Bedford OB Luton Van JUP Chassis supplied by Sherwoods Darlington Cab Supplied Adams & Gibbon, fitted by Sherwood & Wynn Hurworth near Darlington and body built by H. Youngs Sunderland 1st Registered 1949
Carl Williams:
Bedford OB Luton Van JUP Chassis supplied by Sherwoods Darlington Cab Supplied Adams & Gibbon, fitted by Sherwood & Wynn Hurworth near Darlington and body built by H. Youngs Sunderland 1st Registered 1949
In the 1930s my Grandfather adopted the colours Stone & Brown, Stone being like a dirty cream.About 1935 stone was replaced by cream. However somehow when the van was new my Grandfather who was colour blind must have visited Youngs of Sunderland who were almost finished building the body & specified it was painted stone & brown. I can remember it in the stone colour & it always looked dirty. On repaint it was Cream & Brown with a brown cab & cream wings & bumper and looked a smart van.
Carl Williams:
Carl Williams:
Bedford OB Luton Van JUP Chassis supplied by Sherwoods Darlington Cab Supplied Adams & Gibbon, fitted by Sherwood & Wynn Hurworth near Darlington and body built by H. Youngs Sunderland 1st Registered 1949In the 1930s my Grandfather adopted the colours Stone & Brown, Stone being like a dirty cream.About 1935 stone was replaced by cream. However somehow when the van was new my Grandfather who was colour blind must have visited Youngs of Sunderland who were almost finished building the body & specified it was painted stone & brown. I can remember it in the stone colour & it always looked dirty. On repaint it was Cream & Brown with a brown cab & cream wings & bumper and looked a smart van.
To Add to the confusion Youngs who had Ford agencies at Chester Le Street & Sunderland built the Luton body in their Sunderland coachworks. At the time it was the biggest van they had built Maximum length & width for its day & when they came to pull the van out it was too high to pass thrugh their doors & fortunately by letting down the tyres they got it out
It was the biggest mistake dad ever made as it should have been built by Sherwood & Wynn who were excellent builders as an integral pantechnicon instead of haveing a standard Bedford Cab fitted to the coach chassis & then a luton van
W.H.Williams Spennymoor Leyland Boxer with Boxvan body by Coachkill Ltd RPT603M
Here is one little bit that helped destroy our business, British Leyland RPT603M seen new promised all the hope of being a good van. A Leyland Boxer with body by Coachskill Ltd. we had suffered troubles gallor with the Leyland Lairds we operated & Boxers were slightly better. ■■■■ Barrett-Atkin of Leyland assured us they had resolved all their problems with this version of the Boxer. It was dreadful & never on the road. Once bitten we still were foolish enough to buy one more later ‘improvement’ with Perkins engine in, a year or two later. Only Leyland could design a vehicle that was unreliable because of the way they fitted the engine
Carl Williams:
W.H.Williams Spennymoor Leyland Boxer with Boxvan body by Coachkill Ltd RPT603M
Here is one little bit that helped destroy our business, British Leyland RPT603M seen new promised all the hope of being a good van. A Leyland Boxer with body by Coachskill Ltd. we had suffered troubles gallor with the Leyland Lairds we operated & Boxers were slightly better. ■■■■ Barrett-Atkin of Leyland assured us they had resolved all their problems with this version of the Boxer. It was dreadful & never on the road. Once bitten we still were foolish enough to buy one more later ‘improvement’ with Perkins engine in, a year or two later. Only Leyland could design a vehicle that was unreliable because of the way they fitted the engine
Oh dear! It looks so good too!
Bowater Scott at Barrow had a fleet of about 20 or 25 Lairds in about 1969/70. They pulled 30’ single axle (if I remember correctly) curtainsiders - not tautliners, a sort of earlier version, which had puffed cheeks at the front and sucked in towards the back.
Not sure what the BHP was, it probably looked good on paper since the load would be less than 10 tons, but of course the problem was the wind resistance.
On a windy day it must have felt you could have cycled faster. Then there was reliability. One Winter’s day, the whole fleet was stretched out, broken down, in the 30 miles between Barrow and Levens Bridge.
I thought the Boxer was a better machine - obviously I was wrong!
Still, it would have been nice to drive when it was working Carl.
John.
John West:
Carl Williams:
W.H.Williams Spennymoor Leyland Boxer with Boxvan body by Coachkill Ltd RPT603M
Here is one little bit that helped destroy our business, British Leyland RPT603M seen new promised all the hope of being a good van. A Leyland Boxer with body by Coachskill Ltd. we had suffered troubles gallor with the Leyland Lairds we operated & Boxers were slightly better. ■■■■ Barrett-Atkin of Leyland assured us they had resolved all their problems with this version of the Boxer. It was dreadful & never on the road. Once bitten we still were foolish enough to buy one more later ‘improvement’ with Perkins engine in, a year or two later. Only Leyland could design a vehicle that was unreliable because of the way they fitted the engineOh dear! It looks so good too!
Bowater Scott at Barrow had a fleet of about 20 or 25 Lairds in about 1969/70. They pulled 30’ single axle (if I remember correctly) curtainsiders - not tautliners, a sort of earlier version, which had puffed cheeks at the front and sucked in towards the back.
Not sure what the BHP was, it probably looked good on paper since the load would be less than 10 tons, but of course the problem was the wind resistance.
On a windy day it must have felt you could have cycled faster. Then there was reliability. One Winter’s day, the whole fleet was stretched out, broken down, in the 30 miles between Barrow and Levens Bridge.
I thought the Boxer was a better machine - obviously I was wrong!
Still, it would have been nice to drive when it was working Carl.
John.
Hi John,
Somehow my father made a friend of the Managing Director of Mann-Eggerton, who had mostly Ford & Leyland franchises throughout the South of England, with the head Office at Norwich. They supplied us with a couple of Ford cars at cost price, a Granada Ghia, I kept for a year & an ■■■■■■, which we used as a run-about, Several new Leylands inc 3 Lynx tractor units.(with the ill fated fixed head) , also a new Ford passenger chassis with pantechnicon body by Boalloy. But one deal we got involved with was Judge Enamel, who made pans.
Mann Eggerton were providing a new fleet fr them under a contact leasing arrangement and needed to take Judge Enamels fleet of about 12 vans.Dad was given the opportunity of visiting Judge and tell Mann Egerton what we were prepared to pay for the full fleet. This involved 4 Bedford pantechnicons with bodies by Marsden (2) and 2 Boalloy (Sid Abraham) the remainder were 2 year old Leyland Laird Boxvans and a Morris small luton of about 5 years old,which I immediately sold. The 7 Lairds were painted in Courtaulds livery and used on our Courtaulds contract. All in all it was a very good deal for us.
However we never in a million years could we have realised how dreadful the Lairds were. They were fitted with once had been a Morris engine which was fitted at an angle and one by one by one we fitted new engines, thinking that modifications made would give us reliable machines, but one by one we had to fit 2nd new engines under warranty. We had a engine change almost on a monthly basis, with corresponding breakdowns & unreliability.
■■■■ Barrett-Atkin of Byers-Dunn-Turvey & later Hargreaves (Leyland franchises) came along and told us that we had been very unlucky with the Lairds but the problem had been solved by putting the engine upright and not at an angle, and hence that van was bought.It’s lifetime with us was dismal.
Advance Textile Mills who had factories in Crook & West Auckland were owned by Pretty Polly the tights manufacturers, who were part of the same group as Oswald-Tildsley and therefore had at one time a fleet of 100% Leyland vehicles (2 AEC & 7 Leyland Boxers with Perkins engine) They were sold out to Monsanto the American Chemical Company. Monsanto’s policy was that they ran no own account transport & I successfully agreed terms with them where they sold us their fleet at written down value and we did their transport. Fortunately by that time they had just replaced 3 of the Boxers with 2 Bedford & 1 Ford Boxvan but we inherited all the Boxers.
In Dodges in rigid form (Not artics) & Seddons we had found the Perkins 6354 were just about acceptable (No were near as good as Bedfords on MPG or engine life), but not too bad. But not the Boxers. It is hard to believe that engine life for the same engine can vary so much depending to what vehicle they are fitted, but Leyland managed to achieve the almost impossible and the Perkins engines achieved half the life that they managed in Dodge or Seddon Vehicles.
Along again came ■■■■ Barrett-Atkin, who was amongst the best Commercial Vehicle salesmen ever, now working for Hargreaves, and said how sad it was to hear of all our Leyland redline products and said to make amends he would supply us with a new Leyland Boxer where all the problems had been solved & fitted with a modified Perkins 6354 engine & to prove its worth we could have 30% discount. So one again we took the bate & built a body on our final Leyland product. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to say this time they had got things right but this one blew up within the first two months of operation.
Interesting stuff Carl.
I’m still trying to find the old photos of Dad’s yard in Barrow and also interior shots of an aluminium van body he built himself after the war, when he couldn’t get anyone else to do it how he wanted it.
John
Hi Carl,
I have found the photos of the auction which I mentioned to you at aunty Eva’s funeral. I knew I had them but could not find them! I will put them on here a few at a time if that’s ok.
Best regards, Mark.
LR Man:
Hi Carl,I have found the photos of the auction which I mentioned to you at aunty Eva’s funeral. I knew I had them but could not find them! I will put them on here a few at a time if that’s ok.
Best regards, Mark.
Hi Mark,
Thanks very much for finding & posting what to me are very interesting photos
In the last one if you look immediately behind the breakdown facing up towards the camera is one of two Magirus Deutz 7.5 ton gvw luton vans we operated from our Sheffield depot. We had 4 vans based in Sheffield and if you look closely you can see Spennymoor replaced by Sheffield. As it was by London & Wellingborough for the vans based at these depots.
I don’t know if I was dreaming but seem to remember someone, might have been your Allan saying they had a photo of the Barretts van. I would really appreciate seeing any more memories
All the best
Carl
Hi Carl ,
I hope this unfortunate event never happened to any vehicle within the W.H. Williams (Spennymoor ) ltd. fleet.
Trusting you are well .
Cheers , cattle wagon man.
Hi Carl,
Here are the photo’s I’ve borrowed off Roger of MPT692D Bedford SB Marsden coachbuilt body. Next to it is a Steel Style Albion with a Arlington coachbuilt body. Roger drove MPT from new and it’s another vehicle I did many miles in. PETER
Here are the photo’s I’ve borrowed off Roger of MPT692D Bedford SB Marsden coachbuilt body. Next to it is a Steel Style Albion with a Arlington coachbuilt body. Roger drove MPT from new and it’s another vehicle I did many miles in. PETER
OGR766M was one of the vans we took over from Monsanto when we took over the transport of Advance Textile Mills Crook and unfortunately they closed after about four years of us doing the work. In this case OGR was a lonely Ford D series in the ATM feet (The other vehicles being AEC Mercuries Leyland Boxers and Bedford TKs). This Ford performed well in the mix of vehicles we used on the ATM work (Mostly TKs and Seddon 16/4).
When ATM closed OGR was repainted in our cream & brown livery, and used on Courtaulds work mostly until Moores opened a factory in Newton Aycliffe making kitchen furniture. I remember well travelling to meet Moores transport manager & senior management at the HQ in Wetherby, where they explained that although they were 100% own account operators, they had decided to use a contractor for the Aycliffe operation and after negotiations I got the contract, which I was pleased as ATM closing was the start of the textile dry up with Courtaulds following closely behind, and although at the time it was taking about a year to clear up the Courtaulds work the staff were on notice the factory was closing.
OGR was therefore one of four boxvans painted in Moores livery.
You know what they always say Carl - as one door opens, another one slams shut in your face!
John.
John West:
You know what they always say Carl - as one door opens, another one slams shut in your face!John.
Yes John, as my Grandmother used to say ‘as one door closes another opens’ but in 1985 unfortunately too many doors closed together & now where the factories stood employing well over 20,000 people, mostly men our local authorities have happily given approval for housing developments, and out of town shopping.
In years to come it will finally twig on them we need factories where people make things that are bought overseas, & we can’t all work in service industries,mostly shops, as without real production there will be no money to pay each other & pay for all the houses.
Hope you agree
Carl
Going through Stanhope Ford.(I think it will be the river Wear. For several years I entered the Beamish reliability trials which stretched over about 70 miles. One of the highlights of the trial was passing through the river at Stanhope (when possible) through the ford. This is a photo taken kindly & sent to me by a professional photographer. Crowds lined either side of the river & you always got big cheers that you could hear in the cabs of the old Bedfords
Carl Williams:
Going through Stanhope Ford.(I think it will be the river Wear. For several years I entered the Beamish reliability trials which stretched over about 70 miles. One of the highlights of the trial was passing through the river at Stanhope (when possible) through the ford. This is a photo taken kindly & sent to me by a professional photographer. Crowds lined either side of the river & you always got big cheers that you could hear in the cabs of the old Bedfords
This is great photo Carl, Reg.1939 [Leeds], Keep them coming, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Carl Williams:
Going through Stanhope Ford.(I think it will be the river Wear. For several years I entered the Beamish reliability trials which stretched over about 70 miles. One of the highlights of the trial was passing through the river at Stanhope (when possible) through the ford. This is a photo taken kindly & sent to me by a professional photographer. Crowds lined either side of the river & you always got big cheers that you could hear in the cabs of the old BedfordsThis is great photo Carl, Reg.1939 [Leeds], Keep them coming, Regards Larry.
The Reg is 1937, Not 1939, I may have to go Specsavers I think, Ha Ha, Regards Larrry.
