gingerfold:
Bewick:
gingerfold:
Cropper’s Seddon. Oh dear, that axle again, and that engine judging by the badge on the grille. 
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You on the “wind up” again “GF” 
Ah! Croppers, probably the finest paper makers in the UK a great firm, I worked there from leaving school for two and a half years, but as transport operators nah! pass ! They ran a fairly large transport operation for years which was dominated by George Sandham RIP Fleet Engineer and Arthur Oates RIP the despatch manager. Their first fleet was built up from the late 50’s at the time they more-or-less stopped using BR and one or two local hauliers. The first motors were Seddon 6 wheelers with the Leyland engines 375/400 's the last 6 wheeler they ran was a 600 powered one and was driven by the late Frank Forrest a good pal of mine. They then moved onto artics in '65 again using the Leyland 600 engine, George wouldn’t hear of using the Gardner " Can’t stand oil leaks" ! I recall one day when I shunted a load of pulp into Croppers with our first new Atki in '71 which we had brought up from London and out comes George and his lads from the workshop to give it the once over, very critical but all he said was " We can’t afford to buy Atkis" Plus they were “■■■■■■■ that we were there in the first place with a consignment of 100ton of pulp with this being the first load ! They went on to buy the 32/4 in '68 the first one ( FJM 422F) being driven by a Pal and neighbour of mine Colin Veevers. It had the RR220/DB6:600/ Group axle , what noisey [zb] they were. They would probably run about 14 32/4’s plus one ■■■■■■■ engine Sed/Atk driven by Alan Cowperthwaite. Then they finally converted onto Volvo F10’s which I think was after George retired and his Son took over. Croppers was one customer that I would have dearly liked to have got hold of but it just never happened, I used to get badgered by the Deputy Chairman of J. Bibby A.G. Thompson often during those years to “Get your backside up to Croppers and sort them out they are paper makers not bloody transport operators” but it wasn’t for the lack of trying but they are a very close family firm who didn’t make quick decisions ! Anyway I had all the traffic we could handle at times so it was no great loss ! Just a case of “what you’ve never had you never miss Eh!”
Who would want to wind you up Dennis?..thanks for the “gen” about Croppers. I recently re-joined my former employer to establish a refrigerated depot in Manchester and I share an office with the containers division, (now there is a mysterious sector of transport), and they frequently send containers to Croppers for loading.
Yes “GF” I think the greater part of their production is exported now as they have become a lot more involved in special types of paper used in many technical processes. Sounds like you are up for another challenge so I will wish you well in your endeavours ! Cheers Dennis.
Thanks for your good wishes Dennis. I had expected to be retired by now, but as they say, circumstances alter cases.
When would that shot of the FH’s have been taken John but I guess that is their entire fleet strength which they run just for publicity and piece of mind purposes. You got me thinking and I can recall more-or-less all their drivers names up to about 70/71 when they were running an entire Seddon fleet which was a mixture of the Coach built Leyland 600 engined units and a number of 32/4’s with the RR220 engine and , of course, one loan 600 engine 6 wheeler driven by my old Pal Frank Forrest until he retired. When I was up and down the road as an O/D I used to stop at the Three Sisters at Markyate and there always used to be two or three of Croppers Lads in but some of them also used to stay at The Ranch further up the A5.
Gilbert Nicholson ( got their first Seddon unit “C” reg '65)
Billy Tyson
Tom Bainbridge ( Shunter)
Frank Forrest
Colin Veevers
Noel Richardson
George Kissock
Fred Sarginson ( aka Furry Fred)
Len ■■? ( left to start a taxi business)
Eric Thornborrow ( aka Yogi Bear left to drive a local Builders tipper)
Matt Towel
Alan Cowperthwaite ( Drove their only Sed/Atk 290 ■■■■■■■■
Derek Harby
Derek Longworth
Cyril Colston ( ex J & W Watt)
Lenny Billington
Peter Lever ( ex K. Fell)
Malcolm Wilkinson ( ex K.Fell)
How’s that for memory ! Cheers Dennis.
Now we/ll have a look at the letter D
And to open the batting we have a Dodge 500 series artic powered by a ■■■■■■■ V8, operated by Turners (Soham) Ltd. and driven by Dennis Clarke, who was Traffic Foreman when I first went to Turners in 1990. Dennis had actually been a driver with BRS before Turners bought Fordham depot in 1954.
Diana of The Long Haul, the Leyland Motors works transport department Octopus that co-starred in the film with Diana Dors and Victor Mature
And the other co-stars…
Non-copyrighted photos
Darling’s, Australian flour milling company based in Adelaide. Leyland Octopus with Simon Duramin bulk body.
Deerhurst, a wheat carrying barge owned by Healings of Tewkesbury that shipped wheat along the River Severn from Avonmouth.
Lawrence Dunbar:
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Which had the bigger engine Larry ? 
Cheers Dennis.
This is the company I started for when I left school in 1962 served my time with them in the garage.
The driver stood at the side of the D308 Dodge was the late Eddie Hartley (tnet memberTipits dad) looking back you wonder how on earth he got into the cab when you see how tall he was.
)
Dads D series ford , Dby232D , at Dover on his way to st topez .
From this
Then to This
And then to This
![scan0001[1].jpg](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/trucknetuk/original/2X/3/3645f8ddea69a15341e87937fe2934a57e0fd794.jpeg)
