G 867 reg this was a second hand purchase made by the company along with an identical rigid g863 reg.
Second hand purchases by the company were very rare indeed especially in the later years.
The vehicles were required in a hurry to fulfil a contract with a company called kentish garden ltd who specialised in selling soft fruit ie strawberries and raspberries etc to supermarkets and wholesale markets.
They supplemented the other rigid fridge lorries to collect the soft fruit from the farms for delivery to packhouses or to bring the fruit back into the paddock wood depot for load consoldation for deliveries to rdcs.
another job we undertook for kentish garden was to collect mid afternoon from 2 farms in the east peckham area and another at borough green and the load was ran up to taylor mann in glasgow market,we didnt normally do the wholesale markets for kentish garden but so called competitors were un reliable and the henley transport would always reach glasgow by 4am without fail
JKE 372V the second seddon atkinson 300 6 wheeler to come home.
Regular driver of this vehicle from new was the late bryan goldsmith from tonbridge,bryans regular work with this vehicle was delvering to wholesale fruit and veg markets throughout the country at night.
Bryans other previous vehicles were the aec marshal 6 wheeler tautliner kkl 600p and also the atkinson defender 8 wheeler flat mll 570l
Fleet no 38 H380 FKK this was a rochdale based motor originally used on journey work between lancashire and yorkshire down to the south east.
One of its regular drivers was scotsman george brown for quite a period of time george would run from rochdale depot on a monday morning with supermarket deliveries to the likes of bathgate,bells hill and cambuslang which originated from paddock wood.
George would stay in scotland all week with trailers being run up to him in the night and he would normally return to the rochdale depot on a saturday morning.
After a while what with the increased amount of scottish traffic from paddock wood and unable to find reliable subcontractors the decision was made to base 3 artics in carlisle,with 3 trailers run up from sunday night through to thursday night via the trunking system with rochdale depot for 3 carlise based daymen to do the deliveries in scotland and then reload the trailers for deliveries in lancashire or west yorkshire for the rochdale depot based day men
H380 ended up at Teynham and was painted in the WRM livery. It was driven by the late Terry Mount.
A sunday afternoon shot taken in the scats yard (which the company owned and later redeveloped) at paddock wood.
This would have been typical on a sunday afternoon with not many of the lorries in the yard as a lot of deliveries were made on sundays to sainsburys,tescos,waitrose,asdas and somerfields so most of the fleet would be out on the road,those left in the yard would have been the loaded night trunk lorries and the market lorries.
D290 nkp fleet no 29 was driven by malcolm hobbs who was a night man on a mixture of local and distance work,the seddon atkinson 401 was Uko 440x fleet no 44,this was the only seddon atkinson 401 tractor unit that wasnt converted to a 6 x 2 tractor unit.
Both units coupled up to boalloy insuliner trailers the one behind 440x being a crane chassis and the other being a pacton chassis the company found these trailers extremely versatile.
The company ran boalloy insuliners from an early stage and were also had a prototype trailer on long term demonstration,which i will try and source a photo off.
Periodically Jack henley would orgainise a professional photographer would be called in to photograph part of the fleet.
The photos session would normaly take place in the left hand side field leading down the drive into the company farm at spelmonden just outside goudhurst.
On this occasion the 9 man tractor units were photographed those being a130 rkr,b170 ykk,b180 ykk,c50 jfw,c51 jfw,c200 vdo,c390 vdo,c420 vdo and finally c430 vdo.
All of the tractor units were coupled up to boalloy insuliner trailers,and one of the photographs was used as a publicity shot for a supplement by boalloys to advertise their bodywork,the henley photograph appeared on the front cover.
Ford d series 0710 this was the last one purchased by the company after that came the ford cargo of which the company over the years ran a total of 9.
fleet no 15 (not 51 ) jke 510v was typical of all the d series and cargo tautliners,all had boalloy bodywork and all were short wheelbase with bodies that could carry 6 pallets and a small gap at the back.
Fleet no 42 C420 vdo came home one of a batch of 4 identical man 6x2 tractor units,the others being c430 vdo,c200 vdo and c390 vdo.
Despite being signwritten with the rochdale depot address on the door it was originally a paddock wood based vehicle driven from new by the late derek wells.one of dereks regular jobs was running out to spain and reloading back with produce for the mack organisation(later to become mack multiples)
Shown here coupled to a mack liveried gray adams fridge box,apart from the companies original 2 old silver fridge boxes all the others came from gray adams who were at the time the rolls royce of fridge boxes.
Wherever possible we always tried to keep a mack trailer behind a mack liveried unit but it wasnt always possible,when asked why a combination was split i always answered Well thats one of the ideas of articulation is it not? the person asking the question soon cleared off after that,even jack.
Was there a reason that the 6 C Reg MAN’s were all registered in Lincoln?
The other two man tractor units being c50 jfw and c51 jfw.
The six units were purchased through barry hempsalls man dealership at newark in notts,he also had another man dealership in grimsby as well as being a haulier and also a member of the road haulage association.
C420 VDO ended its days as the yard shunter here at Teynham. She looked a bit of a sorry state by the time she was disposed of when we purchased a ‘proper’ tug shunter.
Fleet no 32 Mow 302y this was the only seddon atkinson 401 with the gardner 300 engine.like most of the others it was converted to a 6x2 tractor unit.
seen here coupled up to one of the early boalloy insuliners and parked up in the old trailer park between the hops marketing board b warehouse and transfesa road in paddock wood.
This unit was allocated to the late derek wells and quite often ran to spain.
Would that be an 8LXCT or a 6LYT Chris?
cav551:
Would that be an 8LXCT or a 6LYT Chris?
I think it says 300 on the badge on the bumper.Bewick.
8LXCT-300, an early one at that. 6LYT was 320 and 350, was’nt available until 85 i think.
It was the 8 LXCT also the only sleeper cabbed erf c series GKR 310Y on the fleet also had the same engine fitted.
The 401 and the C series were pitched against the only and 2nd man unit on the fleet at the time FKP 250Y to see which of three would be best for 38t operation,the man came out first.
GKR 310Y was only ran for about six months at first when new,it then went back to erf at sandbach and was converted into a 6x2 unit,how true it is i am not sure but i heard many years ago that this was the prototype for the first erf c series 6x2 tractor unit.
It would be very interesting if someone could clear that matter up and let us know if it was true.
That could well be true Lawrence, i read somewhere that ERF seeded several 6x2 prototypes into large high-mileage fleets to evaluate steering geometary and suspension setups before the 38ton weight increase came in. I think Shell Oil had some lightweight pre production 6x4’s around the same time.
Sad to see the Henley fleet disapear, always thought they were a nice tidy fleet.
B340 TKM fleet no 34 an erf c36 model.
This was a paddock wood based rochdale trunk lorry driven on days by kevin fenner and peter tomlin on nights.
The company was running at 32 tonnes on trunks with rochdale depot until 1st august 1986 when the first two 6x2 erf e series units came home being D23 HKR being allocated to paddock wood and D650 JKR allocated to rochdale then the company started to run the trunking operation at 38 tonnes this was dictated by the weight of the loads generated from rochdale depot,being proctor & gamble,mcbrides and lever bros.
The second ford cargo to come home was CKJ 21Y fleet no 21,this was driven by peter brace from east peckham.
As you can see on the front bulkhead of the body a display board for mid kent growers this was a farming co-operative whose fruit was marketed by norman collett ltd of paddock wood a very well established and loyal customer of the company.
Other boards were used on vehicles most common being another delivery for the mack organisation,norman collett of paddock wood and also etasa.
Erf e14 D150 PKR,Fleet no 15,this was the first lorry the come home in the new mack livery (mack multiples the companies largest customer from the start and also at the end of the business).There was a total of 11 units come home with the mack livery along with a boalloy insuliner trailer,so the combinations wer matching,signwriting on the cab doors were still Henley Transport Co Ltd,Hop Pocket Lane,Paddock Wood,Kent.
The photo is taken in the old Paddock Wood yard in Hop Pocket Lane with the London to Dover railway line immediately behind the fence.
It was quite unusual for the company to run vehicles in customers livery,this was a demand issued to the company along with a 6% rate reduction made by irish operations director,i had many a dealings with the man and i cant put my thoughts or opinions on here without the use of bad language.
Many years ago in the 70s the comapny ran a couple of vehicles in the yellowand blue colours of charcons.i believe one was an Aec mercury rigid and the other was an Erf Lv tractor unit,i may be wrong if i am please correct me somebody.
