W.H.WILLIAMS (spennymoor)

[carl_williams]

1969 - Courtaulds Ltd. open spinning factory at Green Lane. £33/4m Bessemer Park Estate completed. A new 3-bedroom semi cost £3,375 to buy on private housing estate.

It is hard to believe that when Courtaulds started production, be it to a limited scale they had made no arrangement with regard to transport.

They produced three boxes of yarn and sent them for delivery by Watson’s carriers, who were at the time part of the Tay-Forth group and they were passed through that system and lost.

Talk of being in the right place at the right time they contacted us and we delivered the next few boxes as a part load to Leicester as a part load within about 4 hours.

John Blake had just taken up the post as transport manager, and was based in the first small part of the factory that was in the process of being built. The reason for these small orders was that they were busy training a small skeleton staff who themselves would train other workers as they joined the company. John had held a similar role at Bowater Containers the cardboard factory on the entrance of Faverdale Darlington. Although we did not know John, he had knowledge of us as we had delivered several loads in the past for them.

Courtaulds was to be ideal traffic for us as it was bulk and not heavy with the average van load of less than five ton. Dad sent me to see Blake and discuss their transport requirements. I was about 20-21 years old and was lucky to negotiate rates for their deliveries and after travelling to Coventry, where they had their UK headquarters and discussion with a committee of accountants where I had to present my calculation of our charges and answer a stream of questions we were appointed to do the transport for the Spennymoor plant.

Courtaulds expanded the original plant into one of the largest factories in the North East. They then went on to commission another new plant adjacent, which in fact never opened and was sold to Rothmans and became their Spennymoor plant.

At their peak Courtaulds employed over three and a half thousand employees, mostly male. We had about forty vans carrying yarn from the Spennymoor factory, until it closed after 13 years. Everyone thought Courtaulds were bluffing over threatening to close over poor industrial relations and the Trade Unions always felt by not backing down Courtaulds would remove the threat of closure, but unfortunately the unions had miscalculated Courtaulds resolve and the factory closed.

Courtaulds were a very strange company. Being a large donor to the labour party, they were so heartless in the treatment to their staff. However from my experience if you played fair with them they were fair with you. Every year at the beginning of January I travelled by train down to Coventry, going through my figures, on the journey, ensuring I could answer any questions posed on me I met a committee of accountants who went through my calculations to ensure I was not attempting to overcharge and asking all types of questions to ensure I knew my stuff. It was a very cold meeting where there was no personalisation at all. With other companies we would have had a short initial meeting then go somewhere for lunch where a more general discussion ensured followed by another brief discussion where we made agreements. Not so with Courtaulds just went in, sat down for interrogation after which we agreed rates for 12 months and then goodbye and escorted out. Even with GUS when I had similar meetings with a group of management. I had the opportunity of meeting each of them and getting to know them so I was usually sitting surrounded by friends. In Courtaulds case they were anonymous. I surpose it was there way of ensuring that there was no bribery opportunities.

I will be telling many m

[v7victor]

Carl Williams:

v7victor:
Carl just a bit early for me,you could of been running on springs that had been repaired and delivered back to you by me as at this time i was driving for Woodhead Spring Repairs at Aycliffe,Vic.

Hi Victor

We used Woodhead’s Springs for spring repairs and Serk for radiator repairs

Best wishes

Carl

Yeah i remember going to Serks with radiators for repair, think they were up Skinnerburn road N/cle,Vic

[carl_williams]

some of the female iofice staff posing at the front door of the office block 1974-75

Front Row Left to Right

Ann Walton Pauline Hood Linda Turnbull

Second Row
don’t know Valerie Powell Dianne Darlington

If anyone recognising anyone off this photo please tell me

[carl_williams]

Bessemer park Housing Estate was opened 16th May 1969 It was a very strange building project with four storey prefabricated flats. To gain access to upper storeys lifts were provided but on entering the flats there were staircases either leading down to rooms on the floor below or upstairs in fact they were more like houses built on top of each other.

Earlier in this thread I have mentioned the murder ‘Over the Lane, in low Spennymoor. From what I was told often in Low Spennymoor it was like the wild west with street fighting.on a Saturaday night. This area had been declared as slums and were to be demolished to make way for the ever increasing Thorn (Smart & Brown) factory.

Many of the families had been labled as troublemakers and were to be moved into Bessemer Park. One of the biggest initial problem was the ‘The Flats’ as Bessemer Park was named by locals were certainly unfit for pets. Pets were banned. Today I have no doubt the court of Human Rights would have ruled against families being told that they had to get rid of their pets to move into the new homes, but they were made to do so…

I remember my grandfather having huge arguments with the local Urban district Council over the fact that they had borrowed a vast amount of money to build the project over 99 years. He was complaining that they were putting their grandchildren in hoc for their folly.

In those days there were no self drive vans and most people in Spennymoor used us to move them. We would charge about £18-£20 for an average local removal. We had our first job booked for a removal into Bessemer Park.Usualy we would take about two and half hours. The first removal took eight. The problems were that the lifts were well away from where we could get access with a van. The lifts went like a snail. The lifts were only very small and we could get very little furniture in on each occasion.This caused problems because people who could hardly afford to pay for a normal removal had to pay three times as much.

Another problem was the furniture had to be lifted out of the lift at the upper level and stood in an open walkway and on one occasion the wind blew off a wardrobe that crashed to the ground about 25 feet below. For the residents both the lift and the staircases that had to be used were used as public urinals and the smell was dreadful. The common shared walkways were never cleared.Car ownership was increasing and cars had to be parked in common car parking areas far away from the residential area, which encouraged vandalism and theft.

The final straw came when the flats, which had been built partly on a reservoir (Resevoir Cottages) and damp area, developed severe dampness. After about 11 years they were demolished. How right my grandfather had been about the ninety nine year loans taken out by Spennymoor Urban District Council

The following quote from Wikipedia about the Poulson Scandal
In 1958 the National Liberal MP Sir Herbert Butcher advised his friend Poulson to set up a servicing company to win business for his architect’s practice. Poulson established Ropergate Services Ltd., named after the street in Pontefract where he was based. This company also had the advantage of reducing Poulson’s tax liability considerably. The late 1950s saw a building boom as Britain had finally shaken off post-war austerity and many local authorities embarked on major building schemes. Notable among them was Newcastle upon Tyne where dynamic leader T. Dan Smith wanted to set his mark on the city.
Smith’s desire to redevelop Newcastle attracted the attention of the construction firm Bovis which had worked for Poulson. Bovis’ managing director suggested formalising links and in February 1962 Smith was appointed as a consultant to the Poulson organisation. This connection was extremely valuable to Poulson as Smith had a network of contacts among other authorities in the north-east, many of which were also recruited as Poulson consultants. Smith’s involvement with the Labour Party reassured many Labour councillors wary of dealing with someone involved in the Conservative-allied National Liberals.
Poulson also found a useful contact in Andrew Cunningham, a senior figure in both the General and Municipal Workers Union and the Labour Party in north east England. Some of Poulson’s largest residential blocks were built in Cunningham’s home town of Felling, County Durham. Cunningham would later go to jail for his dealings with the architect.

I heard stories of van loads of writen material being taken from the council offices at spennymoor, but no arrests were made. It was always felt locally that bessemer Park was part of the Poulson Scanadal and many local councilors lined their pockets, but on the other hand it is more possiblre that they were so stupid and ignorant that they readily agreed with the Bessemer Park project.

[carl_williams]

For the last five years we traded we had two vans and four staff working about 9 months of the year taking film set and domestic appliances to various Cook of the Year competitions that were shown on national TV.

These competitions were sponsored by Thorn EMI Domestic appliances and were held and filmed at Hotels in UK. For Thorn it was a wonderful opportunity to shop window their various appliances from Cookers Fridge/Freezers, Microwaves down to the smaller appliances made by the group under the Kenwood name such as ‘The Kenwood Chef’ and other mixers and tools.

For us it was a profitable exercise as the vans did little mileage and suffered very little wear and tear.

We kept whenever possible the same staff doing this work as they were familiar to the tasks and knew how the set fitted together. It is credit to the professionalism of our staff that Thorn were so happy over such a long time.

When our two vans arrived at a venue their work involved carrying into the hotels floorings and backgrounds work area work surfaces cupboards and all the appliances, and set up the stage to the program producer’s requirements. During the rehearsals and filming they stood at the side off camera and had to be handy to remove and replace any electrical item that failed and they did. This was of course kept off camera and spare fridges cookers etc were held in store on one of the vans. I believe occasionally one were filmed and shown on the program making adjustments on set.

Tommy Brophy from Durham was one of the drivers and Brian Askwith was one of the two porters, however my memory doesn’t allow me to name the other driver and porter. They went to all the best hotels in the UK, parking the vans at the front door and stayed two nights at each location. I believe two programs were filmed each week

For each of the series the final was shown from the Savoy Hotel in London and during the time of the competition as the taxis pulled up from the Strand our two vans were parked under the giant ‘Rolls Royce canopy’. However on this occasion our staff used to stay over the road at The Strand Palace Hotel.

On the down side if our people wanted a drink on a night they had to use the hotels at hotel prices where the beer was on the expensive side, although quite a few drinks were on the house at the expense of the production staff. And they had three meals a day provided in the hotel restaurants, whilst still being paid their subsistence by us, so it was quite a good job that got better when they discovered the mini bars in their rooms.

Eventually it became obvious from the hotel bills that Thorn were picking up the tabs for excessive room service and bar bills, and they contacted us to ask if we could instruct our staff to be responsible and keep the costs down. In the event we agreed an acceptable amount they were prepared to stay for the alcohol costs and we never had any further complaints.

[carl_williams]

James “Jim” “Jimmy” “JD” Dixon Murray (17 September 1887 — 24 January 1965) was a British coal miner and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.
James Dixon Murray was born in East Howle, County Durham, on 17 September 1887 to William Murray and Amelia Murray née Dixon. He was a member of a family of 12 brought up in a miner’s three-roomed cottage at 27, Front Street, Browney Colliery. He began work in a Durham pit at 13, and at 16 was hewing coal. He had an elementary education, educated at East Howle Elementary school, but was anxious to improve himself, went to evening classes and twice won WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) university scholarships.
He was a miners’ union official, was elected to Durham County Council in 1925, and in 1937 became an Alderman of Durham City.
He was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament (MP) for Spennymoor at a by-election in July 1942, following the resignation through ill-health of the Labour MP Joseph Batey. He held the seat at the 1945 election, and when the Spennymoor constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, he was returned as MP for the new North West Durham seat.
He retired from Parliament at the 1955 election
I don’t know when or how my Grandfather met and became friends with James Murray, but they were the best of friends. Often Murray used to come to tea at 14 Marmaduke Street and it was there during the war that my grandfather introduced his Doctor Ernst Brauer, a German Jew who had escaped gGermany with his Father and Mother just in time before they would have been arrested and no douby sent to the gas chamber. Brauer had been interned in the Isle of man when he arrived at spennymoor to ensure he was not a possible German Spy and my grandfather used his influence with Murray to get Brauer nationalised as a British citizen.
Strange but true the Brauer family had managed to bring their furniture with them and as a thank you for my grandfather’s help in getting dr brauer nationalised as a British Citizen they gave him a large heavy German Oak Long Case clock that stoodin the sitting room of 14 Marmaduke street.
My grandfather certainly did not share Murrays socialiist views and this led to many arguments which apparently both men enjoyed. Murray owned a small shop in Madowfiekl and had problems that this could be seen as a conflict of interest with him being a politician. Grandfather advised him and helped him to put it into Mrs murray’s name which solved the problem.
When the Queen came to the thrown Murray had an invitation to the Coronation in Westminster Abbey for himself and a partner.His wife fellt unconfident and did’t want to go so Grandfather and grandmother went down to London and my grandmother attended the Coronation as Murray’s guest in Westminster Abbey whilst my grandfather watched the procession from a balcony as it passed down the Strand.
When I was taken ill at 5 years old and was taken into Dryburn Hospital Murray came in to visit me.Apparently the hospital made it a formal occasion as their MP came to visit.
Grandfather used Murray to ask questions in The house of parliament that he considered important (BENEFICIAL TO HIM), but on the other hand Murray appreciated the help grandfather gave him with ideas.
One interesting fact that happened at the time was permits were required during the war to obtain petrol. Grandfather was given the job of issuing the permits in the Spennymoor area and anyone who wanted petrol had to visit grandfather who would then decide whether or not to issue. Needless to say W.H.Williams had no shorage of petrol.

[carl_williams]

After about a year delivering the products manufacturered in Courtaulds Spennymoor plant the local management were starting to feel their feet and decided they would like some of our vehicles painted in courtaulds livery.

Dad was given a contact to ring in their public relations department and they agreed to send us specifications of how they wanted the vehicles painted with Courtaulds in white on front back and both sides. Agreement was reached that our details were painted to our specification on the cab doors.

With regard to the colours we were told to contact Pinchin Johnson paint manufacturers to supply the paint and invoice Courtaulds. We were told that they were part of Courtaulds group. They said they didn’t know what we were talking about and would ring us back. Phoning back they were full of apologies as they didn’t know they were owned by Courtaulds and we would receive the paint the following day.

At that time Courtaulds were just overtaking ICI as UK’s largest company and owned several paint manufacturers and hundreds of companies, and its hard to realise that today Courtaulds are no more.

As the vehicles were painted the management at Spennymoor decided that the painting didn’t reflect their existence and asked if we could add Worcester Spinning Division Spennymoor, so that people could understand their existence and the importance of Spennymoor in the company.

We rang public relations again and the answer was NO. Courtaulds was sufficient to shoe and if people didn’t know who Courtaulds were they must be ignorant.

I suppose it stopped the Empire building at Spennymoor and reflected the importance of the Worcester Spinning Division.

[v7robbie]

John had held a similar role at the cardboard factory on the entrance of Faverdale Darlington (I cannot remember there name).

BOWATER CONTAINERS .

[carl_williams]

v7robbie:
John had held a similar role at the cardboard factory on the entrance of Faverdale Darlington (I cannot remember there name).

BOWATER CONTAINERS .

Hi v7robbie

Thank you for your help. I have mmended the post.

I find it gets me worked up when I cannot remember and you’ve put my mind to rest

best wishes

Carl

[carl_williams]

During the late 1920’s until the war years we delivered animal foods for
Silcocks Animal Food Liverpool They were brought by train from Liverpool to Spennymoor train station.

In 1960 we were again approached by them to see if we would quote to provide a vehicle and driver to bring three loads per week from Liverpool and deliver to farms round the North East.

By that time we were fully settled into van transport and this work required a platform that was capable of carrying 10 ton. Dad got a price for a TK with an extra rear axle by Brougham, I believe who were at that time adapting Bedford TK.

Our problem was that it was not our type of traffic and so we quoted for exclusive use. Even so because of the excellent work we had provided before the war our quotation was given serious consideration. However in truth we could not compete with N.E Hauliers who would do the work on a return load basis.

Life is strange that just afterwards we were fortunate that Thorn started producing Fridges at the Spennymoor plant, and our available funds were needed to be used to increase the size of our van fleet.

What will be will be.

[carl_williams]

Anyone remember Thompson Red Stamp Stores?

They were grocers with stores throughout the north east who gave red stamps to collect when you bought from them to stick on a card and when the card was full get free shopping. The original loyalty card.

In about 1925 when my grandfather called at home to check on any telephone calls my grandmother said she had a Mr Thompson call at the house. He was opening a grocery store in Cheapside Spennymoor and as he hadn’t got the phone in could grandfather call and see him at the shop and that he would be there all day.

When grandfather called down there were a couple of men working cutting wood and fitting out the shop. When Grandfather asked for Mr Thompson open of them came forward and introduced himself, saying that he wanted deliveries done from the new store.

When I’ve looked on the internet Thompsons had seven shops in Gateshead alone and had very many throughout the north east. They were based in Newcastle and I wonder how many were fitted out by Mr Thompson himself.

We eventually did deliveries for the shops at Ferryhill, West Cornforth, Chilton as well as Spennymoor.

Like I have previously said tea at 14 Marmaduke Street was a meeting place.
Mr Ripley a member of the Thompson family was supervisor for the shops and when he called each month to stock take at Spennymoor, one a month he called for tea with my grandfather. I have vague recollections so this must have continued about 25 -3* years

In the early days grocery deliveries consisted of bags of flour and ingredients to cook your own, and on one delivery in particular a driver had dropped a box spilling the contents everywhere as the dog went to bite him. Deliveries after that were left at the gate. Dad however had always when he was delivering given the dog which was originally a puppy a bag of dog biscuits as he entered the gate and the dog had carried them into the house without any problems.

Dad joined the army and when he came out he went on the grocery run for Thompsons. When he got to the house the dog came to the gate growling, saw dad and wagged his tail. Dad gave him the bag of biscuits and of he went carrying them into the house. When dad got to the door the lady of the house was amazed. ‘How did you get in? She asked and went on to explain that no one apart from family had been beyond the gate for more than a year.

[carl_williams]

photo from a bed Race at Spennymoor garla in early seventies

We entered a team against teams from Smart & Brown (Thorn) and Black & Decker.

Our drivers were from left clockwise

Not Known Neil I’anson from Ferryhill, Colin Watson Brian Sheldon and Phil Reilley all from Spennymoor,

Our team were winners (I seem to remember)

[tyneside]

Carl Interesting reading about Silcock animal feeds. We had a six wheeler flat working nearly full time for them in the sixties. It was usually two loads of bagged animal feed a week out of Hull. I think they had a mill there. There was usually about 10 - 15 drops per load in the Durham / Tyneside area. IIRC we had a regular load down past Teeside somewhere and after tipping went down to Hull empty. The area rep for Silcock was a chap called Joe Liddle from Beamish,nice bloke but the heaviest chain smoker I have ever met. He was constantly surrounded by a ‘fog’ of smoke !!! He also had one of the first Ford Capri cars in the area. He used to compile all the delivery notes for the load and leave them at Ansa Motors filling station next to Nevilles Cross and our driver would collect them on the way south. We also let Joe use some of our office space for his paperwork.
As it was all handball work the wagon would call into the yard and I would often go along to help unload.
One of the regular drops was at a big house at Whickham that had a huge garden where the householder kept a lot of chickens and laying hens. Only trouble was he was nearly blind !!! but he manged mostly by himself. The feed had to be carried into a hut that had various wooden stalls and the different types of meal had to be put into a certain stall. He then knew what meal was where without reading the bags. Not sure how he went about collecting the eggs though !!!

[kevmac47]

Carl, this thread just gets better!! the input from other readers is getting funnier RE ChickenFeed, If this was in a book people would say it was fantasy. Your stories seem to stimulate other contributors to add to the gems your producing. Keep it up. Ps I hope the word stimulate is not on the swearword list. regards kevmac47.

[carl_williams]

Earlier in this thread I was fortunate in being given a lit by my cousin Peter Summers a list of vehicles we had from 1961 to 1986. It is over 220 vehicles and whilst I realised it was not entirely accurate it gave a good guide of the vehicles we operated.

One of the vehicles not on the list was is a Foden F39 tractor unit which I believe was M Reg. I know it was 1977 and dad had seen it advertised in Commercial Motor 2 years old and only 15,000 miles on the clock.

I had been very busy at the time, and my suitcase was still packed from the previous night and I was sick of travelling so I travelled down to Kings Cross on the sleeper. I was accompanied by my great uncle Jim (My grandmother’s brother) who had retired after 40 odd years working for my grandfather and grandfather.

I had never travelled before on the sleeper, which left Darlington Station at about midnight. This service gave me the opportunity to travel in my sleep and surprisingly I slept like a log. The service has sadly been discontinued but it travelled down and parked outside of Kings Cross, allowing the passengers time to sleep, pulling into the platform at 7-30AM. I remember one of the staff asking if I would like to order breakfast.’Oh yes ‘I said ‘That would be a good idea.’, but when the guard asked what time and I replied about quarter past seven, I was promptly informed the latest would be 6.00AM as everything had to be put away and cleaned before the train pulled into the station at 7.30Am declining the offer I explained I was not sacrificing my sleep.

Arriving at Kings Cross we had to then catch another train to Cheltenham. At the station I was collected by the dealer, who took me to his premises. The Foden had been Hertz truck rental and appeared to be as new. The mileage certainly seemed correct and I struck a deal. Thinking about it I suppose on spot rental it was possible that a tractor unit could have stood for weeks if no one hired it, and I am supposed that’s what happened.

I phoned our bank at Spennymoor and arranged to do a bank transfer to pay for the vehicle. In those days it was not possible to do this in less than three days but our bank assured his bank that the money was in transit and so off we left.

The Foden had, unfortunately, a Rolls Royce engine and the only problem I could find was the power steering gave me no ‘feeling’ between the steering wheel and the road. The same feeling in fact that a driver felt driving a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. I liked to feel the wheels against the road, but Bill Dixon who was the usual driver on the Foden said that he got used to it and had no complaint.

I cannot remember any serious problems with the Foden but Alan Henderson; our fleet engineer said that the engine was troublesome with continual niggling problems. Also although 80% of the time it was travelling at less than 18 tons gtw the fuel consumption was very poor.

Unfortunately I know of no photos of the Foden, as indeed we neighther have of our ERFs. Perhaps somewhere someone has and posts them on this site.

[carl_williams]

tyneside:
Carl Interesting reading about Silcock animal feeds. We had a six wheeler flat working nearly full time for them in the sixties. It was usually two loads of bagged animal feed a week out of Hull. I think they had a mill there. There was usually about 10 - 15 drops per load in the Durham / Tyneside area. IIRC we had a regular load down past Teeside somewhere and after tipping went down to Hull empty. The area rep for Silcock was a chap called Joe Liddle from Beamish,nice bloke but the heaviest chain smoker I have ever met. He was constantly surrounded by a ‘fog’ of smoke !!! He also had one of the first Ford Capri cars in the area. He used to compile all the delivery notes for the load and leave them at Ansa Motors filling station next to Nevilles Cross and our driver would collect them on the way south. We also let Joe use some of our office space for his paperwork.
As it was all handball work the wagon would call into the yard and I would often go along to help unload.
One of the regular drops was at a big house at Whickham that had a huge garden where the householder kept a lot of chickens and laying hens. Only trouble was he was nearly blind !!! but he manged mostly by himself. The feed had to be carried into a hut that had various wooden stalls and the different types of meal had to be put into a certain stall. He then knew what meal was where without reading the bags. Not sure how he went about collecting the eggs though !!!

Hi Tyneside

Thank you so much for your reply

when I thought of writing the story of Silcock’s I was aprehensive as I thought that perhas no one would be interested, but after all all such things tell the story of a business.

Is a small world, isn’t it. As I remember dad was going to buy a Bedford TK dropsider, with an extra rear axle and you used a six wheeler, but probably not a Bedford. In hindsight da, if he had got the work could have chosen a better six wheeler

Because oof your reply I will now tellthe remainder of the story about his trip to Liverpool to see Silcocks as I think now it might be of interest, and some will find it funny and have a laugh

Once again Many thanks
Best Wishes
carl

[tyneside]

Carl thanks for the reply
The first six wheeler used on the Silcocks job was a Bedford TK. I think it would have a 24ft flat body as it was also used for livestock. The rear axle was non driven Primrose lift axle ( no one liked this feature) and it also had an Eaton two speed drive axle. The reg no was GVK ***C so would have been new in about 1965. It was replaced in 1968 by an ergo tilt cab double drive Albion six wheeler reg no FUP 636H.
In an earlier post I mentioned my late Fathers’ spat with officialdom in the sixties. If you have no objections I will put it on your thread.

[harry_gill]

hiya,
Just wondering did many hauliers have one vehicle contracts with animal feedstuffs producers back in the late 60s I worked for a company in Darwen Lancashire (Harwood Meggitt) who had a little Guy painted out in I think Bibby’s colours part of the garage was set aside (a little sett) that was used to store the bulk which was brought in on the normal general haulage vehicles as return loads from the producer the delivering was done by any driver who was in the yard for vehicle being serviced or tested the job was always done with the aid of a second man for carrying the stuff from the motor to the store exactly where the farmer wanted it placing, this wasn’t a bad little job with only a few miles radius of the depot and made a change having rarely driven a four wheeler and I usually gave the second man a bit of a laugh when trying to change gear with the “Otter” porridge pot of a gearbox at least that job guaranteed a night at home about five miles maximum being as far as we ever strayed from the yard. Incidentely Harwood Meggitt was taken over by by a company called R Mawdsley which became ELW a firm which recently closed down.
thanks harry long retired.

[carl_williams]

kevmac47:
Carl, this thread just gets better!! the input from other readers is getting funnier RE ChickenFeed, If this was in a book people would say it was fantasy. Your stories seem to stimulate other contributors to add to the gems your producing. Keep it up. Ps I hope the word stimulate is not on the swearword list. regards kevmac47.

Hi Kevmac47

icannot thank you and Tyneside so much for replying.

I was worried that some of the item I had recently written were not so relevant and thats why I followed with the Foden story.

I agree with you it makes it so much better when people give their view and observations and I can feed off these.
I am just finnishing a post I will be submitting in about 2 hours and without the encouragement I would not have written it

Once more Thank you

Carl

[carl_williams]

Leading on from dad’s visit to see Silcock’s animal foods at Liverpool, something else happened on the same journey that I think might be of interest.

First a little background information.

As far as car’s go dad had one from being seventeen, usually Morris eights. He never seemed to keep them long, probably as one of my grandfathers hobbies was buying and selling (Not his own cars as he kept them and looked after them) and making a profit as a result. On the other hand Dad always used one of my Grandfathers Rovers whenever he wanted.

Dad mentioned having two Talbot’s, one of which he had when courting mam, which had a leaking hood. One night he recalled when he and a few friends were travelling to see some event, he had a flat tyre. As two lifted up the front of the car another hit the nut with the hammer supplied that released the wheel as the fourth got the spare out of the boot. The wheel was changed in about two minutes. Quite Formula one style.

Dad got his first new car in 1956, a green Morris Minor delux. (The deluxe had leather seats) In 1959 he bought a Hillman Minx. He had wanted a Sunbeam Rapier but chose the minx as it was cheaper.

I have mentioned Harry Aitchison the insurance broker we used before changing to Preston Powell and he was over 6ft tall and said he had difficulty getting cars that fitted having a string of large Rileys. Dad was just a fraction under 6 foot and thought what rubbish but when he drove the Hillman on a longish trip he got cramp and realised there was not enough legroom. Also the other complaint was that although the car was fast he had difficulty stopping at speed as he felt the brakes were a little inadequate. (No disk breaks in hose days)

Reading the daily mail in 1960 he saw a car advertised at a garage in Huddersfield. Sykes, they were the main Rover dealers. It was a rover 3 litre
One year old and with 8,000 miles on the clock. Dad rang them and asked if they would take his Hillman Minx in part exchange. On the phone he agreed a price and arranged the following day to travel down to Boroughbridge to meet Sykes salesman, and if the car was as described dad would hand over the cash and exchange cars.

I WILL NOW GIVE THE OFFICIAL STORY. When dad got into the Hillman he realised it had done a few more miles than he had stated, so the next morning about an hour before he was due to leave to go to Boroughbridge, he asked my uncle jim (Great uncle actually) to’ adjust the mileage’.

Anyone who knew my great uncle would know he was very thorough but deadly slow. A job that would take anyone ten minutes would take him an hour, but he was a perfectionist. It always seemed to me that he got pleasure in making you wait.

In those days there was no mobile phones and it was essential that dad arrived on time, and when he went to see Jjimmy’ as he clled him (Even though he was his uncle) dad was told that he had altrered the mileage but wanted to check something,. ‘Just slap it in, I haven’t got time dad told him.

As he left on the journey dad realised that the speedo was clocking 100 miles to every mile, so he had to stop and remove the cable, or it would have clocked an extra 60,000 miles before he got to see the Rover. Stopping just outside of Boroughbridge he put the cable back into the back of the speedo clock and told the saleman that the speedo had gone funny on hiis journey.

The Rover was a beautiful car and a deal was quickly done.

The following week dad decided to check the oil and to his horror saw a lable saying the last oil change had been at 40,000 miles. Dad rang Sykes and spoke to Mr Sykes who said he would lookinto it. After about half an hour he rang back to say the car had done 44,000 miles and had a new clock fitted.

Going on he said the car belonged to a business man and had been supplied by them from new. He had a chaufer who drived him daily to London from Huddesfield and return for work, and they knew well and truly the mileage and they should not have advertised a false mileage.Mr Sykes asked could dad call and see them and they would sort it out

Dad had his visit to Silcocks planned and said he was travelling to liverpool in a cople of days and an ppointment was fixed to call at Sykes at huddesfield on the way.

Sykes had a beautiful garage, I often passed it with dad and heb pointed it out. Jack kempsey his cousin had a ride out with him for the day and before they left on the journey he got Jack to ring Sykes and ask if they had a Hillman Minx for sale and they said they sold one the day before, so dad knew his car had gone, and on arrival at Sykes they asked for Mr sykes and as they waited in the reception area, that would fit in with any main ageents today, they were surprised to see this middle aged man emerge from he workshop wearing overalls. ( Mr Sykes was dad’s type of guy). He led dad and jack into his palacial office and tol the receptionist to ask the salesman that dad had met in Boroughbridge to join them.

Mr sykes appologised and asked what could he do to correct things. Eventually it was agreed he would supply a new unregisterd Rover 80 in exchange to correct things. Dad told them he was travelling to Leicester an asked if he could have it registered and ready later that day so that he could collect it and take it back with him.Mr Sykes said there would be no problem, and the salesman would wait at the garage for them whatever time they got back even if it was midnight.

When late atn night he arrived home and told my mother and me what hyad done my mother and me were very disapointed as we really liked the three litre, as it was a car that was a new design. I thought he was joking and went out into the garage to see.

Dad really liked the eighty and alweays said it did 80mph and no more. However its eventual replacement was a Rover 3 Litre Coupe.