W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

[carl_williams]

Sawley Gill , was a member of the Gill family who originally came from Spennymoor. My grandfather had known them from his school days…
He had a very large furniture shop in Claypath Durham which was demolished to make way for the new road layout as the road was diverted straight across the new bridge near the Royal County hotel saving traffic turning left and going over Elvet Bridge into the Market Place, where a police box had stood directing the traffic, with the aid of what I believe was the first Close Circuit Television System.

As well as his shop in Durham he had a shop in Spennymoor on the left hand side as you went up the High Street towards the railway bridge. He also had three Bedford vans. A 1949 OB (passenger chassis with integral cab built by Noble at Sherwood Wynn) a 1950 OB identical and an O series Bedford 30cwt with similar bodywork. Its ironic because the two OBs illustrate what my dad should have done with JUP our 1948 OB.

I think basically Gills used the small van to do their deliveries from their furniture shops and the two larger vans for household removals. New Equipment Ltd makers of Steel style furniture was established after the war by Mr Corner and the now familiar factory was built at the Croxdale Roundabout originally on A1 and now renamed A167, and started using Sawrey Gill to deliver production from their furniture factory using the two Bedford OBs.

My dad had in fact been to see them and had sent one of our Bedford petrol SB’s to show them how much bigger it was and running costs were no more than the older and smaller OBs. When we got the first request to deliver a load of furniture for them they soon found it could save them considerably using the much larger vans. So our history developed by doing furniture deliveries for them. It is interesting that a furniture manufacturer we did work for in Newton Aycliffe before this time was Shragers. They always used tail board loads with you filling up the van and loading the tailboard and roping and sheeting the rear of the van. They couldn’t understand why we could not do similarly with the SBs. But it was not possible as they would have been over the legal length and also with the wheel boxes drop wells and low tailboards it would not be possible. Being a Jewish family they made sure they used every cubic inch of the vehicles body size.

How we managed to undertake all the work during the mid to late fifties seems unbelievable but it was obvious as I said earlier that the 1947 Bedford 3 tonner was wasting an A licence as it was too small. Also we had a load of Atlas Florecent lighting fitments (about 7 ton) to take to their Leeds depot each day from their Spennymoor Factory so my dad sold GPT and bought one of Gills OB’s.to use on the Leeds job also removals etc on Saturdays.
It appears to me ironic that all the years before he had sold JUP (a vehicle the same size) to now buy one second hand. It went into use on day one and he only had time to give coat of cream undercoat paint and it never stopped until it was replaced in 1961 by our first Bedford SB Marsden diesel. It is to be noted that Bedford always claimed a 50% overload was possible and before plating and testing was introduced there was no such thing as overloading.

The photo bellow shows two of our Bedford TKs at NESS (New Equipment Steel Style) in the mid seventies

[carl_williams]

How my dad managed to do with he did in the mid to late nineteen fifties with six vans it seems impossible. With the A licence system it was very difficult, if not impossible to get extra vehicles and also you were limited by the unladen weight of the vehicles operated and so it was not just a simple system of swapping one vehicle with another, it was necessary to apply to increase the unladen weight of heavier vehicle with the objection mainly of British Rail, and BRS. The system was devised to keep down the number of vehicles on the road and keep those that were used to their maximum efficiency.

Our customers during mid 1950’s were Smart & brown (Thorn) who had taken over the munitions factory in Spennymoor, where my grandfather had provide transport for during the war, Tallent Engineering of Aycliffe, R W Toothil of Aycliffe Aycliffe Drums and Kegs, Tin Boxes at Aycliffe and Ramar Dresses at Crook, Cardinal Cabinets at Bishop Auckland, Remploy of Spennymoor , NESS Furniture Croxdale and of course about twenty household removal a week, (many Long distance).

From Smart and Brown we had the daily Leeds run and could get as much London Traffic as we wanted with them paying one way £12.00 per load. Most of this was done by back loads by London hauliers including Lebus furniture but if we had a removal to pick up in the south it was better than running down empty. We also had a job with Backer Electrics of Rotherham where we picked up loads Monday afternoons and Wednesday afternoons. They made the radiant rings that fitted onto the cooker hobs on the Tricity Cookers. The other work from Smart and Browns had been delivery of Radiograms mostly to Scotland (my dad says we must have taken at least one Radiogram to everyone who lived in Scotland), but this was tapering off, as the factory got ready to produce something that influenced the sixties so much , the refrigerator.

I can often remember my dad going to bed about 8 o’clock at night to leave at midnight with loads of dresses for London for Raymar Dresses. He used to travel at night as noone enforced the 20 mph speed limited and the old petrol SBs would cruise at 50. It then enabled him to get into the West End where deliveries were made to before the rush hour. (In those days pre the Doncaster bye passes it could take ¾ of an hour to get through Doncaster during the daytime). My dad used to recall that on one occasion he was given a tip of 10 shillings by someone who pointed out of his window looking down at the van parked between two cars pointing out you deserve that for getting that in there. Raymars London office would provide someone to go with him round the various delivery destinations in the West End but the problem was he did his deliveries on a bicycle and often forgot about the one way streets. As tiredness started kicking in early on the morning after finally unloading my dad said aspirins and coffee kept him awake for the journey home where more work was waiting back at Spennymoor. Often he had to go 48 hours without very much sleep.

I went to boarding school in 1959 and my mother then often went with my dad as company. Often overnight again for tin boxes delivering loads to Liechners who made woman’s make up with many different brand names on the tin. My mother said it was amazing to watch all the black women coming to work with their multi coloured umbrellas early morning as the factory was opening Another destination for Tin Boxes was Cellatape at Borehamwood. My dad said you can’t believe the number of times he had been there in the early hours of the morning unloading and had been parched for a drink, and the first time he took my mother they were immediately invited into the canteen for a cup of tea.

R W A Toothill made three piece suites with wooden arms in Aycliffe Trading Estate but the problem with their work was that they were multi drops often as much as 25 per load and it ■■■■■■■ too much van time, as well in those days there were the half days when usually on a Wednesday or Thursday shops closed for the afternoons. Together with Hayward and Robinson at Darlington we did their work and I remember when I was very young meeting for the first time Eddie Ramsey who was driving at that time for Fred Johnson Removals at Durham. Dad had hired them in as sub contractors for Toothill’s work. I never realised that a few years later we would buy them out and Eddie would work for us until his death in our warehouse days before he was 65 years old.

Reg Toothill also suffered an untimely death when he was young but he had wanted my dad to do all their transport. Instead my dad recommended that he bought their own vans, which he did. I believe the company was taken over by a Mr Hall who worked with Reg Toothill and when years later they asked me to discuss with them taking over their vehicles and under contract doing their transport we nearly reached agreement apart from payment terms, which were a crucial factor as it appeared that Toothill was in financial difficulties and shortly afterwards went into liquidation and closed

[carl_williams]

1937 Bedford 2 Tonner

[carl_williams]

Today the public workers are on strike and it reminded me of the Courtaulds strike of 1972.We had about 30 employees and 25 vehicles dealing with the transport from the Spennymoor Courtaulds plant. Courtaulds employed about 3,000 people when one day 170 supervisors went on strike. The factory inside was working on production as normal. Four of our vans went to load at 8.00am and came back to our depot which was at that time in Marmaduke Street, saying they had been turned back by pickets on the gate. We had discussions with the Transport and General workers union, who asked us to contact the Dyers and Bleachers union who represented the workforce who were working. They asked if we could work as normal as they wanted to protect the jobs of the workforce, as they had had difficulties before with Courtaulds, who they said would have no hesitation in closing down the plant and then everyone including our drivers would loose their jobs.

After further talks between the Transport and General Workers union and the Dyers and Bleachers union we were advised it was at each drivers discression if they crossed the picket lines and informally they advised we should try to work as normal. I went round to meet the strikers and as I pointed out our drivers were not affecting them only removing production that had been produced and surely their absence from work would effect production which surely will be decreasing. It was agreed that they would let our vans into the plant to collect loads. However they vigorously picketed vehicles delivering raw materials and turned them away. Courtaulds management found an easy way round this firstly opening up another gateway into the site and then when this was picketed waiting to about 9-30 on a night when the pickets left their posts and went to the pub for a last minute pint or two.

This went on for a few weeks when we were told that one of our artics, a Leyland Mastiff had to call at Bradford on his way home and pick up a load from their Bradford factory and this was needed to be brought into spennymoor at 10-00PM that night or production would stop. The driver was Arthur Crooks and as in those days there were no mobile phones we could not directly talk to him we checked his leaving time from Bradford and he should be home in time. As time went on Courtaulds were getting more and more anxious and to keep them happy I reassured them that if all failed I would drive it in.

For some reason Arthur Crooks decided he could not get back and parked up at Wetherby, overnight. The next morning he walked into us, saying he could not deliver into Courtaulds as the pickets stopped him. I told him to drive onto Green Lane Industrial Estate and stop next to where they were building the Tomado factory (Which was eventually as we moved there one of our neighbours).I followed with my car and told Arthur to return with my car, and I got into the Mastiff’s cab and turned right passing the back of Black and Decker and when in the distance I saw Courtaulds gateway I put my headlights on full beam and my hand on the horn as I headed towards the entrance of Courtaulds. The pickets scattered but one stood firm and I had no option to stop. I had never thought of locking myself in the cab and seeing me stop the pickets ran towards me opening the cab door to drag me out. In fright I had put the tractor in reverse and as it jumped back the pickets who were climbing in fell off and as now there was no one in front I put it in bottom and the gateman lifted his barrier and a few Courtaulds staff who were watching cheered me.

I then had to get out and messages came through that they were waiting for me. I was eventually smuggled out in the boot of a mini (The original ones).
There were repercussions one of which was my mother receiving a phone call informing her that it was the police telling her I had been in a car accident and had been killed.

Fortunately I had for a few months been booked on a two week training course at Motec at High Ercol in Shropshire, and by the time I returned things had quieted down. The strikers were dismissed and courtaulds carried on as normal without ever replacing them.

[carl_williams]

1961 came and brought with it changes that would dramatically effect the future direction of our business. The first was we received delivery of our first diesel, a SB with body by Marsden, fibreglass front and roof and sliding cab doors. It had taken a longish time as their had been aprox six months delivery delay on the chassis, which was supplied by Adams & Gibbon of Claypath Durham and Marsden had taken about four months to build the body. It was registered 4479PT and was the first of many Bedford SBs.

Later during that year Thorn started production of fridges at their Spennymoor Smart & Brown plant. After a slowish start fridges sold like hot cakes as they were affordable and very few families had one and everyone wanted one.

4479 PT had the original Bedford 300 cu in engine which historically was not received well and soon replaced by the 330 cu in in future models. The other problem was it was slightly too low to get three fridges high. Our next SB and all future were 3 in higher and could carry 130 Tricity fridges, and the engines were the 330 cu in. Slight modifications needed to be made to our garage the doorway slightly higher to let the higher vans in.

At about 3 years old 4479PT was repainted from cream and brown and repainted blue into New Equipment Steel Style furniture livery as the slightly lower height was not important to them. 4479 PT went on to do just over 300,00o miles when a fitter by mistake forgot to fully tighten the sump plug and it lost its oil and seized up near Wetherby. It was refitted with a New Bedford short motor and went on to do just in excess of another 300,000 miles making 600,000 in its total working life. It had a second repaint in our cream/brown livery and was driven by Brian Sheldon for a year mainly on Courtaulds work. Anyone who knew Brian would testify he wasn’t the most gentle of drivers and so if the 300 cu in engine was poor it must have been a very big exception to the rule

We carried on using Bedford SB until the advent of plating and testing where they were plated at 9.5 ton gross giving a maximum carrying capacity of 5 ton, which we could just about get away with but the front axle was a continual worry as the van was unloaded there was a danger of overloading the front axle. Certainly the engine setup was easier to work on than the TK and the airflow was much better. I don’t recall of one occasion when an SB overheated.

[carl_williams]

It’s strange how people meet up when working. Gordon Ball met his wife Christine Ede who worked in the office. They had two children and got divorced. Gordon for a long time drive a Bedford Marsden BUP312F . The last I heard from him was he remarried and was very happy.

Tony Kirk many years before he worked for us drove a bus and Dave Heron wasted no time in telling him he used to drive off when he was running to catch the bus for work. ‘You should have been on time’ was Tony Kirk’s reply. They always seemed friendly to together but I suspect Dave Herron, who used to drive the Seddon Penine Marsden that was painted in Thorn’s livery from when it was new, never forgave him for the shifts he lost. Jim Kirk, no relative of Tony’s came to us when we took over ATM’s Transport and lived at Crook. The original agreement was that the vans with the drivers who had transferred would remain parked at ATM Crook, but when they closed he carried on for us driving a Bedford marsden KF.

Two other drivers did not get on so well, one of whom I remember was Jim Cairey. At an argument the one said be careful what you say to me I am a black belt in Judo. Whack! Jim hit him, and as he was laid out on the concrete, and replied ‘ I was in the Grenadeer Guards.

There was the famous matrimonial argument between Ray Juler with Alan Henderson who had become ’friendly’ with Ray’s wife (The office cleaner at the time) when Ray threw Alan down one of the pits in the main workshop.

We had one black driver and he was called names that today would appear racialist, but it was all in good fun and he took it as so replying. ‘OK ■■■■■■’ and giving as good back. The only complaint we had was when other drivers were approaching him , trying to see who it was found that all they could see was a pair of eyes and a beaming set of white teeth as he drove past.

I’m sure that many drivers could say more about incidents when they were away but one comes to mind. We always had several drivers overnight in Leicester and in one case Peter Moore ‘a porter who was assisting with a removal went with them into a local put, where he was getting on rather well with an attractive young lady. Everyone watched with anticipation as they knew his new friend from previous nights. Peter was amazed when he was accompanied to the gents toilet with what he hoped was going to keep him warm that night. ‘What are you doing? Where do you think you are going?’
He was then told he was accompanying a transvestite.

[carl_williams]

This van was painted by Bob Harold with signwriting and lineage by Peter Butler in 1979, and I hope this photograph serves as a tribute to their excellent workmanship

[carl_williams]

From the mid seventies to our demise in 1986 we had three women drivers. None could I describe as butch and in two particular cases were very feminine. They worked as good as any male driver, conscientiously and productively.

The third to join us unfortunately I cannot remember her name, but she for a long time drove a Leyland Laird Platform with daily loads from Courtaulds to Oldham. She needed to rope and sheet and successfully did so.

The second to join us was called Christine and drove class one. She was , if I remember correctly, a single mum and needed to work to support her daughter. I remember in 1984 she took home the largest pay packet we ever paid out to a driver. £340 plus tax free subsistence, meal allowances and parking. I believe that week she travelled in excess of 1,800 miles, and as tachographs were in use she did not exceed her driving or working hours.

The first to join us was Caroline Vane, first daughter of Lord Barnard, We had a close relationship with Darlington Driver Training and in fact I was a director. Caroline had paid for herself to take a HGV Class 1 driving course, which resulted in her achieving a class 1 driving licence, Dennis Gooder had approached us, on her behalf to see if we could offer her employment. She started with us driving a small van and one day when the Ford D800 that Brian Sheldon usually drove came in from Courtaulds with about 11 drops in Leicester area everyone joked she will have called to collect the gardener to help her unload the heavy boxes.

Caroline went on to drive a selection of vehicles including class 1 and I can say I never heard anyone say a bad word against her in the ten or so years she worked for us. The laugh was that one day one of our porters called Kenny Hodgson said to her ‘Is it true that you should be addressed as Lady Caroline Vane?’ and then went on to say ‘Does that mean if I married you would I become Lord Hodgson ‘ No she replied , because I wouldn’t marry you.’

As Caroline was in direct line to the thrown, it was inevitable that the press started to continually call our office for comments, and Caroline had told us always simply to say ‘No comment’. They became more and more determined as it was my view that no comment caused them to be more stirred up. Eventually one day I was contacted by what I seem to remember, The Yorkshire Press agency. who told me that if an official comment was made to them I could refer all people to them. I spoke to Caroline and we agreed to throw them slightly off the trail to use one of her other Christian names and make a comment.

At that time Nigel Demster was the gossip correspondent at The Daily Mail, and he contacted me. I gave him the prepared comment and he said he was going to write about it in his column. I told him that Caroline was working normally and had not taken the job for publicity. I then went on to say not in anyway to say where or who she was working for as she was a long distance lorry driver, often sleeping overnight in her vehicle and it was important for her personal safety.

The following day I was astounded and annoyed when I read ‘her employer Carl Williams says so and so. How stupid and irresponcible the press can be. My dad always said that Lord Barnard should be proud of her as she worked conscientiously and hard.

About 15 years ago I met Caroline and she seemed a happy mother with a baby daughter.
.

[carl_williams]

In 1966 we bought a BMC J2 (18cwt) with a luton body fitted to it. The body had been built by a company that made static caravans in the Southampton area and they were selling these J2s off the peg. My dad had travelled down by train to collect it and I cannot fully remember but he had encounter a problem with it within an hour of collection and also it had almost turned over in the wind as it was so light. (and not too well built).It had the BMC 2.2 litre diesel engine so its one good point was it was very economical, getting over 40 mpg.

One morning, when it was about 4 month old I was sent with my uncle Jim (Great Uncle actually as he was my grandmother’s brother) with a mixed load including some Grundig radios, record players etc and brillo Pads to deliver to Newcastle. One of the deliveries I remember was Bainbridge the department store which was in Market Street, before Eldon Square development.

At about 8.45AM we were crawling through the traffic jams in Gateshead to cross the Tyne Bridge, when a passer by knocked on the window and said we were on fire. Just then fire started to come through the engine bonnet into the cab. I jumped out the driving seat and took cover behind a low wall that run along between the side of the pavement and a block of flats, thinking that God had been kind to us to rid us of this heap of scrap. However my uncle got out and started asking cars that were stuck in the traffic near to us if anyone had a fire extinguisher. Despite of shouts from me to leave it to burn and come where I was he slid underneath the front and sprayed the engine with an extinguisher he had been given. Just then a siren signalled a fire appliance coming down the pavement to deal with the fire. By this time my uncle had put out the fire and the van body and load was undamaged. In fact the only damage was to the wiring and scorching and fire burns inside the cab. The van was towed away to Buists , who then at the time were the main BMC agents to be repaired we then sent another van to collect and deliver the load which was undamaged.

My father, like me was disappointed that the van was being repaired, and more particularly that Buists were doing the work. If there is anyone who reads this had the unfortunate job of collecting parts from Buists or the equally bad Minories (Hillman, Commer agency). In Newcastle, they will know it was necessary that you took a flask and sandwiches with you as the quws were so long,and it took hours to get served. I always remember telling the Buists commercial vehicle salesman that came to see us from time to time that I was unable to decide whether it was because they had such poor stores employees or whether it was because the products BMC they had the franchise for were always breaking down that caused these terrible delays in getting served. Buists workshop was no better. After six weeks we were told the J2 was almost completed so my dad and I told them we would go through the following morning and collect the van. Arriving at Buists we were told the only thing not finished was the battery needed connecting> We waited and waited to be told they were waiting an auto electrician to connect it, as by union rules a mechanic was not allowed to. We were so sick of waiting that we told them that my dad would do it. ‘Oh don’t do that or they’ll go out on strike’ we were told, and after a further hours wait we were on our way.

Another occasion I had to go to ATM Crook to pick up a small load with the J2 about 3-30 one afternoon for delivery to Leicester the following morning. I pulled out of the ATM factory and went through Crook into Willington turning down towards Newfield and over the Jubilee Bridge only to discover that it had not the power to clime up the bank on the other side and had to phone Spennymoor to get another van to come and take off some of my load. ]

Another occasion I left one morning with a load of ATM to deliver in the Manchester area. My first delivery was near Oldham just to the left of the main Oldham-Mancheser road. I turned off down the bank and delivered three boxes of yarn. When I approached the main road to rejoin there was traffic coming and after stopping it would not pull away again, I had three attempts before luck let me out without stopping. It reminded me of the tales my dad told as to how in the twenties taking a removal to Scarborough at Berk Brow bank they had had to turn round and reverse up and then turn round again to continue their journey.

Time is a great healer and we put up with the J2 finding that it survived to do over 120,000 miles on its first engine. What did we replace it with in 1970? A JU which in its turn brought more BMC (Leyland) troubles.

[carl_williams]

Talking of ATM at Crook, a very unusual, in fact I think, spooky happened to me on a trip to Sutton on Ashfield and Nottingham area with a load of their yarn, and I wonder if anyone else has ever experienced anything like it.

We had a BMC FG 2 tonner Reg DPT100B with a Marsden Integral Pantechnicon body on it. One morning about 10.30AM about 1967 whoever was driving the FG came in with 7 drops Nottingham area. Some of the deliveries were urgent for that day and the driver told me it was too late to leave as he could not get back that night and had to be home that night. He said he could leave early next morning, but some deliveries were urgent.

I decided to take it and took a young porter with me to help. I didn’t like that FG, because it always felt numb to drive and the noise inside the cab with its 3.8 litre diesel engine was deafening. I think the biggest problem was by design they had the three penny piece cab that was quite narrow. With the integral Marsden had fitted a full width cab complete with sliding cab doors as was fitted to the Bedford SBs of the period. The driving position was awful and not suited to the straight up FG steering wheel and there was a large gap between the driver and the door. Heaven help if it had been in the old days when you had to give hand signals, very few people would have had arms long enough to reach out the window.

We left and did 4 of the deliveries just reaching Pretty Polly in Sutton in Ashfield at 4-00 Pm when it was getting dark and very foggy. .One of ATM’s own vans was parked up and the driver confirming he had parked up for the night and as he was empty he was going back to Crook in the morning. I only had 5 boxes left on for my last two deliveries for Nottingham and I asked if he would do me a favour and drop them in the next morning so I could start my journey home. No came the reply and to make matters worse he confirmed that if I was not at my last drop before 5.30 they would be closed. There were times when years afterwards when we took over ATM’s vehicles and drivers I wished I could remember who he was to repay the favour.

We just made it to the last delivery at twenty past five and then started for home. Visibility was dreadful and I suggested we park up, but the young lad wanted to get home. Finally I got back onto the A! and onto the Doncaster Bypass. I couldn’t see much at all but there appeared to be very little traffic on the road. I was travelling about 35 mph and really would have ploughed into anything that was parked. Suddenly I heard a shrill whistle. At that I slowed to a virtual stop I saw ahead of me an Artic Trailer of Direct Transport Shildon which must has jack-knifed and the trailer was the full width of the carriageway. Policemen with torches guided me onto the central reservation (There were no crash barriers in those days) and around the vehicle. And back onto the carriageway again.

The fog got better as I got further north and arrived home about 10.40PM I have asked many people if the police had some system that could cause a shrill whistle, and no body can explain what it had been. Certainly with that drum drum of the diesel engine you could hardly talk to each other in the cab, and hearing anything from outside would have been impossible. If anyone can explain what could have happened I would appreciate your thoughts. But from that time to today I have believed someone up there is looking after me.

[carl_williams]

Campbell Wardlaw was a very good solicitor who from his office on Mosley Street Newcastle upon Tyne specialised on Transport Law, Almost every week there were articles in Commercial Motor of his successes in Transport matters. He dealt with the traffic commissioners from all parts of the country and it was rumoured that Hanlon who was the Transport Commissioner for the Northern Traffic area which was at that time based in Low Friar Street in Newcastle consulted Wardlaw for advice.

We needed to use his services on two occasions. The first was when we had suffered a fleet inspection and were told to attend a tribunal to see if our licence should be suspended or curtailed. By that time the operators licence was in place and we were still based in Marmaduke Street where the accommodation for our fleet was questionably adequate as we waited for the buildings to go ahead at Green Lane Industrial Estate. We had no margin on our operators licence as in fact we were frightened to apply for additional vehicles until we moved and here we were possibly getting the number of vehicles reduced. Wardlaw argued that the maintenance was prejudiced as we didn’t have sufficient vehicles and we walked out with 10 extra vehicles authorised.

At that time he gave my dad advice that is still important for sole traders or partnerships today as it was to us then. My dad had sufferered a heart attack and our accountants had wrongly advised us to form a partnership, when we should have formed a limited company. Why are you not a limited company? Asked Campbell Wardlaw, going on the explain that with the number of vehicles we had and the number of tyres going on the road we only needed one tyre to be found defective and My dad, mam and me would all have had our licences endorsed with three points on each, it could happen we all could loose our licences where as we would be safe if it were a limited company. The next time we met with him we were W.H. Williams (Haulage) Ltd , a limited company defending defective brakes which had we not taken his advise would have gained each of us an endorsement.

We had a Dodge with a Marsden luton van body suffering brake failure on Crawleyside bank. Fortunately Ken Dagga, the driver had managed to steer the van into one of the escape tracks. Unfortunately following him was a police car. The police contacted MOT to send out a vehicle examiner who in turn instructed North East Motors at Newcastle ( The main Dodge Dealer for North East England.to send out a breakdown and tow it to their workshops where it could be examined in detail. When it got there the brakes were working perfectly.

We received a summons to attend court charged with defective brakes. By chance Eddie Thornton our workshop manager was standing in front of a pit when the Dodge was pulled in for service. He heard a hissing noise and found a sealed unit which we could not check was defective. It was sent off to Dodge who produced a report to say it was defective and a manufacturers design problem. However defective brakes are an absolute offence to which there is no not guilty plea. And if we had received a fine it would automatically trigger a public enquiry by the Licensing Authority

Campell Wardlaw was in hospital and my dad along with his secretary and another solicitor who he had commissioned to act in his absence attended his bedside where he took instruction and told the junior solicitor exactly how to act and what to say. As a result we were given an absolute discharge, which meant although we were guilty it did not reflect on our conduct.Unfortunatly
Campbell wardlaw did not recover and it was the last case for him.

For me there was a lot less interesting reading in Commercial Motor and the road transport industry lost a grear asset

[night_shift_bri]

You don’t seem to get many postings on here Carl, so just to let you know that I find your tales from the past very interesting. I well remember seeing your brown and cream motors all over the country when I started driving in the early 70s. Excellent stories and please keep them coming.

[carl_williams]

night shift bri:
You don’t seem to get many postings on here Carl, so just to let you know that I find your tales from the past very interesting. I well remember seeing your brown and cream motors all over the country when I started driving in the early 70s. Excellent stories and please keep them coming.[/quote

Thank you very much for your comments, Its nice to think someone does remember. When we finnished in 1986 we had a workforce of 250. I do know many have died as at that time quite a few employees had worked for us for twenty plus years.
I do hope your comments encourage others to pass their comments, and perhaps as word of mouth spreads more old employees or sons and daughters put their views. I also wish I had taken photographs at the time, because all I had have been mostly press photographs that have been kept over the years
Finally thank you for your comments

[stanfield]

Totally agree with you Night shift bri.Some great tales indeed,lets have more.

[v7victor]

v7victor:

Carl Williams:
]
Hi ,thanks for the pm its good to see how this thread as taken off lets hope it keep going Vic, never worked for the company but delivered your fuel for a lot of years thanks for the memories.

Hi Victor nice to hear from you, which fuel company did you deliver for? Its been a lot of years ago and its good that someone still remembers

Yeah carl, i worked for Phillips Petrolium on a contract basis from 1976 till i retired in may 2010, they became Petroplus at a later date,i also delivered to Watsons Carriers ,and others in the the town some i don’t remember their names, maybe Jones pop,and a company who done box van work like you ,i think they were just behind the Top Hat ,and a tipper firm up the main road towards B/Auckland, they moved to Toft Hill and became Barrons. Vic
[/quote]
Carl i have reposted this from page 1,thought you may have missed it, in the early 70s i worked for Tayforth, as you will know Watsons were part of the same group,i got in their depot quite a lot.

[carl_williams]

Stanfield:
Totally agree with you Night shift bri.Some great tales indeed,lets have more.

Thanks john for your encouragement.
I now have very few photos left which have not been included, but I ave lots o stories milling round in my head that have been told to me by my grandparents and father, my motherwho is still alive also helps me with snippets she can remember. Quite a few of the stories are funny and in my simple mind I think are interesting. Encouragement like yours gives me the will to tell them. Also as I said earlier I have dymentia, and now is the time while I still can remember. Hopefully it will give something my grandchildren can read that tells them a little bit about their forme family business. Once again thank you for your reply

[carl_williams]

v7victor:

v7victor:

Carl Williams:
]
Hi ,thanks for the pm its good to see how this thread as taken off lets hope it keep going Vic, never worked for the company but delivered your fuel for a lot of years thanks for the memories.

Hi Victor nice to hear from you, which fuel company did you deliver for? Its been a lot of years ago and its good that someone still remembers

Yeah carl, i worked for Phillips Petrolium on a contract basis from 1976 till i retired in may 2010, they became Petroplus at a later date,i also delivered to Watsons Carriers ,and others in the the town some i don’t remember their names, maybe Jones pop,and a company who done box van work like you ,i think they were just behind the Top Hat ,and a tipper firm up the main road towards B/Auckland, they moved to Toft Hill and became Barrons. Vic

Carl i have reposted this from page 1,thought you may have missed it, in the early 70s i worked for Tayforth, as you will know Watsons were part of the same group,i got in their depot quite a lot.
[/quote]
Once again thank you , Victor, for your reply. You would deliver to Marmaduke Street, where you would have to reverse into the yard next to the garage to discharge your load. The gateway was only 18foot wide and Marmaduke Street was not a particularly wide street. When we applied for planning permission to make that gateway the stupid surveyor, of Spennymoor urban District Council a chap called Marley said a 10 foot gateway would be adequate and he didn’t want to grant 18 foot. This guys driving ability was such that he would have been unable to back his car into the 18 foot gateway.People like him would not have had the ability to get into your cab, never mind try to say what was possible with an artic. My dad got one of our drivers to drive up the street with a tractor and 40 foot trailer and ask him to reverse into the yard and we measured and proved 18 foot was the minimum possible.

We used Phllips almost until we moved to Green Lane because their fuel was the cheapest. We stopped for a reason, nothing to do with the service or price and I will tell in a later tale.At the same time as we used Phillips for diesel we used Castrol , the dearest for our lubricants, (something I never agreed with) and at the same time as we stopped using Phillips we never again used Castrol. When we moved into Green Lane we gave Esso a five year contract to supply our fuel and lubricants, followed by a similar contract with Shell.

I can never understand why Watsons closed. They always seemed so busy and employed lot of people. I’m sure the Local authority are proud of heir decision to build houses on the site. That does bring a lot of jobs to the area !

Finally I hope you are keeping well and thnks for replying

[carl_williams]

Hope this photo turns out right and it is large enough to see, but it was me driving the old 2 tonner in spennymoor gala around about 1978.I wonder if you can spot the error in the photo?

[v7victor]

Carl Williams:
Hope this photo turns out right and it is large enough to see, but it was me driving the old 2 tonner in spennymoor gala around about 1978.I wonder if you can spot the error in the photo?

Carl,your going the wrong way round the roundabout!!!Vic.

[carl_williams]

v7victor:

Carl Williams:
Hope this photo turns out right and it is large enough to see, but it was me driving the old 2 tonner in spennymoor gala around about 1978.I wonder if you can spot the error in the photo?

Carl,your going the wrong way round the roundabout!!!Vic.

You know Vic we have had that photograph hanging on the wall in the enterance of our home for about 25 years, Many people have gone over and had a look at it and not one of them have realised that until they were told.

George Teasdale had and still has his photographers shop at the top of Spennymoor High Street, and I think he must have arranged with the police that the procession went that way round the roundabout so that he could take shots from the upstairs window of his shop,