Hi guys,
I ve just seen some pictures on e bay of J A Wilkinson vehicles pulling Bairds malt tipper trailers ,i know Derek Cooper Transport were doing this work before they packed up , anybody know what happened to Wilkinsons? Did coopers purchase them ?
Wilkinson retired in the 80’s, the yard at Hatfield Peverel is now a housing estate. His son Graham went on to be an o/d and ended up running up to 7 motors on traction and contract work for Cundell Corragated, these being 6 Fodens and a Scania 112m. Graham was forced to shut up shop after being owed a massive amount of money by City transport and not getting a penny when they went to the wall. His brother Robin started his own mobile commercial repairs buisness which he successfully ran until he sadly passed away in 2012. He shared a workshop with Graham which they rented along with yard space fom Heavyhaul chelmsford Ltd (formerly A J Dyke & Son) before moving to near-by workshop in Pools Lane, Highwood.
S J Beckwith also done a fair amount of Bairds Malt work with his fleet of Crusaders, this must of been around the same time that Wilky finnished up and Coopers started. Not sure who does the Bairds work now, i think it might be Bartrums.
Graham Wilkinson ironicly went on to be a fork-lift driver at the packaging firm he pulled for, and i believe he is now a distribution manager there.
Chris.
Hi straight eight ,
Thank you for the detailed reply , looks like coopers purchased some of Wilkinsons old volvo F7 's to do the Bairds malt work then…
Think they fitted in well with Coopers fleet, he liked an F7 as i remember. My mate Johny Kingsford used to drive a 16 speed F7 for Coopers in the 80s, plated up at 38ton 
. I remember Cooper’s putting a few Ford Cargo units into Bairds colours, not sure wether they had the 250 or 290 L10. See Coopers about alot, runs mostly DAF XF and CF’s now, still does alsort’s, boxes, brick n block, scrap and general bulk haulage and the motors still look smart.
welcome to the info roadcruiser, glad to help.
Chris.
Hi straight eight,
I m led to believe there were around 20 cargos ( approx 3 in bairds malt livery )and 20 volvos FL10 that entered service around the same time - F registration , the Volvos were around for a lot longer than the ford cargos though…
Derek cooper sold up to Turners (tankers), and Matthews (curtainsiders) …
The DCT vehicles running around currently( XF/CF Dafs ) are a more recent venture, but operated by the late Derek coopers son , they are based at Risby in the old O J H Smith yard ,-as you say they seem to do a lot of scrap work…
Incidentally there are currently some pictures of the Bairds malt volvo’ s for sale on e bay…