scarboroughpete:
THE FIN103:
Tonks are still going strong! In Driffield . I know them very well!yes mate but diftrent owners now I think a brid firm bough them out
Hi everyone for the last few postings. Its so good to have conversation and opinions posted. Photos are good to see but thoughts and opinions are much better. Hope to read more.
Best wishes
Carl
Hi guys. Anyone going abroad in the next few weeks. ? I’m of to Regansburg with 2500 cube! Not been over that way for a while. Looking forward to it! Makes a change from France or Swiss!
scarboroughpete:
do you know there was 32 full size removal vans in scarborough ie tonks pickfords kells flechers speed Mortimer Debenhams up to the late 80s how meny now not one how things change
Hi Scarboroughpete,
Shows how things have changed. In Darlington, for instance. Haward and Robertsons 12 vans in their peak, T.W. Cracknell 5 vans D G Craig and Sons 12 vans, and Pickfords had a depot,and we, based in Spennymoor 15 miles away still got our fair share of work. Today appart from Pickfords all of us have gone, and there is no really long established Removal & Storage contractor. Most people must use transit size vans, but homes don’t have the massive wardrobes etc.
Carl
Carl Williams:
scarboroughpete:
do you know there was 32 full size removal vans in scarborough ie tonks pickfords kells flechers speed Mortimer Debenhams up to the late 80s how meny now not one how things changeHi Scarboroughpete,
Shows how things have changed. In Darlington, for instance. Haward and Robertsons 12 vans in their peak, T.W. Cracknell 5 vans D G Craig and Sons 12 vans, and Pickfords had a depot,and we, based in Spennymoor 15 miles away still got our fair share of work. Today appart from Pickfords all of us have gone, and there is no really long established Removal & Storage contractor. Most people must use transit size vans, but homes don’t have the massive wardrobes etc.
Carl
I started with debanhams in scarborough and was always hired out to other firms so I went round them all and they all agreed to to hire me direct so I started on my own a bizy twelve year and going over seas with pickfords good days
But we live in a throwaway society now. Very few heirlooms kicking about. Most furniture in houses is flat pack junk, so when you move, you either do a tip run, or leave it for the new folk, then put new stuff in your new place.
And everyone knows a man that’s got access to a van these days.
NOVE:
But we live in a throwaway society now. Very few heirlooms kicking about. Most furniture in houses is flat pack junk, so when you move, you either do a tip run, or leave it for the new folk, then put new stuff in your new place.And everyone knows a man that’s got access to a van these days.
All true. When I last did removals in Britain in the 80s, cheap chipboard rubbish (we used to call it ‘suppository furniture’ cos you put it up yourself, ho ho 
) was becoming more common, and I hated the stuff - the instant you picked it up it fell apart, and after you’d got the job off the floor of the wagon was often covered in bits of chipboard. Self-drive non-HGV vans have been around for a while but I reckon one of the biggest problems is the number of “man and a van” outfits who promise to move anything for 2 quid an hour - punters think they’re getting a removal done cheap but 99 times out of a hundred they end up with a bill not far shy of what a professional outfit would charge, and when they factor in the damage and breakages they’re often worse off. Worst of all, very few of these spivs have proper insurance and most are “cash only”.
But hey, free market economics means we’re all better off, right?
Cripps removals Wantage.
An early 1960s example of an integral pantechnicon built on a Bedford TK by Marsden
Back in the tea chest and newspaper days
Hi Carl , as a kid we use to match Clarence with my dad , my old dad use to laugh so much he would cry . 
Also Carl , I do recall Crisps of Wantage , long gone , nice livery , pretty well the same as ours .
Perfect planning flawed by a neighbour to the job we were doing , full load on "the hoffs " truck parked round the front, and a bed load on my truck round the back ,including a childs playhouse , bearing in mind my truck has a taillift and can get right round the back no problem , get ther on the day to find next doors two days before built this lean to to stop them getting wet when getting the logs in , it went over the fence and I could not get past it ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh , my client was not happy as I was not happy . 
JAKEY:
Hi Carl , as a kid we use to match Clarence with my dad , my old dad use to laugh so much he would cry .
Yes Jakey,
Although I am sure none of us had anyone as blind as Clarence, but the sight of someone carrying a settee out of the house on their own, like in Clarence will bring back memories to most of us. You certainly needed your Wheetabix or Porridge on a morning, before you went on a removal in those days. And correct me. if I’m wrong, but I don’t think anything will ever be better for packing china than tea chests and newspapers. Of course tea chests were eventually impossible to get and the print on papers came off and dirtied bone china, but it was exactly the right texture to protect and safeguard china. Eventually cardboard boxes came along and we got bought plain newspaper, before it was printed. No doubt bubblerap is used today, but I can never remember a breakage with newspaper and tea chests
Carl
hi carl just wondering did you ever come across f c brooks and sons Caerphilly removals regards rowly
rward:
hi carl just wondering did you ever come across f c brooks and sons Caerphilly removals regards rowly
Hi Rowly
Possibly, I cannot remember the name but in the sixties-seventies we used to give return loads to a company from South Wales , I think Caerphilly. They ran Bedford Marsdens (I think Cream and Blue, but might be mistaken) We usually transhipped directly onto them, as they were the same size as ours. Many of the loads were Liverpool, but it put them a lot nearer home.
I remember on one occasion one turned up with a broken rear spring, which we changed for them. Many years ago and my memory is very faint
Carl
