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
Has F40CKR surfaced in preservation yet ?
C420 VDO fleet no 42 seen here in Paddock Wood coupled up to the last flat trailer on the fleet being no 38.
I cant quite recall why these two were coupled up together as the flat would only by now have been used for delivering hops up to Bass at Sheffield or to Pinnacle Storage at West Hallam in Derbyshire for storage on behalf of Bass,as we were the designated haulier of hops for Bass brewery,George Waghorn was always the man who done the hops for Bass and he was never allocated C420 VDO.
George used to drive TKR 540X the last Erf B series and on the Henley made additional bumper bar (which a lot of people always remembered) displayed a sign saying Hops For Bass.
The ERF E series was the most puchased model of all ERFS that the company purchased
Here is a back end shot of the 2nd ERF E14 to join the fleet this being D650 JKR which was allocated to the Rochdale depot for day shunting and night trunking,this one D650 would change with D23 HKR at night this being the first ERF E14 to join the fleet being based at Paddock Wood .
Shown here at Paddock Wood when fairly new so possibly it may have been down for a service,as all Rochdale based vehicles would come down to Kent for servicing as there were no workshop facilities at Rochdale.
The company operated a total of 32 ERF E series,29 tractor units and 3 rigids
Chris, how many vehicles were there in the fleet altogether please? I had always assumed that there were somewhere between 35 and 50 during the 1970s. Did this change much with the shift to artics?
When the company sold out to the trio of !*■■? there would have been in the region of 65 to 70 vehicles in the fleet.
The amount of rigid vehicles woudl cetainly not have amounted to more than a dozen there was 3 ford cargo 7.5 tonners,one on contract to customer Norman Collett Ltd the other two in the henley transport fleet for awkward farm collection with restricted access,two ERF E8 4 wheelers with boalloy insuliner bodies,two second hand Leyland Freighters with fridge boxes another second hand purchase of en ERF E8 6 wheeler agian with a boalloy insuliner body,two Seddon Atkinson 301 6 wheeler rigids one with a boalloy tautliner body and the other with a boalloy insuliner body and finally two ERF EC8 6 wheeler fridge boxes.
the rest of the fleet was made up of maximum weight tractor units split between ERF and MAN there may have been an odd Seddon Atkinson still lurking about somewhere.
The company didnt have a high proportion of trailers i would say at the most 2 tractor units to 3 trailers but when december came along with a rather disturbing and manic upturn in business we would have already taken on 20 to 25 fridge boxes on hire for 4 to 6 weeks
For those of you who know Jack Henley and his love of cars,google Jack Henley Bentley,very interesting and very expensive!
The MAN 22.321 gave a very good reliable service to the company a total of 11 of these tractor units were ran ranging from A reg through to D reg.
Shown here is a saturday afternoon shot of the 2nd and 3rd ones to join the fleet being B170 YKK (Malcolm hobbs) and B180 YKK (Brian Penfolds)both of these vehicles were Paddock Wood based.
Did they ever suffer with the chassis cracking in front of the 2cnd steer?, as i remember a few hauliers did with these MANs. My mate drove a B reg 16.321 and it gave excellent service, not needing anything in the 4 years he had it, pulled like train up hill. The only thing he didnt like was the interior. Came to an unfortunate end and was rolled and written off, but the engine was transplanted into one of the company’s old 30.240 8 wheelers and is still going strong today being used on summer grain haulage, not bad for a 78 lorry!
I liked those old MANs, they were solid motors and well engineered (typicaly german), and looking at the sort of firms who ran them, they made a good reliable work horse.
Regards Chris.
I can remember about the only real problem we had with the older man tractor units ( from A reg through to D reg ) was a manufacturers recall of them ,this was for a cracked cylinder heads i believe we had not suffered ourselves with this defect.
The nearest main MAN dealer at the time was MV trucks at Croydon and we were supplied with a virtually brand new Man tractor unit on an E reg plate whilst all of our tractor units went in for the relevant work,other wise that particular model gave us brilliant service.
Fleet no 29 D290 NKP one of the tractor units recalled seen below on a saturday afternoon park outside the cold stores at head office in Paddock Wood , this had been repainted with the company name on the front in the new modern style(hated it badly) and with the traditional style signwriting on the doors.
The massive cold store was originally known as the B warehouse for the Hops Marketing Board at Paddock Wood,as the hop trade in this country dwindled the warehouse became surplus to the HMB requirements and Jack Henley purchased the warehouse and converted it to cold sores, i can remember we carried all the cold store panels up from bristol ourselves and it seemed to go on forever that job.
Anyone familiar with the Paddock Wood and Ledbury (Herefordshire) will know that there was a smaller warehouse in Ledbury of the Hops Marketing Board which was identical to main one in Paddock Wood but what with it being on a smaller scale it looked just like little brother.
Had some good nights out in Ledbury, all the Hopping drivers used to use the same pub.
Another saturday afternoon shot, D680 NKL fleet no 68 parked up in the old scats yard before it was made into the main lorry park.
D680 NKL went on the road in february 1987 and was new to Paddock Wood driver George Waghorn at the same time D690 NKL went on the road and was allocated to Rochdale based driver Ken Moran,both D680 NKL and D690 NKL were both on distance work,but after a couple of years they were allocated to night trunking both being based at their original depots and both changing over at night.
CKN 400Y the first ERF C series to come home along with the second CKN 410Y both were specced with day cabs as they were purposely purchased for the trunking operation between Paddock Wood and Rochdale with CKN 410Y being allocated to Rochdale depot.
lawrence2765:
CKN 400Y the first ERF C series to come home along with the second CKN 410Y both were specced with day cabs as they were purposely purchased for the trunking operation between Paddock Wood and Rochdale with CKN 410Y being allocated to Rochdale depot.0
Jack never wasted money on wider fly sheets than was necessary by the looks of that trailer 
Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
lawrence2765:
CKN 400Y the first ERF C series to come home along with the second CKN 410Y both were specced with day cabs as they were purposely purchased for the trunking operation between Paddock Wood and Rochdale with CKN 410Y being allocated to Rochdale depot.0Jack never wasted money on wider fly sheets than was necessary by the looks of that trailer
Brady,s had some fly sheet,s that narrow but they were
Mainly for sheeting the deck of the mt trailer. It was for
A firm in Liverpool they did news print for and the deck
had to be bone dry the fly sheet,s were yellow in colour.
Think the paper firm were called Brimbrose ■■?
Leyland 680:
Bewick:
lawrence2765:
CKN 400Y the first ERF C series to come home along with the second CKN 410Y both were specced with day cabs as they were purposely purchased for the trunking operation between Paddock Wood and Rochdale with CKN 410Y being allocated to Rochdale depot.0Jack never wasted money on wider fly sheets than was necessary by the looks of that trailer
Brady,s had some fly sheet,s that narrow but they were
Mainly for sheeting the deck of the mt trailer. It was for
A firm in Liverpool they did news print for and the deck
had to be bone dry the fly sheet,s were yellow in colour.
Think the paper firm were called Brimbrose ■■?
Bemrose,Frank,we used to deliver paper to them from Henry Cookes.Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
lawrence2765:
CKN 400Y the first ERF C series to come home along with the second CKN 410Y both were specced with day cabs as they were purposely purchased for the trunking operation between Paddock Wood and Rochdale with CKN 410Y being allocated to Rochdale depot.0Jack never wasted money on wider fly sheets than was necessary by the looks of that trailer
One thing about Jack there was never any question asked if something needed to be purchased for the job there was never a case of can we utilise this or turn that into something,the money was always there and no inquiry ever.
As far as the fly sheet is concerned i reckon theres a good possibility that the driver perhaps was caught out maybe and the flysheet was used to cover the top of the load and completly down the other side,what do you reckon dennis?
In the early 80s the company done very little flat work as all of the fruit had to go in tautliners (we only ran boalloys and no other manufacturers with their curtainsiders).
The last flat to come into the fleet was on 1st january 1981 and that was a Seddon Atkinson 300 rigid 6 wheeler with a 28ft flat body but within 12 months that was rebodied with a boalloy tautliner body.
We had a large amount of sheets must they were all folded up and many hadnt been used for years so it was also a pain for the driver because he would always have to sort through them which was obviously time consuming
The little red plastic flysheets suddenly appeared in 1975 or 76 - why? - I haven’t the foggiest; they certainly didn’t replace any old canvas tarpaulin flysheets sheets because there weren’t any. The trailers either had a front and rear sheet or 4 side sheets.The previous couple of years had however seen all the new sheets being delivered coloured red rather than the previous blue/green and those new ones for the trailers were full length and width; at least for the 40 footers (there were still several 38 footers and quite a few 33 footers then.)
The only coincidental events of that time would have been the foundation of Foreign and Home Roadways (Firmin, Henley & Louis Reece) and the start of the Luis Gordon Contract for Domecq sherry. Since neither of these really seem to have demanded flysheets, a guess would be that it had something to do with Hops; maybe there had been a rather large insurance claim for a load getting wet. It was always emphasised that very thorough sheeting was needed, trailers were to be left overnight in one of the lorry sheds if required the next morning for loading hops - to ensure that the floor didn’t get wet - and the floor on all away loads had to be sheeted-in to prevent spray coming through the floorboards. Any vehicle loaded with hops was always parked overnight under cover too. It was also true that if on local hops collecting from the farms, it was well known that there would be trouble if Jack saw you with an unsheeted load, however short the journey was going to be. By this time the sidesheets at least were getting very long in the tooth, so maybe that was the prompt.
However, when the red flysheets appeared there was considerable comment about whether someone had cocked-up, since not only were they not wide enough, but in the case of the rigids certainly, they were either far too long or too short as well. The attached ropes were a pain to begin with, since they also were miles too long so awkward to “get rid of the gash” and being of springy nylon, were difficult to prevent from working loose as they stretched.
In practice if the load overhung the body even slightly, then the top was either not covered; or at best, only just. The only loads I remember that they fitted perfectly were a handball return load of bathroom tiles from Poole or loads of tinplate from Velindre.
As said before, Jack always bought whatever was asked for. As has been commented on else where, Henley cornerboards were not two bits of wood and straps to hold them together , they were 2 or 3 mm aluminium angle and there was a box to put them in too on practically every lorry or trailer along with a box for the ropes and scotches etc.
To continue the theme of spending Jack’s money:
During the 1970s the lorries were normally kept for about 10 years and were a sought after purchase when sold. During that time both lorries and trailers would have been repainted probably twice. Second hand anything was virtually unknown, the only items I recall would be a cab for accident damaged vehicles that were being repaired ‘in house’, if the vehicle was elderly but still wanted, or parts cannibalised from fire-damaged vehicles. Otherwise it was new or reconditioned and it even if coming from a Factor it would be ‘Brand Name’ ; no cheapo rubbish. That doesn’t mean to say money was wasted, brake camshafts went to RyeArc welding to be built up and machined, Metaloc would be called in to stitch-up damaged cylinder blocks and alternator slip rings would be machined on the workshop lathe. Vehicles for sale would have legal, but older tyres fitted, but always, always, before viewing by the purchaser. There would be enough fuel in the tank to get the driver a sensible distance too.
Trailer sheets:
A common sight when drivers were changing empty trailers would be the swapping-over of sheets since the good ones on the trailer being dropped would naturally have become MY sheets!
C51 JFW one of two identical MAN tractor units to go on the road on 1st september 1985,this unit was new to Paul Newton a Spelmonden (Goudhurst) based driver,it came home with C50 JFW.
Seen here somewhere at a dreaded rdc coupled to one of the early and by now rather tired looking Boalloy Insuliner Crane trailers,i am glad to say that the curtains were replaced on this trailer.
It most definately wasnt uncommon for Jack to buy multiples of vehicles at a time,quite often two new vehicles would come home together and it has been known on several occasions for four vehicles to come home together.
Great working truck photos , keep them coming . 