hiya,
Paul is Stringfellows depot still there ■■ have tried Googleing for it, did a few weeks casual for them in the late 50s on night trunk an old Octopus i think pulling a drawbar i was only 21 and when i turned up the gaffer said he did’nt need a trailer boy he was using his own an old chap who could hardly see as it turned out, when he saw me i think he described me as a fresh faced kid i think he wondered whether i was up to the job and made a phone call to another firm i’d done a spell of casual wag and drag night trunking for i suppose to see if i was OK, and because this is a site dedicated to W & J Riding i did work there too, but much later, i remember there was a pub just about opposite Stringy’s depot where i used to top up my tank before departure.
thanks harry long retired.
hiya,
When getting a start at Riding’s after redundancy at Blackburn BRS, i was quickly told by a nice lad who went by the name of “Joe Clanger” it was the 60s so my memory is rubbish and that name might be totally wrong, he forewarned me that the use of Blubberhouses was a no-no although the shortest route to Teesside and that if any driver was caught using it it was instant dismissal and if you did risk it and came unstuck you might as well get a lift home because you would have been out of work without question, i did follow this “rule” but was this true or otherwise ■■, all the drivers did take the Ilkley, Otley route religously though, also I got on well with Frank Ferguson at the Teesside end he was another ex-BRS man and he knew a lot of my former driver pals at the old Blackburn depot where i returned when the work picked up, got to admit the motors at the BRS was rubbish compared to the stuff at WJs but there was a bit more variety and i did prefer tramping.
thanks harry long retired.
I was driving for W & J Riding at the Thornaby depot just before we went green with TDG. It was never the same then, lost all it’s character, like another posting on here, I liked the livery, but that’s all gone no. 
After the demise of fotopic the new web site address for W & J Riding is wjriding.co.uk/ 
always loved the Ridings livery as a nipper as it suited the shape of the borderers and the fact that at anytime of the day or night in the mid 80’s there would be at least 4 or 5 Borderers parked up on the industrial estate off Aston church rd in nechells waiting to tip or reload at bainbridges exhausts warehouse
Awesome job Paul .Just had a look and it looks like you are back in Business .Thanks Mike Mulraney,
Over the coming months there is a vast amount of material to add to the W & J Riding Ltd web site
Regards Paul
moomooland:
givover:
Awesome job Paul .Just had a look and it looks like you are back in Business .Thanks Mike Mulraney,Thanks for the heads up Mike the site is still very much under devleopment.
Over the coming months there are around another 150 to 200 pictures to add to the W & J Riding Ltd Preston GalleryRegards Paul
Happy Days, this is great, I found all 3 of the Sed Atkis that my mate bought off Ridings, They were: UCW 500V, LYM 251X and ERP 160X. All 3 had 290 big cams in and I spent most of my days as a kid riding shotgun in these motors, even went to Paris and Swiss in ERP when I was 13. The pic is of LYM 251X. All 3 of them were painted the same as this, UCW had a Globetrotter style roof added along with an upright exhaust, sunvisor and polished ally bull bar.
