Fourthed 
I had same opp 3 year ago and if he doe’s what they tell him too, he will be ok.All the best and get well soon.
Just an update…
Tom is back home now and feeling a lot better and on the road to recovery.
Thanks to all of the above for your kind comments 
moomooland:
Bewick:
Bewick Transport were “sometime” subbies for W&J R over the years we were operating,and we were always glad to help out where we could.The jobs were mainly the odd consignments from Kent as this part of the UK was alien to W&J,the UK map in the Longridge traffic office was,apparently, just plain white south of Birmingham !!! They were a great outfit with a “diamond” G’uvnor!! Cheers Dennis.
Spoke to Tom regarding not going South of Birmingham and he said that was the norm for the general haulage fleet as it was to much trouble messing about getting a back load when we had more than enough work in the North and Scotland.
As regards the powder tanker fleet they ventured in to the South East on a regular basis as ICI paid for a full round trip even though the tankers always returned empty
lovely picture moomooland . reminds me of ICI Fleetwood thank you Trevor .
Get well soon Mr Riding you are one of the finest hauliers of all time.
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
The depot I remember was on Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, somewhere near where the A66 roundabout is now. They then moved to Old Airfield industrial estate Thornaby, that site is now a housing estate. Regards, Mizzo.
mizzo:
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.The depot I remember was on Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, somewhere near where the A66 roundabout is now. They then moved to Old Airfield industrial estate Thornaby, that site is now a housing estate. Regards, Mizzo.
hiya,
Thanks for the info “Mizzo” found the area the only thing standing with any relevance
is the Navigation Pub which was just down the road from the digs (long demolished)
which in turn were only a short walk from the old depot which as you say would have
been quite near where the A66 roundabout is now, I used to get on well with Fergie
who secretly was a BRS man which I was before redundancy and coming to work for
Riding’s, he knew and was still in touch with some of the Blackburn staff, Ridings was
a great firm to work for but me living in Darwen found the travelling a bit much and
not being able to take your motor home found it was quite expensive getting to a fro.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry,
Spoke to Tom Riding regarding the Teesside depot and he sent me this reply via email…
Harry is quite right.
We were at Middlesbrough Road. South Bank, where Dad had built a new small depot in the early 50’s.
How ever, the Council eventually placed a compulsory purchase on it so that they could build houses there, i think this would be the late 1970s.
Quite fortuitously at this precise time, Mr Tom Lleyellyn, MD of Econofreight decided to move out of Thornaby Old Airfield and into the ex depot of W G Thomas Ltd at Eston Grange. Econofreight was a TDG Ltd group company.
This presented me with a good opportunity so I stopped the purchase of land to build a depot on the Redcar Trunk Road which had been the plan,and instead bought the Thornaby Depot.
We spent a fair amount of money concreting the yard and tidied up the building.
We also installed a brand new sack filling installation which worked for many years packing nylon chip for ICI Ltd.
This was still working fully when I retired in 1995.
I hope this is helpful to you.
Regards
Tom
The W & J Riding website has now had over 180,000 hits.
Tom Riding and i would like to thank everyone for their support.
The in-depth site now contains almost 1000 images, all with detailed information, and we hope to add more interesting material over the coming months.
Hiya,
Am I the only one interested in this fantastic site, please don’t let it slip away.
thanks harry, long retired.
no you arent Harry,can you recall the name of the manager when they were on Thornaby Airfield,circa 1990s,
The guy had a"brother"a Harry Shields, who was transport manager at a Middlesbrough steel stockholder Harrison & Whitfield,but for whatever reason they hated the sight of each other.
Id been for an interview with WJs when they had Leyland Badgers i believe at South Bank in the late 60s, the guy said ill write with a starting date,never heard a thing?
Anyway some 20 odd years later,working for Shell i took aload of derv to Thornaby and this guy(the manager)came out,checked the dips,and said,you were supposed to start work for me on such and such a date,and i said,im still waiting for confirmation!! Happy Days!!
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry,
Riding’s original Teesside depot, on Middlesbrough Road South Bank, can be seen on the left just before the parked cars.
Bill Lambert former H.G.V driver at W.J.Ridings for over 40yrs, passed away 30/12/14. R.I.P.
Jakdaw:
Bill Lambert former H.G.V driver at W.J.Ridings for over 40yrs, passed away 30/12/14. R.I.P.
Tom Riding attended Bills funeral and tells me that there were so many people in attendance that many had to stand outside.
Hi,I remember back in the 70s or 80s Riding"s had a small depot in Penrith,i knew a chap who drove on day shift for them,Brian Frith,last i herd he was driving a Milk Tanker in Penrith,Anyone know him!!
Norman croad,Torquay.
Seddon Atkinson 401 Series 4x2 tractor unit Reg No B800 YFR Fleet No 75 ‘Great Western’, powered by a Gardner 8LXCT 300 bhp engine, is pictured here coupled to a forty foot tri-axle flat platform trailer delivering the last 4 bags of cement to a ship berthed in Tees dock.
This was part of an order for 20,000 tons from Castle Cement at Clitheroe which went to the Ascension Islands to build a runway after the Falklands war.