Carl & Colin,
Bob Heathwaite was not i beleive Nick the Greek a small chap originally from Manchester who had worked for a furniture removal firm from Oldham i think was our man.
Peter Winship was a tough cookie one saturday morning he came into work with both eyes very black & almost shut & nose very swollen after a bit of a barnie in Shildon the night before it was not going to stop him getting his overtime money a real character wa Peter.
Good to see you going strong Carl - Gordon.
tyneside:
Hi CarlRemember the bridge at Southchurch very well. We used to collect livestock every Thursday from B/A mart. We could get through the bridge ok going down empty but if we had to put the top deck up for sheep the only option was to go back through the town.
Cheers
Hi Tyneside
We used to go every week to the Gaunless Mart, long before my time. With the old pre war wagons I was told it was very difficult to drive down to the mart loaded as the brakes never worked due to the weight of the loads of cattle and the bad steep road. Several years ago I met the son of the auctioneer, who was then an estate agent and he still remembered being with his father carrying out the auction and our cattle trucks, but more importantly my grandfather, who always made his presence known.
Back to the bridge. If you remember it was arched and there where white lines painted on the very centre (about 8-10 foot wide) showing where it was at its heighest point 13ft 3 in, and if you remember it was not square to the road, as it still is and crosses at an angle, making it paramount that you went through at an angle to the road to benefit from that bit extra height.
Sio good to hear from you again
carl
Colin Watson:
Hi All
The driver of the car involved in the collision with Billy Dixon was killed.Nick the Greek ------- Bob Heathwaite
Genghis Khan---------- Peter Hallliday
Long black hair ------- Peter WinshipColin
Thanks Colin, thought I was dreamin…Carl, I don’t think there was any damage only paint work and a bit of hammering, the car hit the middle of the trailer and was pushed along to the axle by the trailer chassis, hope that makes some sense 
…Lawrence Dunbar, are you related to Ian that lives in Newton Aycliffe. Eddie
edworth:
Colin Watson:
Hi All
The driver of the car involved in the collision with Billy Dixon was killed.Nick the Greek ------- Bob Heathwaite
Genghis Khan---------- Peter Hallliday
Long black hair ------- Peter WinshipColin
Thanks Colin, thought I was dreamin…Carl, I don’t think there was any damage only paint work and a bit of hammering, the car hit the middle of the trailer and was pushed along to the axle by the trailer chassis, hope that makes some sense
No relation to the Dunbars, My family were originaly from the North East a village called Seaton Burn, Reards Larry.
hi just to let you know bob heathwaite was [THE GREEK] and not nick the greek,
Carl and colin you will remember this, in fact you would never forget it, as I sat in my parents house one afternoon, this vehicle pulled up outside, I thought I was seeing things but on closer inspection I was astounded to see what was a furniture van , the body and some of the roof where held together with furniture ties and anything else, as it was one of WHs my first thought was, wait till Harry sees that (What a mess) the driver lodged next door to my mothers he was Brian Archer, what happened to the wagon ?.
Eddie
edworth:
Carl and colin you will remember this, in fact you would never forget it, as I sat in my parents house one afternoon, this vehicle pulled up outside, I thought I was seeing things but on closer inspection I was astounded to see what was a furniture van , the body and some of the roof where held together with furniture ties and anything else, as it was one of WHs my first thought was, wait till Harry sees that (What a mess) the driver lodged next door to my mothers he was Brian Archer, what happened to the wagon ?.
Eddie
Hi Eddie
With regard to the Bill Dixon accident. I am pleased to hear you say there was not much damage, as I knew nothing of it, even though the other driver died. I thought I must have been away somewhere which I probably was, but even then I almost always heard about everything that happened when I came back, but I cannot recolect that so I thought our vehicle mustn’t have had much damage.
I suspect the other van you refer to was a Leyland Laird with one of our demountable bodies, like in the picture below/.It came in with the body almost missing by fire except the floor was complete but mostly destroyed above floor height. We thought that it must have passed under a motorway bridge and somene dropped a cigarette or something similar on the fibreglass roof.By the time the driver saw it, pulled in and the fire brigade put it out everything was burnt down to the floor.
That is the best explanation, but noone will ever know . The van was almost empty, so there was nothing suspicious towards the driver
Carl
Apparently Pickfords has been in administration, and the directors of the old company has formed a new company to take it over.
Well, well, well, isn’t that news that has been kept quiet. We heard of Comet, HMV, and Blockbusters but never mention of Pickfords. Think what you may, but it would appear these kind individuals raided their piggy banks and put their money where their mouth was and saved the jobs of all the hard working Pickford’s staff. Must have nearly been another Woolworths
I wonder if they enlisted the assistance of Mr J.D. with his vaste experience on this subject
PIGFORDS…how they have survived all the years I will never understand, do not think they would have many proper wages to pay as nearly everyone was casual. EDDIE
PIGFORDS…how they have survived all the years I will never understand, do not think they would have many proper wages to pay as nearly everyone was casual. EDDIE
edworth:
PIGFORDS…how they have survived all the years I will never understand, do not think they would have many proper wages to pay as nearly everyone was casual. EDDIE
Hi Eddie
I don’t know what they are like today, but in our day they were still nationalised and then given away with a dowery when privatised. With the town centre properties etc they could sell for huge profits they didn’t need to pay their way for years, and I can’t ever see they would mend their bumbling inefficient ways.
When they were nationalised no one, management, staff, drivers or porters hadn’t a clue what they were doing, and every year businesses like ours were taxed and some of the money passed to them to cover their losses.
To crown it when I went on Watchdog on the BBC in 1984 , spilling the beans on how they opperated they rang me and threatened me a couple of days before broadcast and said they would sue me and personally ruin me for telling the truth about them. The BBC gave me the assurance that they would indemnify me against any such legal action and the TV program went ahead.
Interesting thing is that when we finnished we had 250 full time employees, I was astounded to read that their employees only totalled 900 less than 4 times ours. Yet it is fact ‘Branches in all large towns’ I think that illustrates the points you made Eddie.
Carl
ROBERT47:
hi just to let you know bob heathwaite was [THE GREEK] and not nick the greek,
Hi Robert,
Thank you for your information, and welcome to this thread. I hope to hear more from you from time to time.
Pesumably you know Bob? Are you related?
Best wishes
Carl
Hi Carl
If I could just go back to Bishop Auckland mart. It was always bad access being stuck at the bottom of the hill by the river. No space to manouver once you got down there and then trying to get back onto the main road with a full load of livestock was always interesting.
Can you remember the name of the race horse trainer who had the stables and land opposite ? Not sure if he had something to do with ownership of the mart.
You mentioned talking to the auctioneer, would that have been Peter Addison ■■?
I notice the whole hill side is a housing estate now.
Cheers Tyneside
tyneside:
Hi Carl
If I could just go back to Bishop Auckland mart. It was always bad access being stuck at the bottom of the hill by the river. No space to manouver once you got down there and then trying to get back onto the main road with a full load of livestock was always interesting.
Can you remember the name of the race horse trainer who had the stables and land opposite ? Not sure if he had something to do with ownership of the mart.
You mentioned talking to the auctioneer, would that have been Peter Addison ■■?
I notice the whole hill side is a housing estate now.Cheers Tyneside
Hi Tyneside, the racehorse trainer you ask about was Denys Smith. He trained Red Alligator to win the Grand National about 1968. ridden by Brian Fletcher who also rode Red Rum to victory in 1973 and 1974.
Hi Carl, In your day you certainly had your fair share of unusual cargo. In a previous post you mentioned Dennis Darling who was the MD of the North East School Furniture Company. Before this position he was, I believe, the personnel director at Smart & Browns. I can recall a job that he wanted doing for himself by yourselves whilst he was at S&B. John Willets and myself had to go to Nevilles Cross where he lived at the time to pick up his boat. Your dad had been given the dimensions by Dennis so he allocated DPT 100B being adequate to do the job. When we got to his house there was no-one home but there was a note left telling us that the boat was at the front of the house. Obviously we expected no hitches. When we found it, however, Dennis had omitted to tell anybody about the large rudder sticking out the rear of the boat making it quite a lot longer than the van but, that was not the only problem, as it also had a very large mast. Not wanting to look stupid 
and go back to the garage saying we couldn’t do the job we took down the mast and managed to get the boat into the van but it stuck out quite a way. We lifted the boat up as far as we could so that we could lift the tailboard up slightly. Everything was tied off and we managed to get the mast in but it was also hanging out the back by about 6ft. We checked and double checked everything and then set off to our destination at Silloth, in ■■■■■■■■ the other side of the country. We had no problems on the journey but kept checking every 15 - 20 miles. When we got back your dad asked if we had any problems and we obviously said no not daring to tell him what we had to do. In this day and age we wouldn’t have got away with it.
Peter
Carl Williams:
ROBERT47:
hi just to let you know bob heathwaite was [THE GREEK] and not nick the greek,Hi Robert,
Thank you for your information, and welcome to this thread. I hope to hear more from you from time to time.
Pesumably you know Bob? Are you related?
Best wishes
Carl
hi carl yes i keep looking in on the thread i will have to put more info on, and i did not know on the related bit, its nice to see some of the old mates on here, best wishes rob
Hi Rob
I wonder did you work for W H & are you in fact Bob Heathwaite i wonder?
Gordon
goggietara:
Hi Rob
I wonder did you work for W H & are you in fact Bob Heathwaite i wonder?Gordon
Hi Gordon
I was thinking the same thing. Come on Rob spill the beans.
Carl
pbsummers:
Hi Carl, In your day you certainly had your fair share of unusual cargo. In a previous post you mentioned Dennis Darling who was the MD of the North East School Furniture Company. Before this position he was, I believe, the personnel director at Smart & Browns. I can recall a job that he wanted doing for himself by yourselves whilst he was at S&B. John Willets and myself had to go to Nevilles Cross where he lived at the time to pick up his boat. Your dad had been given the dimensions by Dennis so he allocated DPT 100B being adequate to do the job. When we got to his house there was no-one home but there was a note left telling us that the boat was at the front of the house. Obviously we expected no hitches. When we found it, however, Dennis had omitted to tell anybody about the large rudder sticking out the rear of the boat making it quite a lot longer than the van but, that was not the only problem, as it also had a very large mast. Not wanting to look stupid
Peter
Hi Peter,
Very interesting story. It shows what determination and improvisation both you and John had, which was illustrated by both your successes of starting up and building your own successful businesses.
In my opinion that is the trouble with life today, with so many silly rules and regulations no one gets the chance to discover their natural abilities and most of all very few people are prepared to make decisions and stick by them.
Dennis Darling as I have said before was a real character. He would have known all the problems you would come up against and that is why he had kept out of the way.
As I said before he found my weakness and played on it and twisted me round his little finger. Yet I learnt from that, and its experiences like that you need to equip you to survive in this world.
Dennis was production director at Smart and Brown’s (Thorns) and he was probably the cleverest and most gifted amongst the management. He was favourite to succeed Ellis as Managing director of Smart and Brown (Engineering) Ltd, and then he left to go to North of England School furnishers, as Managing Director, and then Managing Director of York trailers.
Everyone was surprised when he left Thorn but I suspect he knew he never would have sufficient personal clout to leave his mark as he would always have been a puppet controlled from Havant and Edmonton. He eventually proved his genius by making himself a multi-millionaire with a new business started by himself making furnished prefabricated school rooms which he sold to undeveloped countries and shipped throughout the world. However tragedy struck when he suddenly died at a very young age just as he was starting to see the fruits of his labours.
Carl
Carl Williams:
goggietara:
Hi Rob
I wonder did you work for W H & are you in fact Bob Heathwaite i wonder?Gordon
Hi Gordon
I was thinking the same thing. Come on Rob spill the beans.
Carl
It’s Rob Heathwaite,dare bet on it, never worked with you but known you from being a younging, Am I on the right one from Tudhoe Moor knew your Mam and Dad.
Eddie
