Mercury was LK(O 350?)F, which sounded like a London bus which made it easily identified from round the corner. Not sure of the ERF’s reg no (WKR?). Both were painted up around 1974/5 before being sent to the then Northern depot at Charcon buildings factory in Newark, where there were possibly a couple of other vehicles. Richard Harris had the ERF before he moved south to live at Spelmonden. I drove the Mercury for a week while mine was in for MOT and took a load of hops to Newark? or somewhere nearby and reloaded concrete for I think Morpeth, then back into Charcon Hulland Ward for slab or kerbs back south.
lawrence2765:
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.0
That air intake on a 7.5 ton Cargo is very rare. Nice pic, thanks for posting 
EKO 798T and TKR 54OX both parked up in the hops marketing board yard.
EKO 798T was new to rochdale depot and finished its days back down in paddock wood.
TKR 54OX was based in paddock wood all its working life it was new to george waghorn,who came to work from the company after leaving the hops marketing board as a warehouseman,TKR 540X was the last b series tractor unit purchased by the company and finished its last days at paddock wood as a local shunter and also doing local farm collections with a short tautliner trailer,both EKO 798T and TKR 54OX both had the gardner 240 engine fitted.
Does anyone know why RKJ 160M has its towing jaw protruding through the front apron panel and did not have the standard heavy duty front crossmember with towing facility. A recent photo at Glamis Castle Rally appeared on Flickr recently and the question has been asked.
Can anyone help.?
Cheers Leyland 600
J71 OKO fleet no 71 erf e14 with the 365 ■■■■■■■ and samt gearbox.This was a Paddock Wood based motor and new to Martin kemp always known for doing a first class job and always looking after the motor keeping it mint condition.
Obviously at a rally or some sort of promotional event of which i dnt have a clue!
Leyland600:
Does anyone know why RKJ 160M has its towing jaw protruding through the front apron panel and did not have the standard heavy duty front crossmember with towing facility. A recent photo at Glamis Castle Rally appeared on Flickr recently and the question has been asked.
Can anyone help.?Cheers Leyland 600
Scroll back to page 3 of the thread where there is a picture of the lorry in Henley days. Unlike 180 M, Dennis Mills’ sister vehicle, 160 was never meant to pull a trailer so had the standard towing eye. Not long after delivery it was fitted with a Henley style double bumper.
Thanks for the information cav 551.
Cheers Leyland 600.
JSU 177 the companys old breakdown truck,this was on the preservation scene at one time then left to become in a very sad state.
Its now been purchased by the companys former workshop foremans grandson
it will be interesting to see how restoration is coming along,i feel sure the restorers grandfather dave colvin the former workshop foreman would be able to tell us some stories about this old girl.
I do remember Roy Hook telling me he had to go down to cardiff one night to receover a broken down vehicle and he wondered if he was ever going to get there!
lets hear some stories on recovering some of the broken down lorries on the henley fleet and any pictures would be a great bonus!
Hi,
Thanks for posting the photos of the Matador and all the comments about Henley Transport, it’s very interesting to read!
The lorry is still off the road unfortunatley, but the engine is slowly coming along and should be back in the lorry this winter (fingers crossed)
I will keep you all informed!
Regards,
Henry
ransomesmg6:
Hi,
Thanks for posting the photos of the Matador and all the comments about Henley Transport, it’s very interesting to read!
The lorry is still off the road unfortunatley, but the engine is slowly coming along and should be back in the lorry this winter (fingers crossed)
I will keep you all informed!
Regards,
Henry
Glad you are enjoying the thread henry.
Hope your grandad is well,I bet he can tell a few stories on the matador.
Good luck chris lawrence
Hi Chris,
Yes he certainly does and has told me some stories about the Matatdor, especially ones where people have asked where he’s been all that time when he’s had to go and pick up broken down lorries!
I hope to have it running this winter and then bring to a few shows!
Regards
Henry
lawrence2765:
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.0
C430vdo made th national news on night when it met its demise early hours one morning.
It set off from paddock wood early one morning with a full load of french golden delicous apples on board for our customer richard hochfeld ltd destined for crs at high bridge in somerset.
The driver neville powers ran up the back of an 8 wheeler crane,he nodded off whilst on the m4,we lost the whole lot in the fire unit trailer and load,the motor way was closed and once the remains were removed there was a major resurfacing job to be done.
Neville came out of it all ok,when jack heard his response straight away was how’s the driver,so he wasn’t all bad unlike a director and unit graduate who wanted to sack neville immediately,sometimes words fail me!!!
The ironic thing about the accident was that the crane belonged to a company called pg transport,whose base was in five oak green the very next village out of paddock wood on the way to tonbridge
I did a 6 month spell for Henley. I was living in Lamberhurst at the time so only took me 20 mins to get to the yard. It was just a fill in job for me till I got European work again. I remember the feller who did the truckwash in the yard but his name escapes me at the moment. Smashing bloke. He used to be on the dustcarts and he lived in Sidcup. Jack was a good guvnor. Chatted to him on many occasion when he was in the yard. Always had time for a chat with his drivers. He gave youngsters a chance that had just passed their test. He was fair in that way. Didn’t go much on the job though. Sitting for hours in the tea room then you went out all round the farms collecting fruit for delivery to the supermarkets. I did a job down to Lyon though. Ran empty, yep, empty from Paddock Wood to Lyon to load new plastic fruit trays for a firm in Tranfesa but can’t remember their name. Just round the corner from Henley’s yard. Full load of trays only went abount 6 ton…!! Think I only filled up just the once…!! Had an ERF with a tiny stick and you just kept pushing it forwards to change through the gears. Wierd thing it was but good fun to play with. Happy days eh…■■
witty:
I did a 6 month spell for Henley. I was living in Lamberhurst at the time so only took me 20 mins to get to the yard. It was just a fill in job for me till I got European work again. I remember the feller who did the truckwash in the yard but his name escapes me at the moment. Smashing bloke. He used to be on the dustcarts and he lived in Sidcup. Jack was a good guvnor. Chatted to him on many occasion when he was in the yard. Always had time for a chat with his drivers. He gave youngsters a chance that had just passed their test. He was fair in that way. Didn’t go much on the job though. Sitting for hours in the tea room then you went out all round the farms collecting fruit for delivery to the supermarkets. I did a job down to Lyon though. Ran empty, yep, empty from Paddock Wood to Lyon to load new plastic fruit trays for a firm in Tranfesa but can’t remember their name. Just round the corner from Henley’s yard. Full load of trays only went abount 6 ton…!! Think I only filled up just the once…!! Had an ERF with a tiny stick and you just kept pushing it forwards to change through the gears. Wierd thing it was but good fun to play with. Happy days eh…■■
Sounds like you had one of the Erf E14 tractor units with the sat gearboxin.
Doesn’t surprise me at all of silly things being done and no one keeping jack in the loop but that was how the board of other directors wanted to work,obviously trying to impress the new owners to be
wrm.
With the company operating like this and the looming takeover by wrm I decided to resign after being approached by another haulier looking for a transport manager,during my last month I was forced to hand over my international folder with contacts in etc to the ex uni graduate,new director,a large company I worked with on a reciprical basis was hargraves at spading and they refused to deal with him,that took the wind out of his sails
B180 YKK fleet no 18 allocated new to brian penfold at paddock wood depot.
Seen here copupled to a 40ft boalloy tautliner trailer but the make of trailer escapes me at the moment,here displayed on the front bulk head of the trailer bodywork are a couple of boards displaying customers who the company worked for the first one being Macks of Paddock wood the main customer and the other being Foreign and Home Roadways,which was a company part owned by Henley transport co ltd,Alan Firmin of linton and Louis reece of horsmonden,it basically acted as a seperate company and all the work was divided between the 3 companies.
DKL 716T Seddon Atkinson 400,This was one of 8 400 series tractor units ran by the company and the second sleeper cabbed one.
As seen here it had a bit of a birthday with the usual facelift given to it of a 01 series name plate.
This one 716t fell out of sink with the fleet numbering system and was fleet no 33.
Erf E6 4 wheeler with a Boalloy Insuliner body,this was the second Erf E6 purchased by the company.
It was used for collecting from local farms for onward transhipment onto the artic fleet,then come late afternon early evening it would do a delivery to a local rdc possibly Sainsburys at Allington,Charlton or Hackbridge or to Tesco at snodland.
This was allocated to Dave Palmer from Spelmonden (Goudhurst depot) whose previous vehicle was a 7.5t Ford Cargo,Dave was specifically put through his hgv test for this vehicle,its reg was E330 WKP and was fleet no 33.
The photo was taken on the Paddock Wood distribution centre where over the years the company had many customers based on here,the likes of Del Monte,Pascual Fruit Imporers,Bryboard and compagnie fruitiere.
In the early 1980s the company tried Leylands for the very first time in the form of Leyland Roadtrain tractor units.
The first being KKM 688V new to Reg Greenfield and the second as shown RKL 370W new to Ron Green,both Paddock Wood based drivers,both units were the same 16.28 both with the rest cab as opposed to full sleeper,the company wasnt too impressed with their performance no more Roadtrains came into the fleet and they were soon moved on.
RKL 370W shown here coupled here to a flat trailer one of only a handful run by the company , by this time all produce had to be moved on curtainside vehicles.
Any general haulage work on flats had helped the company over the years to help out with the peaks and troughs of the fruit seasons,but as means of transport improved it meant more fruit came into the country from the continent,so as one season finished another would kick in,this seemed to be a constant cycle which worked well.
The company in its later days chose to favour two manufacturers for maximun weight tractor units,those being ERF and MAN,SEDDON ATKINSON fell by the wayside.
The most popular with the drivers by far were the MANS,below is F530 GKL this was one of two f90 models to join the fleet in 1989 the other being F110 GKL.
The fleet numbers being of course no 53 and no 11,F530 was new to the late Richard Harris,this was his fourth MAN unit,the others being the first to come home FYJ 870V,FKP 250Y and also A130 RKR.F110 was new to Brian Penfold,his previous MAN being B180 YKK.
At this period of time the favoured trailers were Pactons with Boalloy Insuliner bodywork.
J120 MKE was the second Ford Cargo on contract hire to long standing customer Norman Collett Ltd of Paddock Wood,the first being F120 CKR (both were fleet no 12).
Ford was the favoured make of 7.5 tonners that the company ran and virtually all of them were purchased from Haynes of Maidstone.
The vehicle would have been used for local deliveries to wholesalers and delivering empty trays and packaging out to the various packhouses on farms,then also used on numerous farm collections.
Norman Collett ltd started off in the old Henley Transport Co Ltd yard in Hop Pocket Lane in Paddock wood,then when we moved round to the new yard situated off Transfesa Road in Paddock Wood they took over the whole off the old yard.
Nowadays Norman Collett Ltd has thrived very well and they are now in purpose built premesis in Transfesa Road in Paddock Wood.
