Hi,
I grew up near and around Sharpness, My dad used to work for Trent Wharfage. I went down to Sharpness a few years ago to load out of Malcolms. Had a quick drive round the dock, not how i remember it…used to be tippers everywhere, loading, shunters running around, timber ships in for Price Walker, grain ships etc…
Marcus
Dave the Renegade:
pete 359:
Dave the Renegade:
Has anyone got anymore memories of these two places.
Cheers Dave.hi dave,
on new years day this year a couple of dozen of us with our old lorries went on the new years day run to sharpness dock.it was some time since i had been there and to be honest it suprised me how busy it was.there are still many companies and vessels working out of there.everything from scrap handling,tower cranes and coal,it’s good to see the place surviving in this difficult climate.
regards andrewHi Andrew,
Had a ride in there a couple of years ago,no ships in then,but several firms trading there as you say,do a lot of fertiliser into and from there so I believe.
Cheers Dave.
Bunns alone can do about 50 trucks a day with ferts, the dock itself is very busy as well. It keeps us going along nicely 
N14ERF:
Dave the Renegade:
pete 359:
Dave the Renegade:
Has anyone got anymore memories of these two places.
Cheers Dave.hi dave,
on new years day this year a couple of dozen of us with our old lorries went on the new years day run to sharpness dock.it was some time since i had been there and to be honest it suprised me how busy it was.there are still many companies and vessels working out of there.everything from scrap handling,tower cranes and coal,it’s good to see the place surviving in this difficult climate.
regards andrewHi Andrew,
Had a ride in there a couple of years ago,no ships in then,but several firms trading there as you say,do a lot of fertiliser into and from there so I believe.
Cheers Dave.Bunns alone can do about 50 trucks a day with ferts, the dock itself is very busy as well. It keeps us going along nicely
Good to here that the place is still being used.Makes a change to hear of somewhere still busy.
Cheers Dave.
Dave the Renegade:
N14ERF:
Dave the Renegade:
pete 359:
Dave the Renegade:
Has anyone got anymore memories of these two places.
Cheers Dave.hi dave,
on new years day this year a couple of dozen of us with our old lorries went on the new years day run to sharpness dock.it was some time since i had been there and to be honest it suprised me how busy it was.there are still many companies and vessels working out of there.everything from scrap handling,tower cranes and coal,it’s good to see the place surviving in this difficult climate.
regards andrewHi Andrew,
Had a ride in there a couple of years ago,no ships in then,but several firms trading there as you say,do a lot of fertiliser into and from there so I believe.
Cheers Dave.Bunns alone can do about 50 trucks a day with ferts, the dock itself is very busy as well. It keeps us going along nicely
Good to here that the place is still being used.Makes a change to hear of somewhere still busy.
Cheers Dave.
Really worth taking a look when they get a fert boat into unload, the dockers actually know how to do a days work in there 
, and the way they overload the old 8 wheel tippers (fodens and erf’s) needs seeing to be believed.
Did quite a few loads of tractors into Avonmouth from Massey Ferguson Coventry ( remember them ) in the late 70s and back load with copper to Brum, easy loads in them days.
Who remembers going to Avonmouth over the years,either to the Docks or other places in the area.I remember going to
B O C M and Spillers,also Fisons with my Dad back in the fifties.
hi dave,in the late 60s,used to do a lot of coffee beans to maxwell house at banbury,and if you were short of work, a few containers for seawheel cause the rates were rubbish…trunkera1
park your wagon on your sheets and your bed on your boots
Hi Truckera1,
Also went there in the 50’s early 60’s with another driver who drove for Roberts of Knighton,hauling grain in sacks to spillers and fetching animal feedstuff in sacks back,in a four wheeler Thames Trader carrying eleven ton when loaded from a farm with wheat.Those were the days,pre severn bridge.
Cheers Dave.
Yes I used to go with the Old Chap during the school holidays in the '60’s, he had a 1950’s Seddon 4 wheeler with a Tamplin tank with auger discharge for LAWS TRANSPORT of Whitley Wood Lane in Reading, he used to collect bags, not bulk, from Avonmouth with it. I THOUGHT that he collected from Silcocks, but it may have been Spillers or Fisons, a nice day out down the old A4 to Bristol sometimes through Chippenham or around via Devizes and Melksham, load up and then deliver somewhere around the Reading area. One day we collected a full load of bags and then went to the Bath and West Show to fetch birdcages back to Theale, dad piled them on top and chucked the sheet on top to weigh them down.
Avonmouth seemed a good place to load, Ranks at Silvertown or Fisons at Barking were a nightmare in comparison as you could wait 7 or 8 hours somedays in a bloomin great queue of trucks! I guess that it prepared me for all the hours of waiting involved with tipper work when I went on the road though!
I used to go into Avonmouth in the 50’s/60’s as a kid, with my Dad, always had to duck down so the police didn’t see us, funny thing was he never made us get down on the way out, copper always told him not to do it, but next time would be just the same.
Hi Deiseldogsix,
I remember that,used to be ok at Cardiff and Barry Docks,never went to Avonmouth until I was about thirteen and a bit bigger.I know it was a iffy about getting in,but same as you never got stopped from going in.
Cheers Dave.
Dave the Renegade:
Who remembers going to Avonmouth over the years,either to the Docks or other places in the area.I remember going to
B O C M and Spillers,also Fisons with my Dad back in the fifties.
When I first started I only ever wanted loads to London as I had got my contacts for traffic back home however occaisionally for whatever reason I was loaded for Bristol and I remember once loading Asbestos in bags off Aonmouth for Stratford — What a s****y job that was and I never touched a bag !! But in later years we hauled a lot of Courtaulds pulp off Royal Portbury to British Cellophane at Barrow . Cheers Bewick.
London Carriers had a warehouse,right under the M5 flyover.
We used to load Phillips Electrical goods out of their for the South West.
Also,right down the other end,near the M4 was,‘Picards Seed Merchants’ and the rail terminal/massive warehouse for Norsk Hydro Fertilizers.
We used to load out of both for the South West.
Davnic:
London Carriers had a warehouse,right under the M5 flyover.
We used to load Phillips Electrical goods out of their for the South West.
I worked there for a few odd days when I first started on agency it ws a good laugh they would give me 15 drops around Exeter / Torquay I’d be empty and parked up by 12 in Avonmouth Truckstop . As it happened most of the drops I had were places next to or near where I used to do my old drops when i left the kitchen distribution company i worked 8 years for…
I can remember hand balling sacks of mica[ex South Africa] from the docks whilst on for Smith of Maddiston,very dusty,got in your throat,got everywhere,electronic companies used it to make up PCB’s I think,the sacks were very “floppy” which only made them worse to handle,20 tons of hand balled sacks was enough,if Newport[SoM] had left some trailers for loading,you might be down there for the day,not me the taffs could load their own!!!David
Remember the old man loading reels of paper @ portbury docks for newsprint when swiftys did general haulage ,also recall lots of A R Griggs lorries there (when they had F86/88 volvos ) mid to late 70s time . All on flats of course 
remember going to b.o.c.m with the old man listening for the tannoy to call out your reg number and shoot number if you were lucky you had a conveyor that could extend a little cuse the bags of feed used to come down at a hell of a speed ther was a lot of running back and forth then when loading in those days there was no need to go to the gym fisons was good for handball loading reverse under the gantry then the palet was placed on a turntable so you could take the bags off from any side the pallets were loaded in 6s 5 layers of 6 bags and if you had a full palatised load it was wider than the bed of the lorry
Just to stretch this thread a bit further. Any of you went into Sharpness Docks,quite a busy little place back in the 50’s and 60’s,sometimes my Dad or the other driver I went with,had a spllit load,some from Avonmouth,then on up to Sharpness to pick the rest of the load from there.
anyone remember the shortlived greenore ferries at sharpness? lots of peat on flats,i remember seeing the ship comeing into the dock one day,and thinking thats not going to stay afloat for long! it was in a right 2 and 8,looked as if its next port of call should have been the breakers! 
that would have been about 69/70ish…trunkera1
park your wagon on your sheets and your bed on your boots
Dave the Renegade:
Just to stretch this thread a bit further. Any of you went into Sharpness Docks,quite a busy little place back in the 50’s and 60’s,sometimes my Dad or the other driver I went with,had a spllit load,some from Avonmouth,then on up to Sharpness to pick the rest of the load from there.
Yes Dad used to call at Sharpness as well but I can’t recall who he loaded from (bulk grain it would have been).
Pete.