Does anyone remember Cantrell’s Raiders? I would like anyone who has any photo’s of these company trucks to let me know as I used to drive for them.
I remember Cantrell’s Raiders,from when I was running for Brit European,Chapman and Ball and Simon International.Unfortunately I have no pics,I never saw one of their’s standing still long enough to take a pic!
What happened to the Bros…? And Batman…? 
I was weekended at Ventimiglia with one of Cantrells.He was waiting for one of his mates who coming up from Brindisi I think.He was waiting for mateys Italian permit so he could cary on south. Nice guy. Non sleeper Ford Cargo. Brave man!
I can remember a firm run by two brothers called Robby and Tony. From Cantrell Road in Bow, East London. Known as thre Cantrellians. Is that the firm your’e talking about? About 1970. Did hear that Robby and Tony moved to Saudi, robbing lorries at the end of a machinegun
Very dodgy boys indeed. We never parked up alongside them. And I was working for a mob who were almost as bad. Rooksdale Haulage. Owner was Terry “little legs” Regan. Had a bit of a yard under the Canning Town flyover. Chocolate to Italy and fruit back. Bloody good laugh with some belting good mates.
Anyone remember them?
I remember the Cantrell crowd.You would never park alongside 'em. One weekend in Congerezzo a young O/D had to fly back to UK to get some spares for his truck & asked a Cantrell to keep an eye on his truck while he was away. They tilted his cab ,stripped out his pump ( which could only be replaced in UK in those days ) & sold it to their boss. Great fellers…Members of the rubber hose fuel card club. They did a whole lot for the UK truckers image abroad.
rexyu:
I can remember a firm run by two brothers called Robby and Tony. From Cantrell Road in Bow, East London. Known as thre Cantrellians. Is that the firm your’e talking about? About 1970. Did hear that Robby and Tony moved to Saudi, robbing lorries at the end of a machinegunVery dodgy boys indeed. We never parked up alongside them. And I was working for a mob who were almost as bad. Rooksdale Haulage. Owner was Terry “little legs” Regan. Had a bit of a yard under the Canning Town flyover. Chocolate to Italy and fruit back. Bloody good laugh with some belting good mates.
Anyone remember them?
yes i remember rooksdale,had a driver called johnny holland(not to be confused with the astran driver of the same name). i cannot recall any of the others,memory fades with age. if i remember rightly terry and his brother john were married to the two women who ran kentvale kay and tessa.
The only Rooksdale drivers that I remember were Arthur Grace and Johnny Edwards who I teamed with at SCA.
Arthur was a lovely man. Very laid back. Often took his daughter with him to Italy in the school hols
The only thing that i can remember about Terry’s wife was that she was apparently a Merzario. They were a very big Italian freight agent at the time. They had a ghastly son of about 9 years old. All he could talk about was fuel consumption. Must have been the sole topic in the Regan household.
rexyu:
The only Rooksdale drivers that I remember were Arthur Grace and Johnny Edwards who I teamed with at SCA.Arthur was a lovely man. Very laid back. Often took his daughter with him to Italy in the school hols
The only thing that i can remember about Terry’s wife was that she was apparently a Merzario. They were a very big Italian freight agent at the time. They had a ghastly son of about 9 years old. All he could talk about was fuel consumption. Must have been the sole topic in the Regan household.
thats right tessa is italian and there was some sort of involvement with merzario,i have just remembered terrys brother was/is called pat, john is the son in kentvales office in purfleet, i met one of their drivers on perronne one trip, he was broke and i lent him enough money to buy derv to get home, when i went over to kentvale to get the money back i got paid alright ,no problem, but tessa gave me a right roasting for lending the cash, and said in future they would sort their own business and would i kindly not give their drivers money, so you are probably right about the mpg topic of conversation.
seems like the cantrells thread has been hijacked, one of their drivers mickey higgins aka slippery mick ,worked with him on eddie morgans at hainault in late 60s,we were doing traction for sammy williams, eic roadliners etc ,
rexyu John Edwards was he golf mad from Sudbury or the Romany from Lynn…?
if my memory serves me well did two rooksdale drivers get shot in Italy
late 70s possibly one died im sure it was in the dagenham local paper
correct me if im wrong 
yes i think your right i remember tht to it was in a bar in spian i used to work over the road in moody wharf
SUPERCUBE:
seems like the cantrells thread has been hijacked, one of their drivers mickey higgins aka slippery mick ,worked with him on eddie morgans at hainault in late 60s,we were doing traction for sammy williams, eic roadliners etc ,
Do you remember Eddy,s volvo F86 6wheel tractor unit? it was maroon an realy long mabe an x tipper he used to do steel with it my old guv bought Eddys F88 reg GOY 842J we went to Eddys house near chigwell to pick it up.My dad worked with Edd on yiddle davis,s in the 50,s.I did traction for robbie at cantrell,s in the early 70,s when they were in cantrell road.I think they had a new Berliat an they had a transcon that belonged to Ryder rental which i dont think ever went back to them,they knew one more trick than a monkey,good luck to em.
Harry, Yes that was the Johny Edwards that I knew. The golfer. Good footballer as well. Had a trial for Spurs in his youth.
I teamed with him on SCA. We used to niggle each other a bit; but he was basically a good bloke.
boyzee:
SUPERCUBE:
seems like the cantrells thread has been hijacked, one of their drivers mickey higgins aka slippery mick ,worked with him on eddie morgans at hainault in late 60s,we were doing traction for sammy williams, eic roadliners etc ,Do you remember Eddy,s volvo F86 6wheel tractor unit? it was maroon an realy long mabe an x tipper he used to do steel with it my old guv bought Eddys F88 reg GOY 842J we went to Eddys house near chigwell to pick it up.My dad worked with Edd on yiddle davis,s in the 50,s.I did traction for robbie at cantrell,s in the early 70,s when they were in cantrell road.I think they had a new Berliat an they had a transcon that belonged to Ryder rental which i dont think ever went back to them,they knew one more trick than a monkey,good luck to em.
yes i remember the 6 legger,in fact it was my truck on there for a long while,the first motor i went abroad with,it done a few italys and a couple of portugals,with a homemade bed in the back,small space but i was only 9stone wet through in those daysand fitted in nicely,twice the person these days,the f86 was YEH118H by the way. that f88 you mention was driven by jed clampit,who worked on davies with me in the 50s,last saw jed he was running an amusement arcade in eastbourne,hav’nt heard from him for a couple of years now. eddie drove a lorry and drag on meat for davies,and when he started on his own he had a small yard in hainault by the golf course,not far from where he lived.
rexyu Yeah,John was a mate of mine;took his golf clubs everywhere. Last I see of him was on Young Bros. He picked me up one Sunday & took me in his car from my house to Youngs yard & from there to Dover where I had dumped my import rig for the weekend. I wonder where he is now ?
Harry
Well, I still have a Sudbury phone number for him, which I could email to you, should you wish. He must be about 77 now, as he was ten years older than me when we worked together.
The Cantrells Berliet that boyzee refers to was driven by ‘Stuttering’ Mick Brown. My dad used to run with him back in the early 70’s to the M/E.
May be able to dig an old pic out.
Remember Robbie well,and his accountant,who looked like a boxer,with a ring in his ear(before that became fashionable).We played cricket in the yard,while all the phones rang,in the portacabins!!On the Middle East run,he had a guy called Nutnut,who used to try to ‘persuade’ his guys on to Iran from the Mocamp,before they spent all of their running money.One of Cantrell’s bad habits was to load a large number of trailers,for the Middle East,and then draw 50% of the freight,and dump the loaded trailers.However if you helped them,they were loyal.Most of his Middle East guys had electric pumps,to take diesel from other trucks! Where are they now? Probably on the Costas!