Hello all
Im a Truck enthusiast and im after views of Louis Reeces trucks,they were based at Horsmonden,Kent in the 70s & 80s and im desparate for shots of there trucks,this is my last hope as ive tryed ebay sellers and Flickr and with no joy,somebody somewhere must have some pictures they would like to share with me and all the other members who have a interest in Kentish Operators.
jetliner:
Hello all
Im a Truck enthusiast and im after views of Louis Reeces trucks,they were based at Horsmonden,Kent in the 70s & 80s and im desparate for shots of there trucks,this is my last hope as ive tryed ebay sellers and Flickr and with no joy,somebody somewhere must have some pictures they would like to share with me and all the other members who have a interest in Kentish Operators.
Sorry jetliner,no photos of Louis Reece but I remember Glass Glover Distribution bought them out in the 80s. One of their drivers transferred to Maltby,name of Dave Pike. Of course his nickname was “don’t tell 'em”. 
Hi jetliner is this the company you are looking for? photo on Bob Hobbs Site transportphotos.com/road/photos
My mates dad worked on there for years until they packed up. He had a Volvo F86, then an F7, and a Mercedes, and finally a new F10. Why the interest in Reeces then jetliner, did you work for them?.
Hi all, That must be a picture of the first curtain side trailer made by Boalloy Tautliner I do believe they had the first one and “it is” in a transport museum in the north west somewhere,the late Colin Ashby told me this info, so I do believe it maybe true.Paul
Mark R:
My mates dad worked on there for years until they packed up. He had a Volvo F86, then an F7, and a Mercedes, and finally a new F10. Why the interest in Reeces then jetliner, did you work for them?.
Thanks for that info,my interest stems from a man who lived near me when i was kid and he drove a volvo f12 and he has sadly passed away and as im collecting images from other kent haulage firms i would try and collect this operator as well but ive hit a brick wall with pictures of Louis Reeces.
volvo f86 sitting in the yard at horsmonden in kent.
a few names from the old days at reeces were jimmy savage,his son paul,colin botting,paul clifton,jimmy steward,dan hedges and of course not forgetting pedlar!
Thanks for the picture,funny as “PEDLAR” is the man that I knew,sadly he passed away several years ago but his family still live close to my parents home so they have loaned me a couple of photos from there collection of family images.Once again thanks for the image.
lawrence2765:
volvo f86 sitting in the yard at horsmonden in kent.
a few names from the old days at reeces were jimmy savage,his son paul,colin botting,paul clifton,jimmy steward,dan hedges and of course not forgetting pedlar!0
pedlar was an old school driver he was on reeces for many years.he and my father knew each other quite well as my father used to drive for henley transport so their paths quite often crossed,and he always called my father beardie
I remember l reece well ,pedlar used to be over sheerness docks loading fruit ,he had his name plate on the front of the f86,i wonder if anyone can confirm that the f10s /f12s i think they were f10s[ not sure on that one] were day cabs, they would have been A reg if i recall .they must of packed in the transport around 1985 ,but they still had a stand in new covent garden market for many years after this.
Yeah, they were A reg F10 sleeper cabs Trev. The next ( and last ) trucks were C reg Scania P112s with tag axles.
If you remember, the second batch of Volvo F10s were left white not the traditional two tone grey.
Was ’ Pedlar’ a rather large gentleman, always smart ( possibly war brases ) real name Fred Mills?. It seems to ring a bell…
Yes thats right,“PEDLAR” was a very smart large bloke,he drove a Volvo F86 then a F7 and then A122PKN a F10 twin-steer.
Mark R:
Was ’ Pedlar’ a rather large gentleman, always smart ( possibly war brases ) real name Fred Mills?. It seems to ring a bell…
i worked for louis reece in 1973 74 i was only 18 so not a driver then i remember there wagons well im sure i worked with a big felle and i think his name was fred but cant remember his second name i think he was staying in the pub just out side the gates but he worked stacking the boxes of apples i dont think he was a driver but i only stayed there six months then moved on so maybe he was and went on the wagons after
I think I can shed some light on the matter of the very first Tautliner trailer, the by-product of discussions between Louis Reece (Kent) and Gerald Broadbent of Boalloy.
Background - Louis Reece Ltd was a major importer and distributor of fresh fruit, with their head office being in Commercial Street, London. They had a number of branches within the UK, operating out of Spitalfields and the old Covent Garden, plus Louis Reece (Kent), Louis Reece (Hull), Louis Reece (Liverpool), Louis Reece (Midlands) - covering both Birmingham and Wolverhampton fruit markets, and Louis Reece (Northern) - formerly Owen Owen (Wigan) Ltd, based on the fruit market at Wigan.
Louis Reece (Kent) at Horsmonden consisted of a fruit packhouse together with cold stores, and was the base for their southern transport operation. The Managing Director was Barney Underwood, the Transport Director was Tony Pomeroy, and the Transport Manager was John Keene.
I joined the group at Louis Reece (Northern) at Wigan in March 1972 as General Manager. We also had cold stores and a packhouse, and our own small fleet of vehicles. At that time this first tautliner trailer (single axle, 24 or 28 footer) was part of our fleet at Wigan - I think it had been transferred up to us from Horsmonden. It continued to be so until we were approached by Boalloy with a proposal - for the purposes of an exhibition they wanted to take it back, and convert one half of it up to the then modern-day standards, and leave the other half as it was originally constructed. After the exhibition they would convert the “old” half, and give us back an updated trailer. This would be free of charge, the only condition being that when we had finished with the trailer we would give it back to Boalloy and they would placed it in a Transport Museum.
At Wigan we had a driver’s sleeping room, which had been constructed to accommodate drivers from Kent when they were bringing fruit up to us from either the docks or English fruit from the packhouse - Louis Reece was the marketing agent for Checkers - a Kent apple growing co-operative. “PEDLAR” was a frequent visitor to Wigan.
Louis Reece was taken over by Glass Glover in late 1984/early 1985, and in January 1987 I moved south to become General Manager of their Harlow Distribution Centre. In May 1990 Glass Glover closed down their entire fresh produce business, but continued to operate their Glass Glover Distribution business (third party logistics).
I hope this information proves of interest to those making enquiries about Louis Reece. posting.php?mode=reply&f=35&t=82769#
Hello, I am Ray Smyth, I have only recently discovered Trucknet,and very pleased to find a thread for Louis Reece. From early 1970
and for 3 years,I was a driver for Robert Baillie Transport (Portsmouth),based at their Wigan depot. Delivering Guernsey Tomatoes
to Louis Reece was a regular job,also to Conroy Bros,and Peter Conroy. During 1971,it may have been 1972,Robert Baillie Transport
had an arrangement with Louis Reece for the distribution of the tomatoes. Depending which journey you were given to do,you could
have a Baillies Atkinson Unit with a Louis Reece trailer,or a Louis Reece Volvo F86,with a Baillies 40ft flat trailer,or sometimes a
complete Louis Reece unit and trailer. I remember Raz Owen(RIP) very well at Wigan Fruit Market. Pleased to see the Louis Reece
truck/trailer pictures. I probably drove both of them at some time. In 1978,I started my own small transport business,and during the
80s I would occasionally do a bit of subcontracting from what had become Glass Glover,e.g. “What is your Transit box van doing after
you have had your tea, 2 pallets of pears need to be in Glasgow by midnight”. Cannot remember the mans name who give me the work.
Regarding the first Boalloy Tautliner, I needed a curtain sided trailer,no longer than 30ft,I knew that the 28 ft trailer at Louis Reece,Wigan
was not used much and I was keen to buy it for my work with Rank Hovis delivering to bakers shops,hospitals,prisons,etc from 1979
until 1997. When I tried to buy it,the arrangement with Boalloy at Congleton was already underway, the first ever " Tautliner ".
Kind Regards, Ray Smyth. raysmyth6644@gmail.com
I remember Louis Reece had a Stall in old Covent Garden.
we used to park in King Street To load up wen i was a Trailer Boi for Hottot Transport,Devon.
Broads transport of Plymouth used to park up there,& also Fyffes of Torquay,&FJ Marquand of Cornwall.
Norman Croad,Torquay.
Stumbled across this site whilst trying to find more information about ‘Margetsons’ a fruit importer in the centre of the village which was subsequently taken over by Louis Reece who had their London operations in both Covent Garden and Spitalfields.
My mum worked at both companies in the packhouse and my dad John Freeman was a driver for Reece’s. He was one of one of the best loaders of boxes of fruit in the country!! They had a new fleet of Leyland Comets both flat and bull nose. My dad had a flat nose beauty TXV 105 had a great sound. I used to go with him time permitting all over the country with many trips to the London and Dover docks and also to Bootle.
I remember Brian Mills (Pedler) mentioned earlier also Peter Dann, Peter Isaacs, Jimmy Savage mentioned earlier, there was ‘cheyenne’ and his younger brother, Ted Stanley, Fred? Tickner, was there Jimmy Jupp?, the main mechanic I think was called Charlie. I can’t remember other drivers for the moment. I knew Barney Underwood the depot manager, he had a son Michael and the owner from the London operation was Wally Olins. My dad used to do a bit of chauffeuring for Wally and Barney.
Ted Saunders was the manager when it was Margetsons.
Happy days!!
Hello Pathfinder48,Welcome to Trucknet. I am fairly new to Trucknet,having found it only last year…
I found the Louis Reece thread by chance as I was trawling through “Old Time Lorries” thread.
You may have read my post on there. I would like to see some more pictures of Louis Reece vehicles.
Kind Regards, Ray Smyth.
