Retired Old ■■■■:
manitou:
Retired Old ■■■■:
I’m going back a bit but I remember collecting strawberries from Middie’s for Gloucester market. Not a hint of a lorry there in those days.
Didn’t know Reed Corrugated had a place at Newent. Were they at the “new” industrial estate (formerly Freeman’s farm) off Gloucester Road?
And is anyone in the old factory on the Upleadon road next door to Stardens? Last I saw it was occupied by one of the Scrivens family making pallets for Ranks at Mitcheldean. Before that it had been used as storage for British Sugar and years ago, when I was a lad and during the war it was a transport buffer depot for the War Department. In the 1950s we were treated to convoys of Army lorries coming through Newent to the factory for storage. No by-pass in those days. There was a fairly low railway bridge just outside Goulding’s yard which the piggy-backed army vehicles couldn’t get under by about two inches. Traffic was held up for ages while drivers deflated the tyres, crept under the bridge, then re-inflated the rubber again!
Reeds were in the factory on Upleadon rd,up the road from Gouldings. I think it was also called Stardens? Most of Reeds work was out of Ldybrook , I think Newent was for different product ,all flat pack carboard boxes.
Interesting what you say it being used as a depot for war dept.At the back of yard there where a few rondavel type bunker type things. Midwinter used to store back load stuff in these . Rememeber drivers washing trucks round the back one xmas and the ground gave way .A 7.5t disappeared, back end first,nose up in the air, into a huge hole! That was supposed to be something to do with war times.
Now that’s cleared some of it up!
Stardens was/is the rather grand old manor house up the driveway immediately before the factory- it runs up the side of the factory site. Stardens was the home of Sir Richard Foley-Onslow, a wealthy landowner in the 18th century. Just after the last disagreement with Adolf the place was owned (although probably by a gullible bank manager) ostensibly by a chap named Hargreaves, which turned out to be just one of his aliases. Among other money-making enterprises he had his sticky fingers in was The Cotswold Cider Company which supplied “genuine” country scrumpy by mail order to people who had too much money and should have known better. He was eventually made bankrupt and done for fraud on a quite grand scale. I think the CCC name was sold to a more reputable concern as they are still in business, although no longer doing mail order. The house was divided into flats, with about half of it made into an hotel/country club. We had some cracking times there when I was in my early twenties, largely due to my knowing the owner, Mary Roberts, whose former husband had driven for Consolidated Roadways, his “fiddles” partially enabling him to buy the Southgate Café in Gloucester- OK in the days when it was possible to park a lorry in the street for an early breakfast.
The factory had a maze of underground storage areas and bunkers, some of them blast proof, which were either filled in or sealed when the army moved out in the second half of the 1950s. I believe that some of these came to light later, as witnessed by the incident with the 7.5-tonner!
I grew up not more than a quarter mile from the site although I would probably be hard pressed to find a dozen people I know in the town these days.
Hi rof .Small world, know the house, factory next door,lots of greenhouses next door on left of it.Defo some kind of underground thing that gave way.Had a concrete type road which went round the factory towards the greenhouses side.It took a couple of weeks to fill it in.Midwinters now in the old GMC place up Strawberryhill.Im not far away from you now about 7/8 miles.The bridge outside Gouldings/Firestation gone as Middie had a few 16ft trailers.
So there are even more greenhouses in the area now? I spent my childhood and early adulthood in the flat-roofed bungalow up on the bank at the junction of Tewkesbury Road and Redmarley road, which was rented, together with about five acres, from R.H.Goulding, my father’s (& mine, for a time) employer. Later the old folks bought the semi detached house at the junction of Tewkesbury Road & Ledbury Road. Not far as furniture removals go!
My gran and granddad lived in a three storey house about fifty yards on the town side of the old rail bridge (Wharf Pitch) which was demolished to make way for the new ambulance station.
I knew the market gardening area as The Land Settlement Association, a quite innovative initiative by the government to provide both work for the unemployed- mainly from the North- and food for the nation during a time of shortage. The smallholders would rent their holdings from the association then sell the produce through the same organisation which provided seed, fertilizer, transport and packing facilities. The headquarters and packing sheds were at that time situated at Scarr Farm. They ran a number of Bedfords of their own with Gouldings contracted as business demanded.
The house on the left-hand corner, just past the factory was owned by one of my school teachers, A. Raynor Brookes (physics & woodwork) who was a keen bee-keeper and whose two sons also attended Newent School- in the building which now houses the Newent Centre at the traffic lights. Mr Brookes was an immigrant from South Wales, as was my father.
Hope that fills in some holes for you, as you have for me!
Retired Old ■■■■:
I wouldn’t have thought a locked gate and a high fence would be a problem for a fit, young athletic chap like you 
I have some equipment you could borrow- a telephoto lens and a pair of bolt croppers. Take yer pick.
Blast it, I’ve just realised I’ve used the word “borrow”. Of course, I really meant, “hire”. 
Hi ROF,
Thanks for the offer,but at my age i need more than a pair of bolt croppers ,and with my chest id need more then one jar of VICK !! to get in !! regards Keith .
Come now, laddie, you’ve not got your second wind yet 
Any photo’s of this burried 7.5 tonner? be interesting to see…
Are there any photos of Ted Warner’s lorries about? It was a very smart fleet from Aston on Carrant, near Tewkesbury. Livery was mid Brunswick green with cream signwriting in almost identical style to Gouldings of Newent (They used the same signwriter). Ted was related by marriage to the Gilder family- I believe he was married to G.G. (Grampy) Gilder’s sister.
Wow, don’t know where I dug this up from…
…Any good?
Retired Old ■■■■:
Are there any photos of Ted Warner’s lorries about? It was a very smart fleet from Aston on Carrant, near Tewkesbury. Livery was mid Brunswick green with cream signwriting in almost identical style to Gouldings of Newent (They used the same signwriter). Ted was related by marriage to the Gilder family- I believe he was married to G.G. (Grampy) Gilder’s sister.
Hi RoF 
Here’s one I put on some time ago… on page 2 of this thread
An ex Warner’s bought secondhand by Gouldings of Newent - taken by me around '91 or '92
Me.Paul.101:
Wow, don’t know where I dug this up from…0…Any good?
Super, Paul. I’d forgotten the later signwriting in capitals.
Taken in Richard’s yard, I presume?
Hi, pistonbroke. Photo taken right next to the brook where I went fishing as a youngster!
And I do hope you had your visa stamped at Over bridge on the way through
Retired Old ■■■■:
Hi, pistonbroke. Photo taken right next to the brook where I went fishing as a youngster!
And I do hope you had your visa stamped at Over bridge on the way through
Hi RoF
I remember ringing Gouldings up and asking if it was ok to come up and take pics. They said yes obviously, I arrived on a Saturday afternoon, spoke to a chap who said ‘help yourself, I’ve got stuff to do’ and I never saw a soul after that 
That was clearly back in the days when everyone could be trusted… 
I had a great time just mooching about for a few hours
I did stop at Passport Control at Over but they must have been at lunch! I manged to creep back over under the cover of darkness too, so I guess I was just lucky to have gotten away with it… It’s been a heavy burden to carry all of these years though - it’s good to actually off load some of my guilt!
Might sound a silly question, but are Keyway still going, or operating at a smaller sized fleet?
I haven’t seen their lorries for a while and their yard at Barnwood is closed.
There were some rumours about Churngold going around early last year. Didn’t they rebrand to white lorries with “soil surgery” on them? Strange not to see Keyway around much, as Smiths of Gloucester are getting about and Earthline are still growing…Huntsmans seem to be Oxford way a lot more too.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Are there any photos of Ted Warner’s lorries about? It was a very smart fleet from Aston on Carrant, near Tewkesbury. Livery was mid Brunswick green with cream signwriting in almost identical style to Gouldings of Newent (They used the same signwriter). Ted was related by marriage to the Gilder family- I believe he was married to G.G. (Grampy) Gilder’s sister.
Hi ROF<
Warners did a lot of work out of Ashchurch moving army vehicles etc , work now seems to be in the hands of Edgewicks .
Warners had quite a few stock wagons as well i can remember a Seddon 4 wheeler at Ross market , but ROF sorry mate no photos ! regards Keith
Thought it was a bit of a long shot, Keith. In latter years Warners also did a lot of mining equipment for Dowty’s. Must have paid pretty well as I remember doing a load to Darlington for them on a Saturday and coming back empty. The boss reckoned he still made money out of the trip.
I can remember Edgwicks very well mostly Mercedes but used to have a 6x4 Daf they used for heavy haulage most of the time driven by a guy called Ray.Seemed to do lots of MOD work always remember seeing various APC’s, Land Rover’s etc around, And can remember how busy they were just before the Falklands war kicked off.Can also remember Chris Daniels and his Scania,Brian Rowlands,Nick Carter, Simon Gilder driving someone’s Renault Magnum with had just 4 single wheels on the 2 rear axles.Loads of others that will come to me i’m sure.
Glad to see this thread is still alive…
Yers one of Edgwicks Merc’s…Not mine.
