Hi
Does anyone remember Wilson’s Transport of Ardwick, Manchester? My first job - back in 1984 or so - was driving one of their old yellow and black liveried ERF’s. We called them A series but looking back I think ‘mine’ was probably an LV. It was an “F” reg, so presumably '68 or '69? It had a 5 cylinder Gardner engine and a real gearbox.
I have very fond memories of my time at Wilsons. Learning the ropes (literally) on a flat wagon in general haulage set me up extremely well for many succesfull years of driving, mostly as a full-time agency driver.
It is now over ten years since I drove an HGV for er… pleasure and profit so to speak but rarely a day goes by without me remembering some odd detail of the people and places of those days.
My boss at Wilsons (Peter Green? I think I’ve got his name right) told me right at the start that it was impossible to leave haulage - “the diesel gets in your blood”. He was right in a way. Despite the intervention of a university career (as a mature student) life is better when breathing diesel fumes and I now operate a mini-excavator and Zetor tractor for my living. Yesterday a customer gave me an ancient Iveco 7.5 tonner, and that’s how I found this site - searching the web for information about Iveco brakes!
Cheers
“Z”
Welcome to TN Zetorpilot, you’ll find plenty of interest in here for you.
Can’t help with that particular Wilson though, but somebody will. 
Zetorpilot:
Hi
Does anyone remember Wilson’s Transport of Ardwick, Manchester? My first job - back in 1984 or so - was driving one of their old yellow and black liveried ERF’s. We called them A series but looking back I think ‘mine’ was probably an LV. It was an “F” reg, so presumably '68 or '69? It had a 5 cylinder Gardner engine and a real gearbox.
I have very fond memories of my time at Wilsons. Learning the ropes (literally) on a flat wagon in general haulage set me up extremely well for many succesfull years of driving, mostly as a full-time agency driver.
It is now over ten years since I drove an HGV for er… pleasure and profit so to speak but rarely a day goes by without me remembering some odd detail of the people and places of those days.
My boss at Wilsons (Peter Green? I think I’ve got his name right) told me right at the start that it was impossible to leave haulage - “the diesel gets in your blood”. He was right in a way. Despite the intervention of a university career (as a mature student) life is better when breathing diesel fumes and I now operate a mini-excavator and Zetor tractor for my living. Yesterday a customer gave me an ancient Iveco 7.5 tonner, and that’s how I found this site - searching the web for information about Iveco brakes!
Cheers
“Z”
Hi,Zetorpilot.
I remember a Wilson’s Haulage from Stockport,but not Ardwick - maybe they moved 
.
They ran old ERF’s ,4 and 6-leggers and were yellow.Used to see (and pass 
'em ) on the Woodhead when heading back to Sheffield early in a morning on nights.I think they used to do a lot of East Anglia work.
Always wondered what happened to 'em,but might not be same company.
Yes, that’s the one! They moved to Ardwick from Stockport but that was before my time.
East Anglia was indeed their speciality, although personally I used to do more work in London and the surrounding area. I still went crawling over Woodhead though!
My wagon was just about the oldest and definately the slowest although towards the end of my time there it was repainted and looked great.
One of the drivers had a Leyland curtainsider in the same livery, and there was also a red flat-wagon as well that might have been a Ford.
I wonder what happened to the wagons, and if any of the drivers and other workers are still in the business?
Edited to add: I’ve just remembered the full name was W.R. Wilson Transport Ltd.
.You may also remember Connell and Finnegan 
from Manchester with green and white tippers running over Woodhead to BSC Stocksbridge with scrap early in a morning.I was on a drawbar with Littlewoods plastered all over it and when running back over Woodhead I always had to bide my time before overtaking them and Wilsons - not many places to pass. 
so can’t give you any more info about Wilsons,but there may be someone else on the forum who could help you.