Photos of some of our trailers parked at our Green Lane Industrial Estate Spennymoor depot, once again kindly provided by my Cousin, Mark Kempsey
I have just had the sad news that another one of our ex drivers died last night. Terry Sumpton
Gregory’s of Uxbridge advertise
d regularly in Commercial Motor and were well known for building bodies on the Bedford CA 15 cwt chassis scuttles.We had one new in 1957 exactly like the one on bottom left hand of their advert, which we ran until 1964.
Sadly like so many of our vans I have no photo, as we never seemed to think of taking photos to look back on, and I've been fortunate in over the years receiving so many that have been taken by others, and I live in hope that one of this CA or the 1964 Morris FG that replaced it turns up.
However I remember travelling down to Uxbridge by train with my parents and the journey back in the CA sitting on a wooden box squeezed between the driver's & passenger seat and also a few years later sitting in the cab a year or two later admiring the craftmanship of Gregory's bodybuilders where every screw was countersunk and filed with wood-filler so you could hardly see where the wood framed cab had been joined
Mark Sumpton has just messaged me his dad Terry’s Funeral is Thursday 12th Eldon lane Methodist 13.45
Sad news that Kenny Hodgson has died Kenny started for us as a porter gaining his car licence & progressing onto driving 3.5 ton vans to eventually pass his class HGV and driving rigid vans He was taken into hospital earlier this week with pneumonia and never recovered.
Three photos I’ve just found from 1972-73 The first of our warehouse at Green Lane Industrial Estate Spennymoor under construction. The the right you can see the rear of one of our vans parked on the front wagon park, and next to it on its left you can just see one of our vans in Courtaulds livery. We had 17 vans painted in Courtaulds livery and sadly, to date no photos have come to light (I keep hoping)
The second photos shows one of our mechanics (I think Mick Solan) adjusting a wheel bearing on a Bedford KF Marsden pantechnicon .
The final photos shows the late Ken Armstrong lifting the front axle on a Bedford while he examines under the chassis whilst over a pit in one of our workshops
I have sent you a PM. Tyneside
tyneside:
I have sent you a PM. Tyneside
Thanks I never think to check Messages I have sent a PM
Just watching the Gold Coach travelling down The Mall on TV reminded me of the late Gordon Ball an ex driver who was delivering some new furniture to Buckingham Palace with one of our vans and he was unloading next to the Gold Coach which they had pulled outside to clean from the carriage house as it was a summer day. In those days no camera’s on telephone, in fact no mobile phones and Gordon was saying how he wished he had a camera with him as he could have taken a photo of one of our vans standing next to it.
Another tale I was reminded of yesterday was my dad telling early one Sunday morning round about 1953, he was in London with one of our Bedford SB pantechnicons (The size of a double decker bus) I don’t know where he was heading but he drove through Admiralty Arch down the Mall when he was stopped by a policeman. The policeman said he was not sure but vehicles like that were not allowed through Admiralty Arch. He said he had never seen one going that way before but had to admit there were no signs forbidding access. So he told my dad to carry on but not take that route again.
Just thinking back to one day in 1979-1981 travelling down to London on the train with my ex-wife, just leaving Darlington Station when a chap travelling with his family said to me ‘I know you, you moved me’ ‘The Company ?’ I asked, ‘No you, yourself’ came the reply. My first thoughts were 'How can I get off the train, but that presented a problem as it had no more stops till it arrived at Kings Cross. Then I started thinking ‘When did I break a mirror’ In relief he said 'You did an excellent job and I had such a happy journey down to London
Another driver has let us, Sadly Martin Halliday died on Saturday
Carl Williams:
Another driver has let us, Sadly Martin Halliday died on Saturday
Just heard Bill Canney also died just over a week ago. Bill was in the Grenadier Guards before he joined us and had spent some of his time guarding Buckingham Palace wearing a Bearskin Another great ex employee has passed away.
Carl Williams:
Carl Williams:
Another driver has let us, Sadly Martin Halliday died on SaturdayJust heard Bill Canney also died just over a week ago. Bill was in the Grenadier Guards before he joined us and had spent some of his time guarding Buckingham Palace wearing a Bearskin Another great ex employee has passed away.
For those who have enquired about when Martin’s funeral is to be, it isn’t as he chose Pure Cremation and was taken away immediately from the hospital.
That is something I have chosen and paid for. It was the most difficult descsion I think I’ve ever made. It suited me but I couldn’t help thinking its a dramatic end. I discussed it with my Son & Daughter and was surprised they agreed, saying they certainly would not enjoy going to my funeral and thinking about it I would much more be happy if they & their families and any other’s who wanted to join them went out and I footed the bill for a nice meal with champagne for them, than filling the undertaker’s & vicar’s pockets. They could joke and laugh at all the daft things I’ve done during my life.
I was surprised to find that another 3 ex drivers I’ve spoken to have made the same choice, which made me feel better that I wasn’t as crackers as I thought I was
Anyway although I’m sorted I hope it doesn’t happen for many years.
One last thought the cremation happens at Aldershot & I wonder if they stick the coffin on the back of a wagon heading there.
For those that remember, whenever a van came into our Spennymoor depot to fill up with diesel after loading they always were asked had they any room on the back, so we could fill it up with part loads we had waiting to go and if we could have got the job taking full coffins to Aldershot we would have popped one on whenever there was space. After all we did carry empty new coffins from Worcester to North East undertakers.
Carl Williams:
Carl Williams:
Another driver has let us, Sadly Martin Halliday died on SaturdayJust heard Bill Canney also died just over a week ago. Bill was in the Grenadier Guards before he joined us and had spent some of his time guarding Buckingham Palace wearing a Bearskin Another great ex employee has passed away.
For those who have enquired about when Martin’s funeral is to be, it isn’t as he chose Pure Cremation and was taken away immediately from the hospital.
That is something I have chosen and paid for. It was the most difficult descsion I think I’ve ever made. It suited me but I couldn’t help thinking its a dramatic end. I discussed it with my Son & Daughter and was surprised they agreed, saying they certainly would not enjoy going to my funeral and thinking about it I would much more be happy if they & their families and any other’s who wanted to join them went out and I footed the bill for a nice meal with champagne for them, than filling the undertaker’s & vicar’s pockets. They could joke and laugh at all the daft things I’ve done during my life.
I was surprised to find that another 3 ex drivers I’ve spoken to have made the same choice, which made me feel better that I wasn’t as crackers as I thought I was
Anyway although I’m sorted I hope it doesn’t happen for many years.
One last thought the cremation happens at Aldershot & I wonder if they stick the coffin on the back of a wagon heading there.
For those that remember, whenever a van came into our Spennymoor depot to fill up with diesel after loading they always were asked had they any room on the back, so we could fill it up with part loads we had waiting to go and if we could have got the job taking full coffins to Aldershot we would have popped one on whenever there was space. After all we did carry empty new coffins from Worcester to North East undertakers.
I recently told of the sad death of one of our ex-drivers Kenny Hodgson, who had come to us not long from school firstly as a porter, then driver of small vans to eventually HGV driver after the age of 21
Kenny was such a lively and funny man who livened up the lives & always good for a laugh and I’m sure nothing would make him happier than this message sent to me by Colin Troman, one of his fellow drivers:
hi carl,
So sad to hear about kenny hodgson. whenever you did a removal with kenny on the team it would be a laugh from start to finish … what a character!
I remember on a night out in Leicester in a pub there was a male stripper on who kenny heckled for being a bit short in the man department. On being challenged to to do better Kenny did just that … got up on stage dropped his trousers and everything else… great memories!
Colin Troman.
There are quite a lot of videos on Youtube showing RoverP4s and only now after all these years do I appreciate what lovely cars they were. I passed my test during the hey day of motoring before 70 mph speed limits & over the years I drove 3 P4s 1 P5 and6 P6s (2000 2000TC &3500), a few shown in photos. My dad said the numbers Rover 60, 80,110 represented the speed the P4s would do (Comfortably) and one journey I always remember was in 1964 110 owned at the time by my Grandfather. I was going with my grandparents down to my Grandmother’s sister & husbands home at St Albans for a few days and remember we were dropping a young (Sadly died recently) Eddie Worthington who was employed then by us as a porter, as he had not yet passed his test, at Melton Mowbray, meeting one of our vans who had delivered his load & needed Eddie to assist loading a removal destined for somewhere in North East. The journey back was the most remembered by me as both my grandparents had fallen asleep and on the A1 made up a lot of time averaging 100 miles per hour (legally)
The Rover , was new 1964 (B reg) & had been bought by my grandfather when it about 3 months old from the widow of either Mr Wood or Mr Watson of Wood & Watson the Durham based lemonade manufacturers. The previous owner had just died of a heart attack and within a few months my grandfather had suffered the a heart attack but fortunately survived. The problem with the 110 was it had a large heavy 3 litre 6 cylinder engine in the front with no power assistant steering which although travelling at speed along a motorway you never noticed but in town conditions turning and parking required some heavy tugging at the steering.
Dad persuaded my grandfather to buy a new Rover 2000 which had much lighter steering , sold his 3 year old Rover 80 and adopted the Rover 110 and within six months or so suffered a heart attack, so bought a new Rover P5 3 litre Coupe which had power assisted steering, thinking the 110 was jinxed.
I think the Rover 110 then less that 2 years old and like new sold for about £500 and although now I no longer are allowed to drive how I wished I had kept the 110 ,parked it up just to admire it today
The 2000 with the caravan was my 4th and last it was a TC where the previous 3 were SCs I replaced it with a new Triumph Stag, and soon found out the Triumph was in no way the quality of car the Rovers were. rover’s much better and enjoyable to drive and the reliability of the 3 litre V8 Triumph is now well known but the Stag had the style and the name to go with it
Carl Williams:
There are quite a lot of videos on Youtube showing RoverP4s and only now after all these years do I appreciate what lovely cars they were. I passed my test during the hey day of motoring before 70 mph speed limits & over the years I drove 3 P4s 1 P5 and6 P6s (2000 2000TC &3500), a few shown in photos. My dad said the numbers Rover 60, 80,110 represented the speed the P4s would do (Comfortably) and one journey I always remember was in 1964 110 owned at the time by my Grandfather. I was going with my grandparents down to my Grandmother’s sister & husbands home at St Albans for a few days and remember we were dropping a young (Sadly died recently) Eddie Worthington who was employed then by us as a porter, as he had not yet passed his test, at Melton Mowbray, meeting one of our vans who had delivered his load & needed Eddie to assist loading a removal destined for somewhere in North East. The journey back was the most remembered by me as both my grandparents had fallen asleep and on the A1 made up a lot of time averaging 100 miles per hour (legally)
The Rover , was new 1964 (B reg) & had been bought by my grandfather when it about 3 months old from the widow of either Mr Wood or Mr Watson of Wood & Watson the Durham based lemonade manufacturers. The previous owner had just died of a heart attack and within a few months my grandfather had suffered the a heart attack but fortunately survived. The problem with the 110 was it had a large heavy 3 litre 6 cylinder engine in the front with no power assistant steering which although travelling at speed along a motorway you never noticed but in town conditions turning and parking required some heavy tugging at the steering.
Dad persuaded my grandfather to buy a new Rover 2000 which had much lighter steering , sold his 3 year old Rover 80 and adopted the Rover 110 and within six months or so suffered a heart attack, so bought a new Rover P5 3 litre Coupe which had power assisted steering, thinking the 110 was jinxed.
I think the Rover 110 then less that 2 years old and like new sold for about £500 and although now I no longer are allowed to drive how I wished I had kept the 110 ,parked it up just to admire it today
The 2000 with the caravan was my 4th and last it was a TC where the previous 3 were SCs I replaced it with a new Triumph Stag, and soon found out the Triumph was in no way the quality of car the Rovers were. rover’s much better and enjoyable to drive and the reliability of the 3 litre V8 Triumph is now well known but the Stag had the style and the name to go with it
Cracking motors Karl ,my first was a 80 with suicide doors and a couple of 2000s( I’m not too good with exact model names) then a SD ? Bad move,that was the most unreliable car I ever had. My mate bought aStag, the cylinder head was on/off as often as the fuel cap. Cheers coomsey
coomsey:
Carl Williams:
There are quite a lot of videos on Youtube showing RoverP4s and only now after all these years do I appreciate what lovely cars they were. I passed my test during the hey day of motoring before 70 mph speed limits & over the years I drove 3 P4s 1 P5 and6 P6s (2000 2000TC &3500), a few shown in photos. My dad said the numbers Rover 60, 80,110 represented the speed the P4s would do (Comfortably) and one journey I always remember was in 1964 110 owned at the time by my Grandfather. I was going with my grandparents down to my Grandmother’s sister & husbands home at St Albans for a few days and remember we were dropping a young (Sadly died recently) Eddie Worthington who was employed then by us as a porter, as he had not yet passed his test, at Melton Mowbray, meeting one of our vans who had delivered his load & needed Eddie to assist loading a removal destined for somewhere in North East. The journey back was the most remembered by me as both my grandparents had fallen asleep and on the A1 made up a lot of time averaging 100 miles per hour (legally)
The Rover , was new 1964 (B reg) & had been bought by my grandfather when it about 3 months old from the widow of either Mr Wood or Mr Watson of Wood & Watson the Durham based lemonade manufacturers. The previous owner had just died of a heart attack and within a few months my grandfather had suffered the a heart attack but fortunately survived. The problem with the 110 was it had a large heavy 3 litre 6 cylinder engine in the front with no power assistant steering which although travelling at speed along a motorway you never noticed but in town conditions turning and parking required some heavy tugging at the steering.
Dad persuaded my grandfather to buy a new Rover 2000 which had much lighter steering , sold his 3 year old Rover 80 and adopted the Rover 110 and within six months or so suffered a heart attack, so bought a new Rover P5 3 litre Coupe which had power assisted steering, thinking the 110 was jinxed.
I think the Rover 110 then less that 2 years old and like new sold for about £500 and although now I no longer are allowed to drive how I wished I had kept the 110 ,parked it up just to admire it today
The 2000 with the caravan was my 4th and last it was a TC where the previous 3 were SCs I replaced it with a new Triumph Stag, and soon found out the Triumph was in no way the quality of car the Rovers were. rover’s much better and enjoyable to drive and the reliability of the 3 litre V8 Triumph is now well known but the Stag had the style and the name to go with itCracking motors Karl ,my first was a 80 with suicide doors and a couple of 2000s( I’m not too good with exact model names) then a SD ? Bad move,that was the most unreliable car I ever had. My mate bought aStag, the cylinder head was on/off as often as the fuel cap. Cheers coomsey
Yes I had a head gasket go on my stag when it was almost 3 years old. They changed just one gasket as the other one on V8 engine appeared was OK but we never used it after that & I was in the Round Table & several of us went down to Leicester for a night with Leicester Round table & then onto London for the Motor Show. I was travelling with a friend in his Ford Granada Ghia and I liked it. Dad had made a business friendship with the Managing Director of Mann Eggerton and we had bought about 18 vehicles from them inc 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units with the pathetic fixed head engines (Which turned out to be dreadful buys) and they had a Ford agency in Norwich and sold us a new Ford Granada Ghia for the price it cost them. I sold the Stag 3 years old at £400 profit to what I had paid new 3 years earlier.
Sadly I took a like to the Rover SD1 especially as with the back seat let down had size in back for a double bed which I thought would be handy for my love life. The Granada was 12 months old and had pin prick rust spots starting to appear here & there. I wanted the 2600 model but as it was a totally new car there was long delivery. Dad had made friends with a second hand car dealer in Church Street Blackpool who said he could get a new SD1 in what ever colour I wanted as he wanted to get the Granada Ghia for a customer. Once again we made a profit on the 12 month old Ford.but I got one of the most unreliable cars ever, as it might have had the Rover Badge and had been initially designed by them but it was a Morris built car as by ten all were BL.After less than a year I got my first new Mercedes 280E and so Goodbye British Leyland
Carl Williams:
coomsey:
Carl Williams:
There are quite a lot of videos on Youtube showing RoverP4s and only now after all these years do I appreciate what lovely cars they were. I passed my test during the hey day of motoring before 70 mph speed limits & over the years I drove 3 P4s 1 P5 and6 P6s (2000 2000TC &3500), a few shown in photos. My dad said the numbers Rover 60, 80,110 represented the speed the P4s would do (Comfortably) and one journey I always remember was in 1964 110 owned at the time by my Grandfather. I was going with my grandparents down to my Grandmother’s sister & husbands home at St Albans for a few days and remember we were dropping a young (Sadly died recently) Eddie Worthington who was employed then by us as a porter, as he had not yet passed his test, at Melton Mowbray, meeting one of our vans who had delivered his load & needed Eddie to assist loading a removal destined for somewhere in North East. The journey back was the most remembered by me as both my grandparents had fallen asleep and on the A1 made up a lot of time averaging 100 miles per hour (legally)
The Rover , was new 1964 (B reg) & had been bought by my grandfather when it about 3 months old from the widow of either Mr Wood or Mr Watson of Wood & Watson the Durham based lemonade manufacturers. The previous owner had just died of a heart attack and within a few months my grandfather had suffered the a heart attack but fortunately survived. The problem with the 110 was it had a large heavy 3 litre 6 cylinder engine in the front with no power assistant steering which although travelling at speed along a motorway you never noticed but in town conditions turning and parking required some heavy tugging at the steering.
Dad persuaded my grandfather to buy a new Rover 2000 which had much lighter steering , sold his 3 year old Rover 80 and adopted the Rover 110 and within six months or so suffered a heart attack, so bought a new Rover P5 3 litre Coupe which had power assisted steering, thinking the 110 was jinxed.
I think the Rover 110 then less that 2 years old and like new sold for about £500 and although now I no longer are allowed to drive how I wished I had kept the 110 ,parked it up just to admire it today
The 2000 with the caravan was my 4th and last it was a TC where the previous 3 were SCs I replaced it with a new Triumph Stag, and soon found out the Triumph was in no way the quality of car the Rovers were. rover’s much better and enjoyable to drive and the reliability of the 3 litre V8 Triumph is now well known but the Stag had the style and the name to go with itCracking motors Karl ,my first was a 80 with suicide doors and a couple of 2000s( I’m not too good with exact model names) then a SD ? Bad move,that was the most unreliable car I ever had. My mate bought aStag, the cylinder head was on/off as often as the fuel cap. Cheers coomsey
Yes I had a head gasket go on my stag when it was almost 3 years old. They changed just one gasket as the other one on V8 engine appeared was OK but we never used it after that & I was in the Round Table & several of us went down to Leicester for a night with Leicester Round table & then onto London for the Motor Show. I was travelling with a friend in his Ford Granada Ghia and I liked it. Dad had made a business friendship with the Managing Director of Mann Eggerton and we had bought about 18 vehicles from them inc 3 new Leyland Lynx tractor units with the pathetic fixed head engines (Which turned out to be dreadful buys) and they had a Ford agency in Norwich and sold us a new Ford Granada Ghia for the price it cost them. I sold the Stag 3 years old at £400 profit to what I had paid new 3 years earlier.
Sadly I took a like to the Rover SD1 especially as with the back seat let down had size in back for a double bed which I thought would be handy for my love life. The Granada was 12 months old and had pin prick rust spots starting to appear here & there. I wanted the 2600 model but as it was a totally new car there was long delivery. Dad had made friends with a second hand car dealer in Church Street Blackpool who said he could get a new SD1 in what ever colour I wanted as he wanted to get the Granada Ghia for a customer. Once again we made a profit on the 12 month old Ford.but I got one of the most unreliable cars ever, as it might have had the Rover Badge and had been initially designed by them but it was a Morris built car as by ten all were BL.After less than a year I got my first new Mercedes 280E and so Goodbye British Leyland
No profit on the SD then Karl? I was just glad to be rid of mine, mind you they looked the business. Had my one n only Jap after, Toyota Cressida estate ran her for 4yr only spend was a set of tyres n a side bulb. Sold her for what I paid for her, probably the ugliest motor I ever had,my daughters used to make me wait up the road when I picked them up from school 
cheers coomsey