Hi brought back some great memories,my uncle was Jimmy Morgan and I used to go with him every school holiday and after I joined the army every leave I got.
Jimmy was working for Truman’s steel on a foden s39 when they hired a f10 from taits ,when jimmy returned it bobby was so impressed on how it was returned he offered jimmy a job so he left Truman’s and started working for anlin transport which was a company run by emlin the welsh man who was married to bobbys sister I think they only ran two f10s and this was I think about the late 70s
When traits brought needhams jimmy moved over to them
I remember being treated really well by all of the Tait family when I used to turn up with jimmy
I’ll never forget going with bobby to load waste paper at jebs or was it juds ,jimmy said to go with him to help him with the sheets ,it was all loaded on flats we left Darlington and you couldn’t have put a cigarette paper between the truck and the car in front all the way there , and the language I though my uncle could swear, but what a brilliant bloke
I remember being invited to party’s at Keith’s house and again was made very welcome by all
Kieth used to come round to my uncles on the odd sat night and we’d all go down to haughon club where jimmy was a steward
I still remember his first truck at needhams pbr772t and I think he drove pretty much all of them
Even though he lived and breathed Volvo he loved the 143 he did European with but I never got to do any Euro work with him as I was driving myself by then
I remember jimmy lee and his flying f88, melly , old kenny , Walter from the garage
I can say hand on heart they were probably the happiest times of my childhood even though I lived in Manchester he would always arrange to be tipping at express newspapers Manchester when I was on my hols so I would just h@ve to go into town with suitcase to meet him
Sadly jimmy passed away in June 2017 but I’ll always have these happy memories rip gelding
hi, does anybody have any photo’s of D.D NEEDHAM’S of darlington,they were mainly volvo’s and were white with a red & blue stripe design. there depot used to be at the top of my street before they ceased trading i use to love standing at the fence when i was a kid and just watch them come and go.
cheers katie…
My faulty memory tells me Needham’s were maroon car transporters. 
If I’m wrong then who am I thinking of? 
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? did general stuff as well but do remember ‘Needhams of Darlington’ IIRC they ran a lot F88’s and did a lot of work for Volvo’s part’s operation. Can remember having a night out down south at some factory with a subby for them about 1976.
Gotta say I was very envious after we had been for a few pints and a ‘chinese’ and he climbed into his F88 sleeper cab and I crawled into my Commer Maxiload TS3
16 tonnner daycab 
The good old day’s eh
I remember Needhams having a few very smart F10s before they went. As for Glendinnings they did cars as well as steel and a few bulk tippers. The stripe on the car transporters was blue instead of cream - something to do with car transport unions not wanting these drivers to be doing general haulage too. Somewhat killed off the idea of car transport body that turned into a flatbed.
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :
That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
Spardo:
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
My memory is just as bad David - was it Glendinnings that ran with half-cab Fodens? 
Chris Webb:
Spardo:
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
My memory is just as bad David - was it Glendinnings that ran with half-cab Fodens?
Whoa, now you’re pushing it. But now you mention it, that does sound familiar. 
Spardo:
Chris Webb:
Spardo:
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
My memory is just as bad David - was it Glendinnings that ran with half-cab Fodens?
Whoa, now you’re pushing it.
the half cab fodens would be F& F ROBINSON of stockton
bumper:
Spardo:
Chris Webb:
Spardo:
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
My memory is just as bad David - was it Glendinnings that ran with half-cab Fodens?
Whoa, now you’re pushing it.
the half cab fodens would be F& F ROBINSON of stockton
Thanks Bumper,I remember the name now.
I told you my memory was bad David!
Chris Webb:
bumper:
Spardo:
Chris Webb:
Spardo:
davepenn54:
Think the maroon transporters from the Durham area were ‘Glendennings’ ? :That’s the ones, told you the memory was faulty.
My memory is just as bad David - was it Glendinnings that ran with half-cab Fodens?
Whoa, now you’re pushing it.
the half cab fodens would be F& F ROBINSON of stockton
Thanks Bumper,I remember the name now.
I told you my memory was bad David!
Snap. I remember Robinsons now. 
I used to work for F&F’s way back when. Old Fred Robinson was so tight that he used to have the offside indicator bulbs removed to save money! his reasoning was that the drivers could use hand signals for that side! The reason for the half cabs was his passionate belief that we shouldn’t carry passengers, he’d go as far as having the passenger seat removed and the passenger door welded shut! Ah, the good old days.
It must have been about 1984 when Needhams packed up. I seem to remember they had just got some B reg facelifted Volvos and I was pestering my boss to buy me one from Crossroads in Hull.
I used to get backloads of oil from Needhams down to Unipart at Honeybourne near Evesham. That was when I was running fruit and Veg to Gateshead market. Must have been late eighties to early nineties.
DD Needham from Neasham Road in Darlington,were taken over by the Tait family who actually had the Volvo dealerships at Darlington and Haydon Bridge.
Old man Tait (■■■■■■■) was a funny old bugger,his son Paul run the operation and his son in law Emlyn,the other son Keith was a wannabe trucker
They did most of the loads of anti freeze and oil from Cargo Fleet Chemicals,good job and good kit at the time.
A couple of my old mates worked there for a long time,up until they called it a day.
I remember many years ago when it was Needhams that they all had 290 F88`s that were absolute flying machines and were driven by ceratin drivers with much gusto
I used to work for Needhams for 8yrs or so as a fitter, and just Googled “DD Needham” to see what would pop up and found this. Robbies Dad is correct on most of above, Old Man Bob (the father) was a funny old sod, but was a great guy and a superb mechanic, he taught me much of what i know today. I was working with him the day he died in the workshop. He died a few hours later after he went home with his wife and family.
Bob owned it first, it was then passed onto Paul and Keith the other son was kind of pushed to the side really. Emelyn Evans was Paul and Keiths brother in law, married to their sister.
They never closed down at Neasham Road, they just moved to Alliance Industrial Estate (Albert Hill), where they are still trading as Evergreen Pallet Solutions Uk Ltd.
evergreen-pallets.co.uk
Bob passed away in about spring 1996, and as of then Paul, bobs son was in complete charge, even though he was officially in charge before hand, Bob still had a lot of say over what happened. The place started to fall apart soon after bob, as it was a family run business, with too many fingers in the pie and not enough pie to go around as well as the grief, as Paul and Keith were very close to their dad.
On th eday of Bobs funeral it was at the church on Woodlands road close to the hospital and stanhope road. It was rammed, people were stood in the isles, at the back and some people couldnt get in and left outside. A ery respected man in the industry, however bad tempered the old sod was 
They started to try and take Needhams into different directions, driver training school (HGV and Cars), International to Europe, and some other ideas.
Within a year or so Keith the brother of Paul the MD fell out with the rest of the family and went on his own with a company called KRT (Keith Robert Tait) Transport. He took 1 or 2 of the trucks, i cant remember how many now, but the last time i saw him he had lost all of his weight and was with a new girl. I know some of the drivers didnt like him as he was a little lazy, but he had a heart of gold and i havent a bad word to say about him.
The vehicles we had were
10 x F10
2 x FL10’s
2 x F12s
1 x Scanias 113 high line
1 x Scania 143 - V8
and 22 trailers, mostly taught liners but a few were flat beds and 2 euro TILT’s.
We were then all given a 3 month redundancy notice during 1995 or 96 and a few days before the end of that notice, we were told it was ok and everything was fine, then there was another 3 month notice given again. Then the other guy i worked with in the garage called N-N-N-N-N-N-Neville (Had a stutter lol) left to work abroad so i was on my own. I worked on my own for about 8 months and got sick of it and worried, as nobody knew what was happening with the company, so I left.
I went back again 6 months later, but in that time some of the trucks had been sold and the garage was split into 2 by a huge wall. He then bought Darlington Storage next door and within a very short time i started to have arguments with Paul as it was obvious that the trucks were going and the pallet were on thier way in. It ended in me leaving, but i found that months later almost all hauling stopped and it was just pallets.
Some of the driver who were there when i was there, was
Keith Tait
Jimmy Lee (Leapy lee)
Melly (■■■■ pot)
Jimmy Morgan (Morgasm)
Andy (Eddie the eagle)
Derek
Peter the puppet
John Boy (Brother of mark below)
Mark (Brother of John above)
Steve (■■■ Head, even signed his name TH )
Benny the ball
Davy Hawkin (Left to start his own company close to Bishop Auckland)
Stuart Skipper (last time i saw him he was working at George Allinsons)
I hope this brings back a few memories for some people and I would love to think the drivers up there are doing well.
I have a hand full of photos, ill try and upload later on and add them here
what a bloody good read.(above). 
Brilliant thread.
I can just about remember Needhams, you look on these forums and something jogs your memory.
Thats what its all about 
Since I wrote the last comment, other bits have come back to me.
Bob (Robert Tait) used to own the Volvo franchise in the north of England, Tait’s Volvos, I know they were in Haden Bridge, Washington, Darlington, Carlisle and think it was also in Thirsk… but it was before my time, so only going on what was told to me in the bait cabin.
From what I was told, he had a contract to buy a certain amount of trucks per month or year from Volvo Sweden and during the 70’s with all the strikes etc, they couldnt sell them. So all the depots became full of huge numbers of unsold trucks and a lot of debt. Eventually Volvo stepped in and offered to buy the whole lot of him at the cost of clearing his debt off.
Im not sure if that is 100% correct, as that is from a conversation 15 or so yrs ago and the info I was given then may not have been completely accurate. But im sure it’s not a million miles away.
Bob then bought Needhams in Neasham Road and the story continues in my last post.
I used to have a pint on a Saturday with Peter Bainbridge (He liked a drink). He started on the old S reg F10. He had a few more Volvos doing the continental work. Then He had a new P cab Scania. Personally I would have kept the F12 He had. i also know Charlie Crowther who worked there for a while. My Dad used to work for Charlies dad Sid Crowther of Ferryhill many many years ago.