NO WAY 
if it is Happy Birthday Kieth never seen you since George packed in.
Alan are you still doing a bit can`t remember whether I asked you before
hi kenny
no way, plenty to do at home, i was 65 in april so that will do me 
alan
2yr to go might be payed off before then, they want some of us to change shift paterns to include weekends presently work mon to fri nightshift
Have all Dents men broke their index fingers or got them stuck up their nose?
Newspaper cuttings from Sept.2006 of a reunion at the Daleside Arms Croxdale. (used to be called the Nikky Nack). Gary Ridley’s daughter was the landlady. After Gary left Dents he was a shovel driver at Steetley at Thrisslington for years.
The van in the photo belongd to Billy Toes and had nothing to do with Dents Ken
Some names off the photo: Bob Hutchinson, Rolly Dodds, Carolyne Dent, Dez Mitchell, Tom Johnson, Billy Toas, Dicky Porter, Ray Fairley, Bill Walker, Harry Bowman, Harry Lightfoot, Dave Hardwick, Ernie Rennison, Arron Smith, Jack Kay, Macca, Tony Crooks, Billy Gowdie, Mauris Robertshaw, Keith Stokoe, Owen Hetherington, Timmy Toy, Gary Riddley.
There were others who came later who wern’t in the photo including me (Ken Johnson), Kenny Smith, Barry Burton and Alan Whittley.
well done kenny, knew we could rely on you
nice shots, although i only know a few of them, and sadly, some are no longer with us
alan
Everyone is still quiet so i have put some names on my previous post. Might jog some memories. Ken
went through bowburn this week, first time in a number of years, and low and behold !!
the old asbestos works is now a posh housing estate 
alan
Hi lads, as I am writing this , I am watching a programme on BBC4 about the Leyland Vehicle museum.
Very interesting it is too.
Bill
It must of been one of the wildest days I can remember. I got a shout off Jim to get as many ropes as I could and get over Bowburn quick. When I got to Bowburn the drivers were sitting in their motors near the weigh bridge. Down the yard 8 x 4’s and anything else were flying around like kites. The wind would just get under a stack and flip them off like a pack of cards. Nobody would attempt to go down the yard and tie them down, it was to dangerous. When I got back to the depot George Gittens was upstairs in Jim’s office trying to chain the roof down where the wind was lifting it in the corner.
Ken
old bill:
Hi lads, as I am writing this , I am watching a programme on BBC4 about the Leyland Vehicle museum.
Very interesting it is too.
Bill
Hi Bill,
Yes, i’ve seen this one. BBC4 have repeated it on a number of occasions. I’ve been to the museum about 10years ago and it’s worth a look if you are ever in the area. It’s a stone’s throw away from J28 on the M6 as you go into Preston and its not just Leyland trucks they have in the collection.
Cheers,
Darren.
when i started DENTS in the very early 70s our main traffic came from CAPE UNIVERSAL at bowburn,
at the time we also ran 3 box trailers out of SMART AND BROWNS, arthur spence, bob hutch and martin
dawson, these motors return loaded from general foods, banbury, dickinsons paper, hemel hampstead and
brillo out of slough, at the same time we ran 5 4-wheeler flats on journey work including 786 fpt which by
now had the box body taken off, two d800s and two ford traders, richie champley drove another 4 wheeler but i cannot think what it was. there was only half a dozen local vans left by then and a couple of bigger
boxes on local,
i remember during the busy times we could load 14 to 16 trailers out of bowburn, john kailofer being the chief shunter with 7819 pt and dale harrison pulling most of the loads back to spennymoor
with a smallish ford “d” series unit, for those of you before my time did DENTS do the traffic from bowburn from day 1 or was there another contractor before us. i recall barnfather and wilks getting the odd load
and also BRS the odd load but was there anyone before DENTS as main contractor
alan
About 63/64 Dents started running stone dust (in bags) from Stanhope to the pits in Fife. They were loading 25ton a time and going straight up the A68,i was told they were lucky to get up the bank out of the quary. I had to do a few trips up there with 1/2 shafts with my trusty van VPT342 always seamed to be night shift. First one was to Michael colliery at Wemyss where later ther was a big disaster then Leven,Methil, Aberdour,Kirkcaldy and Dollar. i always looked forward to my square sausage sandwiches at the Silver Link at Kincardine
Ken
First time I had that sqare suasage sandwhich was Kircaldy sea front on the lorrypark mid 70s up to the 90s they also did srambled egg sandwhiches, bloody lovely, was just talking about them with the missus yesterday
bloody hell kenny,!!!
switch the spell checker on your puter, took me 10 minutes to read your last post
alan
Square sausage, lovely stuff. I could eat my height of it. After I left Dents and started at Ness, I used to call at a Butchers in Coupar Angus and buy pounds of it for the lads in the factory. I bought that much that the Butcher used to give me some free for myself. Oh how I miss those days.It’s funny, when you are working you look forward to retirement. But when you do retire, you miss the lads that you used to work with.
I always look forward to our re-union at Christmas time as a lot of good times (and bad times) are always remembered.
Keep on posting chaps!
Bill
old bill:
Square sausage, lovely stuff. I could eat my height of it. After I left Dents and started at Ness, I used to call at a Butchers in Coupar Angus and buy pounds of it for the lads in the factory. I bought that much that the Butcher used to give me some free for myself. Oh how I miss those days.It’s funny, when you are working you look forward to retirement. But when you do retire, you miss the lads that you used to work with.
I always look forward to our re-union at Christmas time as a lot of good times (and bad times) are always remembered.
Keep on posting chaps!
Bill
Hi Bill, I’m in Coupar Angus at this moment on a weeks holiday in a self catering cottage, what a coincidence. What was the name of the butcher’s and I’ll have a look tomorrow. Regards Ronnie.
Oh dear, now you’re asking something, it was about 15 years ago. At my age ,I sometime struggle to remember what happend last week.
Bill
iamupforit:
bloody hell kenny,!!!switch the spell checker on your puter, took me 10 minutes to read your last post
alan
look at the time I posted just done a hard shift (thats my excuse anyway)
sorry kenny, only having a laugh honest
bill
you were always partial to a sausage sandwich 
links or squares
alan
I still am, Alan, I still am. But oh how I still Long for Yorkshire Pudding, Chips, and Gravy at Normans.
Bill