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
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
Hi The SD1 was a total disaster. Ist weekend when I got it brand new and decided to have a ride out to Whitby & on the way home it stopped in the middle of the moors. I coasted it off onto the roadside and had to walk to the nearest telephone to get AA out. After a couple of months with about 2,000 miles on the clock I was reversing into the garage and my dad was nearby, and said it sounded noisy, had I dipped the oil? He dipped it and the dipstick was dry. Topped it up & I was travelling to Birmingham next day. Had to keep checking the oil but did about 400 mile and not used any. The car parking area infront of our offices at Spennymoor had a slight gradient & we found it was draining out when parked on a gradient. Its difficult to always park on flat land. It wasn’t leaking but burnt away so no pool of oil to see I cannot remember how the Rover dealers fixed that but other problems continued.
As I said we sold it when it was just under 1 year old with about 8,000 miles and fortunately they were still a new car with few about and the unreliability wasn’t well known, and still long waiting lists for new cars so we didn’t loose much when it sold., and fortunately a local Citreon agenc sold it for us on a commission basis.
Take care Carl
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
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
Hi The SD1 was a total disaster. Ist weekend when I got it brand new and decided to have a ride out to Whitby & on the way home it stopped in the middle of the moors. I coasted it off onto the roadside and had to walk to the nearest telephone to get AA out. After a couple of months with about 2,000 miles on the clock I was reversing into the garage and my dad was nearby, and said it sounded noisy, had I dipped the oil? He dipped it and the dipstick was dry. Topped it up & I was travelling to Birmingham next day. Had to keep checking the oil but did about 400 mile and not used any. The car parking area infront of our offices at Spennymoor had a slight gradient & we found it was draining out when parked on a gradient. Its difficult to always park on flat land. It wasn’t leaking but burnt away so no pool of oil to see I cannot remember how the Rover dealers fixed that but other problems continued.
As I said we sold it when it was just under 1 year old with about 8,000 miles and fortunately they were still a new car with few about and the unreliability wasn’t well known, and still long waiting lists for new cars so we didn’t loose much when it sold., and fortunately a local Citreon agenc sold it for us on a commission basis.
Take care Carl
I was surprised to see the first of these two photos on the Foden Society page on Facebook, so I have added another photo of this vehicle topping up with diesel and tell a bit of history about it.Most of our tractor units were 20-26 ton GVW as most of our traffic for artics was within this weight range. With quite a few Ford D800 ,and some Leland Super Comet & Mastiff, & several AEC Mercuries
However we had some work for 32 ton GVW and also ran an AEC Mandator, which spent most of its life running about 24 ton GVW but we needed a second 32 ton GVW to give us more flexibility.
A Foden with RR engine was advertised in Commercial Motor 2 years old and only about 5,000 miles on the clock in Cheltenham.
At the time I was extremely busy & so left Darlington Station at Midnight with a overnight bag & trade plates on my way to Kings Cross & on to Cheltenham. I had treated myself to a first class compartment & must admit was pleasantly surprised at how well I slept. Just as the train left Darlington Station the guard asked me if I’d like to book breakfast.’ Oh that would be nice’ I replied and when he asked what time I checked what time it pulled into Kings Cross & was told it parked up outside the station for 2 hours or so & pulled into Kings cross at 7.00AM ‘Ten to seven’ came my reply to be told it would have to be about 5.00AM I then decided to skip breakfast and not miss my sleep.
On arrival at the garage at Cheltenham where the Foden was for sale I saw it was Ex-Hertz vehicle rental and although I thought the unusually low mileage was suspicious it seemed like new.
I think we negotiated a price of £5,000 and I rang our bank manager at Spennymoor to transfer the cash. In those pre internet days there were no fast cash payments & how it worked our bank manager telephoned their bank manager to confirm the cash was being transferred & they accepted each other’s word so the supplier soon received a phone cal from his bank to say the money was OK. Those were the days when people trusted each other.
So off I left on my 6 way back to Spennymoor on Trade Plates.
That journey was the only occasion I drove that Foden but didn’t like the power steering. You couldn’t feel the road. I always described it like when you saw contestants on the Golden Shot (On TV where contestants said left a bit right a bit etc but were not themselves positioning the shot) Several years later when my dad got his Rolls Royce car I found the steering similar whereas Mercedes gave you the 'Feel of where the wheels were on the road.
I can’t remember who the regular driver was but when I asked him about the steering he had got used to it. The RR engine drank the fuel but this was compensated by the low price I had paid for the vehicle but we did have one or two problems with the engine.
On the day of the photo I was told where the service station was located but on the South Coast so suspect the driver had taken a mixed load of new divan beds 3 piece suites and built up bedroom & living room furniture down to our London Warehouse & then down to South Coast to collect a load of flat pack funiture to take back to one of our warehouses at Spennymoor to store so we could draw off as orders came in from mail order customers so we could deliver to their homes throughout the UK through our depot network. Presumably the driver must have dropped his trailer off in the loading dock of the manufacturer & nipped off to a nearby filing station to top up for his return home
By coincidence the Foden had a Darlington reg number& so was coming home to the North East, and I subsequently met the sales rep who originally had sold it and told me the mileage was genuine as it had bee allocated to a Hertz depot where it had stood weeks on end and was rarely hired as a self drive vehicle
The history of Pantechnicon vans 1960-90
Marsden Coachbuilders Warrington
Although our first Marsden was new in 1953 It was about 1959-60 that they built the first Fibreglass cab version. The one I illustrate in the photo was 1963. Our first was 1961 but sadly I never kept a photo. These were mostly built on the Bedford SB chassis . A coach chassis that arrived at Marsden with the front of a S type cab in the form of a scuttle (front cut off below windscreen & no rear of cab or doors etc.
In 1963 as a teenager I first met Arthur Rathbone who was officially workshop foreman ■■■ designer. He was working designing the square twin headlight cab that replaced this cab which eventually was modified to make the integral TK as my second photo. At the time I was a pupil of Durham school and although I took the cricket option rather than being part of their rowing club, got an instant interest of the small workshop where the school built fibreglass rowing boats. After watching Arthur, at Marsden’s and seeing the school’s boat factory I got a bit of knowledge of fibreglass & resin to enable me to repair minor gashes & scrapes on our vans, particularly when Marsden introduced full fibre glass bodies in 1965.
The second photo illustrates a Bedford TK with a full fibreglass body (cab, sides & roof) The Tk comes to Marsden as a chassis-scuttle and if you cut away the front of the fibreglass underneath you find the TK front, from below the windscreen. This also comes with a floor section that includes the basic sections the seats are fixed to. As these vehicles got older the Bedford parts suffered from rust, including the floor sections and we cut away the front of the cab removing the bonds that fixed the fibreglass to the TK front then stripped away the cab scuttle and floor, fitted new replacement scuttle & floor and rebounded the fibreglass front. If my son , who is now involved in vehicle maintenance thought about this, he would say we were mad doing this to 12 year old vehicles, but it sounds a lot worse than it was and only took about three days & hey presto we got these vans back earning as much as their new sisters, and on average costing the same in maintenance.
The third Marsden photo shows this cab adapted to fit on passenger chassis vehicles, in this case a Seddon passenger chassis. These chassis came along to Marsden just as a chassis with engine & gearbox and they had no Seddon front end to give it strength, so were a lot more complected to build onto as they had to add strength to make the cab safe for possible front end impact.
One other thing that is different as today. When my dad ordered all the vehicles we bought from Marsden & Vanplan it was a simple telephone call where he told them what we wanted, they rang back with a price and he told them to go ahead. We never signed a contact and simply paid them when they had finished often 6 months to a year after order. All on trust. How the world has changed where lawyers can argue over every word & full stop over contacts. Today I hear that parasite barristers are going out on ‘Indefinite strike’ when the pay increase they are demanding comes to more than many hard working workers earn in a month. I wish it was permanent & rid ourself of these blood suckers who many are not good at there jobs and often haven’t the ability of their almost namesakes at Costa etc creating a cup of coffee.
VANPLAN Ltd:
It was about 1973 that 3 Marsden employees had an argument with Jeff Marsden (also possibly to a smaller degree Ken Marsden) and left to form Vanplan Ltd in direct competition. They were Arthur Rathbone (Who I said earlier designed the cabs and other specialised features incorporated into the bodywork Jerry Crow who had left school at 15 and worked as an apprentice onto eventually workshop foreman assisting Arthur & eventually sales executive. The other person we never had dealing with as dad always preferred dealing with Ken Marsden even though he was primarily responsible for production, whereas his younger brother Jeff was sales, and on more than one occasion he said I’m sure that was Jeff & not Ken as their voices were similar on the phone> According to Jerry Crowe one of the problems at Marsden that prompted the split was the two brothers hated each other & didn’t speak to one another & the three that left found it difficult working in that climate.
After the split we usually got prices from both as the vehicles were similar quality and what we were most interested in was who could deliver quickest. When we got our first from Marsden that had design changes we were worried after the departing of Arthur Rathbone could they still produce the same quality. They did & I think, if anything eventually surpassed Vanplan.
The fourth photo is one of our Bedford TKs built by Vanplan, which as we expected almost an identical body to Marsden.
Boalloy (originally Bowyer Brothers ) Congleon.
Boalloy made fame with their Tautliner curtain sided trailers, but they originally built cabs on some British made lorries of 1940-50s but in the mid 60s were approached by Manchester Bedford Agents Sid Abram Ltd to build pantechnicons on Bedford chassis that Abrams could deliver ex-stock, with weekly adverts in Commercial Motor. The 5th photo is one of these based on TK chassis scuttle. Abram’s had originally approached Marsden but could not agree a price that was cheap enough for them to make sufficient profit. Suggesting that Marsden could cut on quality to be able to build cheaper, Ken Marsden refused and Boalloy took up the challenge & built thousands of them. We ran three and they were often falling to bits On one occasion the window frame was so insecure a windscreen fell out. The photo I show makes the van look OK but they were continual bodywork problems including movement on the back-frames etc meant they didn’t last long
However I’m not saying Boalloy couldn’t build to a better quality as we had 3 Seddon & this Ford 6th photo built by them all on coach chassis. Seddon had designed & built some pantechnicons built by Pennine (Seddon’s own bodybuilding company) Eventually as Seddon gained popularity they needed more production space and as the Pennine Factory was adjacent to the vehicle factory in Oldham they gave Boalloy the opportunity to build these vehicles, that were sold as complete vehicles through the Seddon dealerships, under licence and Boalloy took possession of the moulds designs etc over to Congleton and started production. I am not aware of the arrangements but originally these vehicles were only Seddons but eventually they built using the cab mould & designs on other chassis including Bedford TKs ( As a superior vehicle to the Abram efforts) and like this Ford Passenger chassis we operated.
This vehicle had an interesting history. Mann Eggerton were a very large group of garages thought South East England. For both cars and Commercials. They were very large Ford agents (Cars & Cvs) & Leyland inc AEC Their headquarters were Norwich. I don’t remember how they met but my dad made friends with Mann Egerton MD. I suspect they thought they would get into the Pantechnicon Market possibly after seeing the success of Sid Abram with Bedfords, and had Boalloy build this van on the Ford Passenger chassis. It was turbo charged & very fast. Whatever reason he asked could he send it to us in Spennymoor to look at. One thing Boalloy never achieved was building Fibreglass bodies and mostly they used plymax sheeting but this was built in horrible cheap ribbed alluminium . So along it came & the driver went off by train to collect another vehicle to return to Norwich. Dad’s friend said he didn’t want to collect it & take it back into stock & offered it at a price we couldn’t refuse. The problem was it wasn’t as big as vans we were specifying those days & the GVW also was too low to carry many of our loads, however it stayed in service with us about 11 years mostly on Long distance household removals which was well within its weight and because of its speed was a very popular van.
Carlite:
Carlite were very respectable caravan manufactures in the high end of Caravans. They had experience at building Caravans in fibreglass, and I suspect reduction in demand for caravans made them attempt to move into the pantechnicon van market. The final photo is an example, and certainly would have looked better had it been photos a little later when it had its new headlamp fitted.
The van was fully fibreglass and was better than Boalloys efforts with the Sid Abram’s vans, but fell short on the quality of either Marsden or vanplan.
What went wrong
All these manufactures are now gone, bankrupt long ago.
I have often read why no pantechnicons are built today? And the answer is impact testing. Taking Marsden as an example : they built bodes on many different chassis, and today each would have to be tested to meet impact standards which simply would not be viable. The cabs were built on a wood (ash) frame and although very strong I doubt they could ever have met modern day standards.
I remember Eddy Howe ran AEC busses & coaches near us in Marmaduke street Spennymoor and in about 1954 he bought & ran a new AEC Service bus RUP which he was still operating on the Ok Service Bishop Auckland to Spennymoor & Return just over 25 miles each way) but this bus nearly ran the service every day from about 7 on a morning until 11 on a night over umpteen years accumulating incredible mileage and remember Dad talking to Eddy who was very proud of what this vehicle had achieved because at the time over 10 years old it never had the engine touched and had cost him very little on parts
When we had the need for tractor units it was obvious we introduced a number of AEC Mercuries which delighted us because of fuel consumption & very good service I remember sitting one autumn evening in the virtually empty bar on North Pier Blackpool. Might seem daft but rare occasions when we could sit and talk away from work & relax. We talked about the AECs & also how coach chassis were best for our use. Discussing the problems of underfloor engines and how realistically they were no problem, as at the time luton vans we operated with tilt cabs needed unloading to be able to tilt the cab to access the engine, so an AEC coach chassis from inside the body the floor boards could be built to open to get engine access & an engine lift inside the body could easily lift out an engine. So we decided to build a new pantechnicon on an AEC Reliance chassis. On the Monday Morning dad rang Ken Marsden for a price & was told they were not able to build as it would not be economic for one vehicle as the design would be too expensive. Little did we know Leyland were in the slow process of destroying AEC.
Talking of Coaches I suspect impact testing probably was the same problem for the likes of Plaxton. Duple Harrington and the builders of the beautiful coaches we saw on the roads in the 60s & 70s. Individual hand built vehicles are sadly a thing of the past
My first recollection of Tom Liddle’s (T. T.Liddle Ltd Stanley Co.Durham) vans was his 3 ERF with Gardiner Engines & bodies by Jennings of Sandbach like the one shown below. Built between 1948-50 the were really impressive vans and must have cost a fortune when he bought them new. His fourth van was a Thames 4D with a large luto van body and although Tom kept it immaculate and well maintained, he explained to my dad ^& myself, when we eventually became good friends,it was not one of his best purchases. In fact my dad & he reminised all the problems they had mutually experienced with Ford’s first 4 cylinder diesel vehicles.
We were introduced by a mutual friend, Don Clegg who ran a small removal business in Stanley and immediatlely became good friends visiting Tom at his most impressive depot in Stanley where his bungalow & adjoining office stood in the entrance & Tom visiting us at Spennymoor & infact travelling to meet us in Blackpool where we spent most weekends in our caravan.
By the time we had met Tom had replaced his 3 ERF and 1 Ford with what I considered was one of the most impressive fleet of Furniture vans in the country and I have searched the internet without success to find a photo of one of these Bedford TKs
Tom ran 16 of these, all identical with bodies by Northern Coachworks Consett built between 1960 -64 and stull was running all 16 when he sold out to P & O (Storemasters), who built massive warehouses on Tom’s orrigonal site & started replacing the TKs and we bought two of them from Tom, selling them on behalf of Storemasters.and painted in our livery,. They were quite old but as Tom maintained to excellent standards.The main problem we had was they were just not high enough inside to carry many of our loads & this and because of age only survived with us for about 2 years. Tom worked with P& O for over a year, but it didn’t work out and spent his time building a new bungalow for himself and his wife as his origional sold to P & O and converted into offices, Not able to settle he then bought Lewins Removals from Consett until he sadly passed away
My dad would have been 101 today. Here are 2 photos the first greeting a Government Minister of Employment at our stand at an Exhibition in the Newly opened Recreation Centre at Spennymoor and a photo with myself taken from inside our paint-shop inside our premises at Green Lane Ind Est about 1974
When I was working at W.H.W took very few photos myself as I was dreadful as a photographer and familioraty breeds contempt and seeing vehicles of ours every day of my life from my earliest memories made me think they’d always be there. When I first joined this sight I had only half a dozen or so as any tha we (as a family) had were mislaid or lost.
Sadly that was about the same time that my memory was becoming blurred and I wanted to see them again.
Nearly all photos I have seen are what kind people like you have added or sent me. So thank you so much
SGS was an unusual case as we had many of these Bedford KG’s built by Marsden but although new with delivery mileage it had been a pre-reg & I bought it as a chassis cab at Central Motor Auctions Leeds. Bedford main dealers were given quantity discount provided they registered a certain number of vehicles each month, so sometimes they would purchase one or two themselves & register them & then sell them off as new but second hand. Car dealers did the same from time to time & prob still do. As I said we saw the chassis cab advertised & I went down to Leeds and bought it saving about £5,000 and took it over to Marsden’s at Warrington where it was stripped down to a chassis scuttle for the Integral pantechnicon body to be built onto the chassis/scuttle. Subsequently we collected doors windscreen ect. & took them back to Spennymoor & put into our vehicle stores where they would be eventually used repairing TKs we operated with standard cabs
it would prob be the late Colin Watson driving on that photo He had been given a new Leyland Lynx tractor unit but swapped for that Atkinson as he preferred it In fact he built the sleeper cab conversion after asking for permission
It must be an age thing but I watch quite a bit TV from ‘Talking Pictures’ TV channel and one series I record & watch is Edward Woodward presenting a program 'Suspicious Circumstances ’ and program last week reminded me of something I had heard about.
In 1946 my dad and Grandfather had bought a bus, a Thornycroft He told me it was from a bus operator in Otterburn Northumberland and when he went to see it it had just come in from a regular service it was used on from Otterburn to Newcastle.
He also told me that talking to the owner and his wife their daughter who at the time was about 20 years old had been murdered.
On the program I have just watched Edward Woodward assisted with actors recounted the sad event. Apparently her father who operated buses had set her up in a taxi business and driving a man late at night from Otterburn to Newcastle he had raped her and then set the car alight with her inside.
Although dad had great hopes from operating a bus business along with our haulage side to the extent that he had ordered a new Thornycroft never took off and I’ll tell the story behind it that will make interesting reading perhaps.
Its often been said that our vans were seen everywhere & in fact there can be few villages that they never visited, but here is a video promoting transport Co F B Atkins & Sons Derby who also had a fairly large restaurant at their depot and the only Commercial vehicle shown not owned by them is one of our Bedford SBs 1372 UP. I think the shot was included more because of one of our Mercedes Cars which in the photo in 1973 was almost new. To see video click youtube.com/watch?v=finUm2S08Ew
My dad was travelling down to Birmingham and had arranged to meet the driver for a breakfast meeting at Atkins restaurant.
Although the Mercedes was a rare model with few produced for British market & would today had been a collectors item, given the choice I would have rather had today the Bedford.
For the purists 1962 Bedford SB with pantechnicon body by Marsden Warrington (in the photo 11 years old, & repainted in 1965 plus livery. One of first Bedford 330 cu in diesel engines with sleeved block & inline pump, before they introduced bored block & rotary pump
A photo of the office and administration staff 1973
From left to right
Ronnie Harris, Sadly no longer with us came to us late 50’s as a driver and had a period in the transport office early seventies returning back into driving. Ronnie worked for us until the end and retiring & living in Shildon until his final days.
Marilyn Mason came from Trimdon, and I remember when she came to Marmaduke Street for interview by Mrs Dennis who then was our office manager. We were short staffed when she arrived and asked her when she could start and she replied that if we could let her ring home she would start stay and start straight away. I believe she had an argument with Mrs Dennis after about a year and left. In my opinion Mrs Dennis was very difficult to work for trying to keep much to herself and not giving staff the opportunity to develop their skills When I took over responsibility for the running of the office I sent for her to come back, which she did.
Linda Turnbull, who kindly provided these photos, lived in Kelloe during her years working for us. Linda was young when she started for us and I hope we trained her well. She was very versatile in her work and willing to take responsibility, with a very mature attitude for her work.
Christine Heale joined us from Tomado ltd the factory opposite our offices. She lives in Spennymoor and I remember was only three days younger than me. Christine had a responsible position at Tomado and was older than we would have usually recruited as we liked to train office staff to work our way. Christine was our wages clerk for quite a long time. A job that often had her take the agro from drivers who thought they had been underpaid. Whilst she worked for us Christine had a baby girl, who will be quite old herself today.
Shirley Cutty unfortunately I cannot remember too much about her at this time as she was a quiet type of girl who got on with her work
John Storey came to us as an apprentice transport manager.
Anne Walton again came to us straight from school. I remember in an article in a newspaper describing her as the cheerful teenager who answered the phone. How times fly. Ann went on to be our removal clerk, dealing with all aspects of our removals division. She went on to marry Ian Askwith who worked as a small van driver and then HGV as he got older. From what I can understand Ann progressed her career onto management with subsequent employers. Anne came to two or three of our reunions & had never changed. Sadly about 3 years ago Anne unexpectedly passed away, taken far too young,
The late Eddy Thornton was service manager of Adams and Gibbon Claypath Durham. He joined us as manager of our vehicle maintenance department, and certainly got all our maintenance records up to date. He joined our transport Office when Alan Henderson joined the company as fleet Engineer. In the transport office he had the special responsibility to leas between transport and maintenance.
If anyone recognises either themselves or anyone in this photograph I really would appreciate if they could get in touch and give me their thoughts and memories.
Finally in the bottom photo which has been torn was my dad and me. I remember we were asked to pose outside the front door of the office holding a plan of the soon to be built warehouse.
Carl,
Looking at the pic of your office staff makes me wonder how
you managed to get you’re young red blooded driving staff
and some not quite so red blooded driving staff out onto the
road with all those gorgeous legs on view.
harry_gill:
Carl,
Looking at the pic of your office staff makes me wonder how
you managed to get you’re young red blooded driving staff
and some not quite so red blooded driving staff out onto the
road with all those gorgeous legs on view.
I know Harry it got very hard working there from time to time. HAPPY NEW YEAR, by the way
harry_gill:
Carl,
Looking at the pic of your office staff makes me wonder how
you managed to get you’re young red blooded driving staff
and some not quite so red blooded driving staff out onto the
road with all those gorgeous legs on view.
I know Harry it got very hard working there from time to time. HAPPY NEW YEAR, by the way
Hiya,
And a happy and healthy new year to you too Carl, keep well
and keep posting your very interesting reading.
cheers coomsey
