What relation are you dan to the boys at uttoxeter
Cousin mike.
Come on dennis dig somemore pics out please
Dan Punchard:
Cousin mike.
So your dad is dougs brother
Derek Layton with a load of bagged animal feedstuff from Avonmouth back to Kington, Herefordshire.
Yes Jeff ,you may remember him 2 loads a day to kings norton 2 scraps smethwick to Sheffield amongst other loads for about the last 100 years.
1970commer:
[qu ote=“Bewick”]Jakdaw:
Like I said before sheet over the headboard and nothing gets wet
doesnt matter how high it is. And leave Mr Bewick be, you certainly cant find fault with any of his staff
for their Roping & Sheeting of the loads they carried, all first class IMHO.Thanks for the kind testimony “Jackdaw”
However,by the looks of his loads it dosen’t matter if he has not sheeted over the headbord as there’s nowt on the floor to get wet,I wonder fancy his chances of getting a load of paper to it’s destination,dry,if he sheeted his motor like that
Cheers Mr.Bewick.
Oh dear Mr. Bewick, you are beginning to sound like a Very Bitter Old Man, as you have spotted, there is nothing on the floor to get wet on most of my pictures, but if there was I would sheet the load appropriately as I have the sheets available and the ability to use them just as well as you or any of your drivers, old, young or in between. You seem to be obsessed with the fact that because we are younger than you we are somewhat lacking in ability to do the job that we have been doing since childhood, I well remember wagging days off school to go in the passenger seat with my dad or my uncle or anyone else who I thought I could learn about road haulage from. I was a very good learner as if someone was trying to show me how to do something I watched what they were doing, listened to what they told me and then tried to put it into practice, I did not always get everything right first time but I asked advice along the way and learnt from my mistakes. As for your ill informed taunt about my chances of getting paper to its’ destination dry shall we ring Fergusons at Kitty Brewster Quay, Blyth, Northumberland, as if I had tipped in that area I often rung them for a return load, they never had a problem with me taking paper out on my Leyland Clydesdale flat because I had the ability to sheet it and get it to its’ destination in the same condition that you or any of your drivers would have done, when my father was fetching cattle feed back from BOCM Trafford Park he used to take the sheets in the cab if it was raining on the way there, he also had an old sheet to put on the floor of the lorry to stop the paper bags soaking up the water off the lorry floor, these are the standards I have been brought up with, in fact I would have made a good driver for Bewick Transport don’t you think, I have various sized sheets from a 16’ by 10’ that I have had 24 years (that’s looking after your kit you see) to a couple of 30’ by 18’ mains and various sizes in between, if a rope on one of my sheets frays I splice a new length on, I like my sheets to be as good as the rest of the equipment I have at my haulage business, you do not seem to be able to accept the fact that your senior years does not give you an automatic right to ridicule anyone who is trying to make a good job of the same profession you were so good at. You could perhaps learn a little from your very good friend Mr. Dunbar ,who did make complimentary and encouraging comments about my sheeting, If I had taken pictures of all the loads I carried in the past I would proudly post them here for you and everyone else to see, but alas my camera did not do as many miles as my sheets or ropes. If you could have seen them you would be applying for an operators licence again so you could resurrect Bewick transport and employ me as a driver.
[/quote]
You should get a job as a copy typist “Commer” phew!,you don’t half seize onto the wrong end of the stick eh! I was only making an observasion about the type of load you had sheeted and the fact that it didn’t require sheeting over the headboard,and let me assure you I’m not “bitter” as you suggest,I like a good pint of “Bitter” though,maybe you’ll get the first round in if ever I meet up with you ! You are quite able to look after your gear “like a cake and an egg” which I compliment you on as I took the same care of my three sheets 45 years ago.However, in later years prior to me starting to re-equip the trailer fleet with Tautliners we had something like close to 200 flat trailers all with two mains and a fly,then we had a couple of ISO containers full of new sets,used repaired mains and flys and then a selection of life expired sheets for rough work !Our Shunter foreman and my-self managed all these sheets and the repairing and purchase of new,and no we were not plagued with heavy damage nor did we have any “wet claims” over the years.We bought poly rope by the coil and IIRC we got about 6X 90ft ropes out of each coil which were spliced into an eye at one end and bound and sealed at the other,6 ropes to a trailer and the drivers always had an extra couple.Happy days,Cheers Mr.Bewick.
MIKE P:
18 yrs old in my Merc 814 = KING OF THE ROAD
Nice tidy motor that, tidy sheeting too 
MIKE P:
Eeeeeeeeeasy one dennis 0
How low can you you go ! This is a shot of a McGuffie C/F widespread standing at Crooklands trailer park loaded with IIRC 20ton of Workington pig iron destined for Midland Roller makers at Crewe,a regular job we did.The trailer on the far side is another McGuffie loaded with 236 new 45 gal drums from Aintree en-route to Marchon (Albright & Wilson) at Whithaven.Cheers Dennis.
Dennis that load of drums, Was it from Victor Blagdens ?, Now called Blagdon Packaging I believe, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Dennis that load of drums, Was it from Victor Blagdens ?, Now called Blagdon Packaging I believe, Regards Larry.
They were from a firm called Brabys Larry who I believe where connected to Rheem Blagden,we used to do anything from 1 or 2 a day and as many as 4 aday when they were busy at Whitehaven,we worked direct for Brabys and also delivered loads to Ardrossan,Teeside,Dagenham and Fawley but mainly to Whitehaven which was fairly well rated traffic,they were a great firm to work for,Harry Thompson their production manager was a real Gent now sadly passed away.Cheers Dennis.
Retired Old ■■■■:
Clydesdale with 350 Leyland, Bewick? And would it have the 6-speed Albion overdrive box?
Sorry,only 1 out of 3 correct “ROF” !!Doh! It was a little Chieftain,4 cyl Albion engine and 6 speed O/D box and Albion HR axle,great little motor but got down plated to about 12 ton GVW at first MOT so it had to go 
Cheers Bewick.
Now why didn’t I spot it was a Chieftain?!?!
We had one and I have to say it performed faultlessly for the best part of 15 years. I had occasion to drive it while the regular driver was on the sick list for a while. The only fault I could find was that I could still hear that 4-pot’s engine note when I went to bed at night.
I remember your comments about engine lube a while ago- when we took delivery of our Albions (all with 350 Leylands, except the little Chieftain) they came with a “deal” from the agents to supply BP Viscostatic oil at a knock-down price. Apparently, BP had tried to persuade Leyland that their Visco oil was as good for commercials as it was for cars but Leyland were looking for proof before they would recommend it. This was certainly born out in practice as there were an absolute zero in engine problems throughout the lives of all the Albions.
Hi, Folks , 80 percent of our traffic was paper reels and sheet ,we had to sheet over the headboard even if it was sheet and on pallets ,Then when empty had to sheet the deck rain
or shine ,We had special ground sheets made for the job ,a bit of usless info ,Cheers Barry
The Cheiftain only ran on 8 stud wheels hence the down rate to 12 ton, the Clydesdales ran on 10 stud wheels. I think the later Cheiftain’s had the Leyland 375/400 engine.
If I had bothered to count the wheel nuts I wouldn’t have looked such a pillock 
Retired Old ■■■■:
If I had bothered to count the wheel nuts I wouldn’t have looked such a pillock
And I wouldn’t have come across as an anorak mentioning it 
Lawrence Dunbar:
0
That’s a nice job Larry but having the right sheets is a big help. We had all sorts of pillocks in the office ordering sheets without even knowing what loads we carried !
I managed to persuade one boss I had to let me order my own sheets. Caused a bit of bother in the “finance department”, (boss’s wife) but at least I had sheets I could work with.