tractor units. The first we knew was Colin pulling into our depot with a John Lewis DAF and one of our trailers. Telling us they said we could use it and when we get the chance drop it back in to them.
As was always in those days with Leyland product the replacement parts for the Lynx were not available and ordered by ford & Slater VOR. but they said it could be off the road for a month at least.
We saw the Atkinson advertised in Commercial Motor and it seemed reasonable price and a clean vehicle and had Gardner 180 engine, so we bought it It was painted and ion the road within days. We didn’t expect to run it long but Colin loved it and said if we let him build a sleeper cab onto the cab could he keep it which we agreed. Hence the not wonderful sleeper cab. So another driver was given his Lynx when it returned.
We ran at that time a lot of Ford D series tractor units a few AEC Mercury and Leyland Comet A mastiff 2 Dodges & 1 Bedford TK and we found the Atkinson as cheap to run if not cheaper than any of them perhaps with the exception of the AEC Mercuries which idioticly they had stopped building (Hence the Lynx purchases which they had told us would be as good)
As a result we bought 7 ERFs with Gardiner & 2 used Guys with Gardiner to replace Ford D series.
Hope you are keeping well & have a good new year
Carl
Carl Williams:
coomsey:
Kept quiet about this gal Carl ! NMP off FB
0
Hi Coomsey Thanks for adding the photo,
That Atkinson had a rather interesting story
Most of our tractor units were 20 to 26 ton GVW, however we had two 32 ton GVW a Foden and an AEC Mandator, which were usually used at 20 ton GVW but occasionally needed for 32ton GVW loads. We had bought 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units with the ill fated fixed head engines. Which were never ending trouble.
One of our longest serving drivers who had spent about a year in the Traffic office was Colin Watson and after getting fed up with office work had gone back on the road and been given a new Lynx. We used to do return Loads from John Lewis I cannot remember but their distribution centre was Milton Keynes or somewhere near there to deliver to their Newcastle or Glasgow or Edinburgh stores and Colin Watson had reversed into their loading dock to load and the Lynx had packed up. Ford & Slater had collected it and without telling us Colin who had from his traffic office days had spoken to a manager at John Lewis and borrowed one of their DAF tractor units. The first we knew was Colin pulling into our depot with a John Lewis DAF and one of our trailers. Telling us they said we could use it and when we get the chance drop it back in to them.
As was always in those days with Leyland product the replacement parts for the Lynx were not available and ordered by ford & Slater VOR. but they said it could be off the road for a month at least.
We saw the Atkinson advertised in Commercial Motor and it seemed reasonable price and a clean vehicle and had Gardner 180 engine, so we bought it It was painted and ion the road within days. We didn’t expect to run it long but Colin loved it and said if we let him build a sleeper cab onto the cab could he keep it which we agreed. Hence the not wonderful sleeper cab. So another driver was given his Lynx when it returned.
We ran at that time a lot of Ford D series tractor units a few AEC Mercury and Leyland Comet A mastiff 2 Dodges & 1 Bedford TK and we found the Atkinson as cheap to run if not cheaper than any of them perhaps with the exception of the AEC Mercuries which idioticly they had stopped building (Hence the Lynx purchases which they had told us would be as good)
As a result we bought 7 ERFs with Gardiner & 2 used Guys with Gardiner to replace Ford D series.
Hope you are keeping well & have a good new year
Carl
Interesting answer as always Carl, never knew you ran Gardners,tell us more !? Ran dan doody fine as I’m sure you are 
dave docwra:
tonyj105:
house move of a different kind to belfast , we took this bungalow in 2 loads , my b series 240 gardner in belfast 1982 , wasn’t meant to do the job, but the original geezer was going to borrow Tingdene’s new 60 ’ low loader , which worked right up until he told them he was going to Belfast with it , and thats when i got the phone call. 2 nd bungalow went to lurgan later on , in 2 bits again .
tony
Hi Tony, If you used the A75 route back in 82, I am sure that would have been an interesting journey.
Dave.
yes we did , tuggies had to reverse the trailers up the linkspan, police were supposed to show up in larne as ■■■■■■ , but didn’t , so we just cracked on. didn’t have a problem, only on the way back , it was the 4th or 5th volvo that overtook me on the A75 who couldn’t quite make it past , so just pulled in with his trailer axles still by me cab !!! , the gang who used to be at crick , not monyy’s the other one .
tonyj105:
yes we did , tuggies had to reverse the trailers up the linkspan, police were supposed to show up in larne as ■■■■■■ , but didn’t , so we just cracked on. didn’t have a problem, only on the way back , it was the 4th or 5th volvo that overtook me on the A75 who couldn’t quite make it past , so just pulled in with his trailer axles still by me cab !!! , the gang who used to be at crick , not monyy’s the other one .
I was with Dukes Transport for a while back then, I know what you mean by being an innocent party on that road, One night I lost a mirror & the off side window glass when the mirror come through it, I was trying to avoid a Dukes (same Company) vehicle which was way over the centre line of the road on a bend near the village of Dornoch, the incident carried on further when the rear of our trailers made contact which threw me violently off the road, the other Guy carried on and later denied being involved, he didn’t have leg to stand on when his trailer was checked in the port & it was found to have been severely damaged at the rear end.
quite a busy & fast road especially at night, The trunkers certainly kept Tom Carruthers & the other recovery Guys quite busy.
coomsey:
Kept quiet about this gal Carl ! NMP off FB]
This needs to go on the HomeBrew Sleeper Thread
coomsey:
Carl Williams:
coomsey:
Kept quiet about this gal Carl ! NMP off FB
Hi Coomsey Thanks for adding the photo,
That Atkinson had a rather interesting story
Most of our tractor units were 20 to 26 ton GVW, however we had two 32 ton GVW a Foden and an AEC Mandator, which were usually used at 20 ton GVW but occasionally needed for 32ton GVW loads. We had bought 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units with the ill fated fixed head engines. Which were never ending trouble.
One of our longest serving drivers who had spent about a year in the Traffic office was Colin Watson and after getting fed up with office work had gone back on the road and been given a new Lynx. We used to do return Loads from John Lewis I cannot remember but their distribution centre was Milton Keynes or somewhere near there to deliver to their Newcastle or Glasgow or Edinburgh stores and Colin Watson had reversed into their loading dock to load and the Lynx had packed up. Ford & Slater had collected it and without telling us Colin who had from his traffic office days had spoken to a manager at John Lewis and borrowed one of their DAF tractor units. The first we knew was Colin pulling into our depot with a John Lewis DAF and one of our trailers. Telling us they said we could use it and when we get the chance drop it back in to them.
As was always in those days with Leyland product the replacement parts for the Lynx were not available and ordered by ford & Slater VOR. but they said it could be off the road for a month at least.
We saw the Atkinson advertised in Commercial Motor and it seemed reasonable price and a clean vehicle and had Gardner 180 engine, so we bought it It was painted and ion the road within days. We didn’t expect to run it long but Colin loved it and said if we let him build a sleeper cab onto the cab could he keep it which we agreed. Hence the not wonderful sleeper cab. So another driver was given his Lynx when it returned.
We ran at that time a lot of Ford D series tractor units a few AEC Mercury and Leyland Comet A mastiff 2 Dodges & 1 Bedford TK and we found the Atkinson as cheap to run if not cheaper than any of them perhaps with the exception of the AEC Mercuries which idioticly they had stopped building (Hence the Lynx purchases which they had told us would be as good)
As a result we bought 7 ERFs with Gardiner & 2 used Guys with Gardiner to replace Ford D series.
Hope you are keeping well & have a good new year
Carl
Interesting answer as always Carl, never knew you ran Gardners,tell us more !? Ran dan doody fine as I’m sure you are
Here are two of our ERFs and 1 Guy In the past we had operated 3 Guy Otters Luton vans 2 B Reg (1964) & 1 C reg (1965) with Gardner 4 cylinder engines They did incredible fuel consumption about 24 mpg but a pain to drive when the motorways came along & we had a Scammell Breakdown with 6 cylinder Gardner.
Just watching an old film on TV from 1958 ‘Gideon from Scotland Yard’ and one of our vans in the background
My Grandfather who founded our business was born 1889 a time when there were few if any cars. Not surprising in a family that always had a horse. His father, my Great Grandfather was a manager at 3 local collieries and my grandfather was born in 14 Marmaduke Street Spennymoor, a house they originally rented which was in an area called ‘The Blocks’ where houses had been built with huge gardens (about quarter of an acre and this was the home to our business until we moved into our new purpose built workshops, warehouse and 5 acre parking area at Green Lane Industrial estate Spennymoor.
When he was 12 to 14 years old, his mother, my great grandmother sent him to an auction sale with money she had saved to buy 14 Marmaduke Street where housed were being sold. When he got there, he found no 14 which was semi detached was being sold as one lot with no 16 and he bought both. On his way home he sold no 16 to Mr & Mrs Jones who lived in it for the price he paid for both and going home to his mother he gave her back her savings. She was very disappointed thinking he had not been successful in buying the house but delighted when he told her what he had achieved but went on to say he wanted the house to be in his name with the condition they lived there rent free for the rest of their lives, but it was his house with no claim from his 5 older brothers and sisters.
At no 14 my great grandfather had already build stables and eventually my grandfather bought a disused chapel which was dismantled and rebuilt onto part of the garden as a garage, and in 1946 a very large garage was built over all of the garden (fortunately high enough to accommodate large pantechnicons we would eventually operate from the site. In about 1930 my grandfather had bought no 12 and the garden was subsequently made into outside parking adjacent to the garage and when Mr & Mrs Jones passed away we re-bought no 16 and converted that into our office.
Going back to 1908 my Great grandfather had a new purpose- built chip van built as a occupation for himself when he was retiring, he also was a professional photographer. The first photo shows my grandfather aged 18 in the chip van in 1908. It was taken each night apart from Sundays down into Cheapside Spennymoor where it stood outside The Commercial Hotel until mid 1930s when my Great Grandfather died.
On leaving school my Grandfather’s father had arranged for him to go to Newcastle, where he stayed in lodgings to study colour photography which was very new, and whilst there he got himself a job as an apprentice mechanic. Apart from myself and unlike my dad who had mechanical knowledge and training I can think of no-one who had less aptitude but it did introduce him to something that would very rarely be seen in Spennymoor ‘The Motor Car’
So its not too surprising that after being discharged from the army at the end of the first World War he decided to become a haulage contractor. And in 1919 he used his gratuities to buy a business which consisted as a horse and cart and work delivering groceries for Broughs, one of the main grocers in Spennymoor. In November of that year he married my grandmother Annie Clemments and my dad was born 5 September 1921.
In 1920 he had enough money to buy his first of several Ford Model T wagons J9629. J being the prefex for motor vehicles in County Durham (Eventually changed to PT & UP) This was a chassis imported from America with solid wheels and left hand drive. My grandparents had to sell their table chairs and 3 piece suite and sit on tea chests to afford Herbert Raine (Who also had built the chip van in 1908 to build the cab and body. The cab had just half doors with no windows so I suppose just one up from driving a horse and cart, which incidentally was in use until the early 1930s along with several Fords & Morris Commercials.
The small fleet of vehicles eventually was joined by Chevs which eventually evolved into Bedfords which from then all always made up the majority of our vehicles but we always seemed to have one Ford (be them names as Thames eventually) & one Morris Commercial.
As for cars, my grandfather bought his first in 1920. I remember him saying he had one where my dad as a baby had to sit in the ‘Dickie Seat’ and one Bull Nose Morris, but they were always unreliable and it wasn’t until he bought his first Rover when he decided these were good cars and from then on would never consider any car but a Rover and over the years he owned over 20 of them and although he had no direct involvement in our business following retirement in 1950s he kept an interest in what vehicles we operated.
I always remember one visit he had to our Green Lane site when he was having a chat with a few of our drivers when my dad came to me saying ‘For heaven’s sake take him home or we’ll have a strike on our hands’ When I found him I heard the argument he was having. ‘ I don’t understand It’, he was saying, When you came for a job my Harry would agree to pay you a wage for a week’s work, and you were happy with that? Why then do you expect him to pay for you to have a holiday’.
In light of this it’s not surprising we operated no foreign built vehicles but that was to change and what started it was way back in 1973 when my dad bought his first Mercedes car. In 1970 dad had sold his 3 year old Rover 3 litre Coupe, which he had used from new, and bought a new Rover V8 3500. He liked that car and it was still in the tradition of my Grandfather who had by then been driving his 2nd Rover 2000 which although modern and so different from his P4s and even earlier Rovers was still in his mid a Rover. When dad got his new Mercedes it was a different generation of car to drive, but even so he was reluctant to show my Grandfather. However when I took my grandfather out for a ride in it he had to admit it was a nice car.
Later that year I bought a Triumph Stag. My Grandparents had given me my first Rover 2000 on my 17th Birthday and after another 3 over the years I wated a change and I think he was horrified at my choice as Standard/Triumph were not good cars in his opinion, and that was the last car he lived that I owned . At three years old I replaced my Stag with a Ford Granada Ghia which would have been difficult as he vowed he never would even ride in a Ford Car. Probably he was partly right as at a year old the Granada was starting to rust here & there & I got even worse a new Rover SD1 2600 which was the final straw as it was the First Rover which was unreliable and a very bad car, so I too got my first Mercedes , with my dad onto his second and all in all we were so pleased that we bought our first 2 Mercedes box vans and by the time we finished we had 10 Mercedes Commercials in the fleet as shown in the photos.
I had gone down to Birmingham on a trip that took me to a Commercial Vehicle dealers in Brownhills and staying overnight at (I think my memory is right) The Albany Hotel where I was meeting for Dinner on the evening with a representative of Hoover. We delivered all Hoover products into North East and North West England and Scotland and then onto Worcester the next morning for a meeting with Kays the mail order company, to discuss the opening of our new Sheffield Depot and how I was sure it would improve our service.
We needed 7.5 ton Lutons for our new Sheffield depot that was about to open and at Brownhills I had seen 1 Bedford 7.5 ton TK with 330 diesel engine and 2 Ford D series 7.5 ton that I knew I would buy but there were two Magirus Deutz 7.5 ton Lutons under 1 years old. Strange that they had made their way to Birmingham but only a few months earlier I had seen their photo in Commercial Motor when they had been supplied new to a company that sold Pine Furniture from Sherburn Hill Durham that had recently gone bankrupt and they were virtually new. Before I made an offer to buy these two with the other three I thought I better check with my dad. A few years ago I would have been told had I gone daft but by now I was driving my new gold Mercesdes S Class and we had several Mercedes Commercials running so we were starting to up and starting to run foreign vehicles . As no mobile phones in those days I had to ask to use there phone and was told ‘If you think they are good vans, its up to you. So I made a ridiculously low offer and that after a bit haggling got accepted and we had Magirus Deutz join the fleet, They were air cooled engines and proved good vehicles. On the photo you can see one of these vans poking its nose out behind the breakdown,
The final was DAF. I remember saying that anyone who bought DAF were daft, but Colin Watson, one of our drivers who had worked for us 30 years or so had been allocated a new Leyland Lynx tractor unit (One of 3 we sadly operated) We used to deliver loads from John Lewis at Milton Keynes to their department stores in Newcastle and Edinburgh and Colin had just loaded his trailer and gone to pull out of the loading dock and the gearbox in the Lynx had packed up (The tractor unit being under a year old) Ford & Slater the Leyland dealership had towed it away to eventually when they got the parts which of course were unavailable, be repaired under Warrantee and we were surprised to see Colin pulling into our depot with a John Lewis DAF tractor unit pulling one of our trailers. ‘Here take this’. He was told ‘Use it and when you get the chance drop it back in’ Colin found it wonderful after driving Leyland’s greatest invention- The Lynx and our fitters took a look at it and were surprised it wasn’t a sputnik from a foreign land and they could work on it. Hence we bought eventually a DAF and I remember asking Dad how he was finding it and he said excellent. Sadly I never had a photo but seen here after it had left our fleet and been repainted, but if you look closely you can read our name under the new paint.
What would the future have offered. That is a questioned often asked by my son Paul. We had depots in Wellingborough London, & Sheffield and sub-contractors near Bristol & Edinburgh and certainly would have within a year have opened our own depot in Bristol area as sub-contactor was not up to our standards and no doubt Edinburgh I had thought it was not far off 2 hours Spennymoor to Sheffield and I had heard that Scania had a V8 that was fast, so I thought with 3 drivers 8 hour shift 1 tractor could almost get 6 trailers a day to and from Sheffield. And as Sheffield took at least 2 trailers per day we could employ Sheffield drivers to take trailers to & from London and similarly Bristol & Wellingborough which would have been very efficient with no nights out & subsistence to pay and no overtime allowing us to pay excellent pay for 8 hour shifts but at the same time no time & half overtime. They had started shunting to I think it was The Blue Boar at far end of Doncaster Bi-pass but it was Spennymoor drivers based there for changeover to London but I think through time I would have got my way even if it had meant taking trailers to Scots Corner area so drivers could do 2 trips to Sheffield & back in 8 hours. Like my Grandfather’s view on Foreign vehicles my dad liked Spennymoor based drivers. He thought he understood them & could trust them, given time I would have ensured he had more confidence to employ more from other areas.
^^^^^ Thanks for the history Carl, That is a great piece of writing.^^^^^
Dave…
dave docwra:
^^^^^ Thanks for the history Carl, That is a great piece of writing.^^^^^
Dave…
Thanks for your kind comments, Dave
Here is a photo of some of our tractor units kindly given me by my cousin Mark Kempsey
Carl Williams:
dave docwra:
^^^^^ Thanks for the history Carl, That is a great piece of writing.^^^^^
Dave…
Thanks for your kind comments, Dave
Here is a photo of some of our tractor units kindly given me by my cousin Mark Kempsey
A few more parked in a different area
