Henley transport co ltd remember them?

[richardharrisson]

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Re: henley transport co ltd remember them ?
by cav551 » Mon Jan 09, 2012 7:00 pm

Chris, am I right in thinking that the boat came in at Newhaven? Also I can’t remember the name of the original driver of SYF. I know he was based at Goudhurst and would have been about 30 then . Tall, thin guy with dark curly? hair and a very pleasant and mild- mannered character. Would he have been another Richard?

Also I can’t for the life of me recall what the fridge trailer was first used for, was it hanging meat to Turners?
cav551
SENIOR MEMBER

Who knows me, what a surprize, memories bought back to life, just been directed to this website, just great, now can I add my piece please.
In 1969/70 went for many a ride in a blue bedford TK artic which was mack & edwards but Henleys used it, driver was Arther Rivers, he eventually went on the cyder run with the mandator and short base tipper to Taunton, he then left to go on Lowes, I still went with him then to Krefeld, then in 1971 I was the 1st to take and pass the new HGV test on Charles Arkcoll at Maidstone, soon after in that same year started on Henleys at Spelmonden, I was just 21, my 1st morning was loading up in the lorry shed, KKJ290E, never roped & sheeted by myself before but helped by other drivers, I set off to Nottingham, that was the longest day of my life but the beginning of a career I’m still in.
Had the cattle box on KKJ a few times and also on the commer, Percy Henley used to come with me to the Romney Marsh farms early in the morning, load up sheep and take them to Maidstone market.
After a year or so I got married (and still am to the same wife) and Jack let me have the No 2 cottage in the yard at Spelmonden for .50p a week, lived there for about 2 years then as I progressed I had FKL100D then went on the cyder runs with the tipper, and run along with the late Roy Pilbeam to Shepton Mallet, Hereford, Attleborough & Taunton and have bought back COAL to Woodcocks at Headcorn and ROAD STONE which went for the rail tracks at the transfesa.
Soon after SYF400N came home with a new tank, I had that from new, yes we loaded sherry at Newhaven to L G at Maidstone, also used it for distilled water into Fords at Dagenham, then the fridges came and I had one of them, we run out of 4F’s at Dunton Green cold stores, (now Turners) to CO-OP shops all over the country.
Done a few trips with the trombone trailers to PeterLee with either Atcost or Tylers buildings.
Apart from those I did drive a few others, the drivers names that I can remember while I was there till about 1976 were, Lofty, Sooty, Alan Olive (my best man) Nipper Baker, Jimmy Hopkins, Roy Pilbeam, Alec Hay, Harry Penells, Rex Sharman, Roy Pod, Brian Goldsmith, Robin Parr, Nicky Woodman who put me onto this site, there was Roy Hook & Frank Martin in the office and many more, OH what memories.
Also I believe 3 of us were the 1st to go abroad on Henleys, Nicky Woodman, Alec Hay and myself went from Felixstowe to Rotterdam and onto Amsterdam I believe, we took oranges and I had Louis Reece trailer, picture of me with SYF at Rotterdam.
Anyone remember me, I hope so.
Richard Harrisson
Hope I can get my few photos that I have on here.

[richardharrisson]

My last few photos.

[cav551]

Hello Richard,

Good to hear form you -so I was right after all it was a Richard who had SYF from new.

Sent you an email through the forum. Keep your elbows in!

[punchy_dan]

i dont remember henley transport but f40ckr is on ebay and f410ckr is on my back garden

[leyland600]

Since selling RKJ 160M to a friend in Aberdeenshire in July 2011 the wagon has now had a makeover adding a white roof a tradition amongst hauliers in North East Scotland and relettered with the new owners name but has kept my company main colours.
Cheers , Leyland 600

[lawrence2765]

thanks very much richard for sharing your photographs with us on the thread they are real classics.
its shows from your contribution and also your own time with the company how diverse the work was in the 70s,as opposed to mytime 80s-90s when we purely concentrated on fresh produce out and soap powder back (even in fridge boxes)
the fleet colour jack was always ribbed about,but his response was you wont forget us!
as seen in your photos richard syf 400n and ckp 250k the paintwork when new looked good but give it time to fade and it looked sad!!

[cav551]

Several of Richard’s photographs are taken at the bottom of the yard at Spelmonden. Picture 7 of CKP 250K
has the shed with the hop picking machine in the backgound. The diesel pump would be to the right of the photographer and the vehicle would be almost lined up to enter the back door of the lorry shed.

In picture 8 the lorry remains in the same place and I think the end of the diesel tank is just visible on the extreme right. In the backgound is the trailer park, which would be the scene of many a disappointing Monday 8am start. Any drivers about at that time would be put to work by Jack washing trailers. There usually would be no excuse accepted that one’s own lorry needed washing - that was to be done after all the trailers were washed. Paddock Wood was certainly the centre of everything and when things were quiet you could be left at Goudhurst all day unless you rang the traffic office to remind them you were still about. It would generally be just about the time when you were thinking about having something to eat round about midday, when the Tannoy would go, with a phone call for you to go and load for a 2am or midnight start.

Also of note, is the use of side sheets (neatly done too) on one of those widespread tandems which could play tricks when there was no power steering. Many of the pictures show the old style headboard in black and white and also 100D is in the earlier livery with black chassis.

250K was written off somewhere on the M27 about 1976 I think. Richard will probably recall the name of the driver who took it over from him. Shortish guy with ginger hair and a beard, also from Spelmonden.

In some ways it felt like three different companies at times: Spelmonden, Paddock Wood and Chartham. We hardly ever saw any one from Newark or later from Rochdale when that depot opened.

[tyreman]

As mentioned above F40CKR is on ebay. (Search for ERF E 14 Twin steer tractor unit). Looks like the seller bought it for restoration but doesn’t have time. Starting bids at £3000.00. Ends today 8pm

[lawrence2765]

sorry to say people but nothing has gone on with this thread for several months now,so its time to get going again please feel free to post photos or comment and of course please enjoy.
heres a picture of 3 of the 7.5 tonners ran by the company 1 x d series dko 720t and the first two ford cargos to join the fleet wke 63x and ckj 21y,these were just used as feeders to collect fruit from the local farms to be loaded onto the artics

[tyreman]

Hi Chris good to see you have found a way to keep control over the pictures. Does this mean there are more from Jack Henley’s photo album to come?

[mark_r]

If you get a chance, check out the latest issue of ‘Classic Truck’ magazine. I used a photo of one of Jacks Seddon Atkinson 400s in an article I wrote about Kent hauliers. Part two in the next issue.
MR.

[lawrence2765]

kkj 290e an atkinson 4 wheeler with the gardner 100 engine.
here it is parked up in the lorry shed at spelmonden near goudhurst in a mothballed state after being taken out of service,it remained in this state for many years.
kkj 290e made it onto the rally scene but does anyone know of its whereabouts now?

[lawrence2765]

The seddon atkinson 401 tractor units originally came home as 4 x 2 tractor units.
all were converted to 6 x 2 units with the exception of uko 440x (fleet no 44) this was the only one fitedwith the 265 rolls engine where as all the others were fitted with gardner engines.
xkj 490x (fleet no 49) was allocated to the rochdale depot driver and its regular driver was george parkinson,here it is photographed parked up in the hops marketing boards premesis at paddock wood.
The companies old paddock wood yard in hop pocket lane was rather small in comparison to the size of the fleet,and the company had an agreement with the hops marketing board that vehicles could be parked in their premesis over a weekend

[lawrence2765]

Photographed in the old scats yard at paddock wood (which the company owned) two erf c series day cabbed tractor units b240 vkj and b340 tkm these were two of the 3 paddock wood based trunk vehicles (the third being ckn 400y another c series erf).
these vehicles would normally run six nights a week two changing over in the west midlands and one changing over in the east midlands with the rochdale depot.
if my memory serves me right b340 tkm changed with b380 ukn,b240 vkj changed with b250 tkm and finally ckn 400y would change with ckn 410y and all of the three rochdale based tractor units were also erf c series

[tyreman]

lawrence2765:
Photographed in the old scats yard at paddock wood (which the company owned) two erf c series day cabbed tractor units b240 vkj and b340 tkm these were two of the 3 paddock wood based trunk vehicles (the third being ckn 400y another c series erf).
these vehicles would normally run six nights a week two changing over in the west midlands and one changing over in the east midlands with the rochdale depot.
if my memory serves me right b340 tkm changed with b380 ukn,b240 vkj changed with b250 tkm and finally ckn 400y would change with ckn 410y and all of the three rochdale based tractor units were also erf c series0

Having bought Sleeper cabbed Seddon Atkinsons and ERF B Series was there a reason for the day cabs on these vehicles, particularly with the work they were doing?

[lawrence2765]

tyreman:

lawrence2765:
Photographed in the old scats yard at paddock wood (which the company owned) two erf c series day cabbed tractor units b240 vkj and b340 tkm these were two of the 3 paddock wood based trunk vehicles (the third being ckn 400y another c series erf).
these vehicles would normally run six nights a week two changing over in the west midlands and one changing over in the east midlands with the rochdale depot.
if my memory serves me right b340 tkm changed with b380 ukn,b240 vkj changed with b250 tkm and finally ckn 400y would change with ckn 410y and all of the three rochdale based tractor units were also erf c series0

Having bought Sleeper cabbed Seddon Atkinsons and ERF B Series was there a reason for the day cabs on these vehicles, particularly with the work they were doing?

the drivers on the trunking work didnt require nights out,these units replaced older erf b series and seddon atkinson 400 day cabbed tractor units , there was at the time no worries about selling on day cabbed tractor units so it was a case of if it aint broke then dont fix it

[lawrence2765]

Another weekend photo of 4 erf b series parked up in the overspill facility of the hops marketing board in paddock wood.
Nearest is jko 725v a close look at the sign writing on the door henley transport co ltd and underneath international this was one of 2 or 3 vehicles which ventured over the water onto the continent driven by the late terry barden.
other vehicles are in order rkp 47w,okp 731r and jkk 120v,the last unit 120v was a rochdale based vehicle so chances are as it the photograph was in paddock wood over the weekend it most probably meant that it was down in kent for either service or mot.
The rochdale depots (the 1st at ensor mill and the 2nd at queensway) had no workshops so rochdale based vehicles that were due service or mot were ran down normally on a change over and one of the paddock wood based spare vehicles sent up then swapped over once he relevance maintenance had been carried out

[punchy_dan]

Apologies if this has already been mention but Jack told me the numbers in the registration plates were the last digits of the cab phone.

[lawrence2765]

Dan Punchard:
Apologies if this has already been mention but Jack told me the numbers in the registration plates were the last digits of the cab phone.

I think jack may have been getting a little tadge confused with the phone numbers being ■■■■■■■ to the relevent vehicle registration numbers.
In the last five years of the company being owned by jack it averaged 7 new vehicles a year,in my time of running the traffic i was there when the first mobiles first came in right up until the takeover by **** (you know what i am trying to say without swearing dennis) so ikt would not have been possible for the phone numbers to be ■■■■■■■ with the vehicle registration,as it was not always possible to tie up the fleet numbers with the registration numbers as has already been explained in an earlier post

[lawrence2765]

H35 BKP fllet no 35 an erf e14 with the 365 ■■■■■■■ and samt gearbox as can be clearly seen the company were staunch rha members and supporters and also very proud memers of the transport association which was in its time (dare i say it) an elite hauliers club