pathfinder48:
Lovely photo of the old bull nosed Comet.
Ray Smyth emailed me about this (thanks Ray) and thought I might have recognised the gent in the cab but I think this was taken before Reece’s opened up their operation in Horsmonden.
When Reece’s moved to Horsmonden during the early 60’s they brought down a lovely fleet of both the bull nosed and flat fronted Comets.
What a wonderful hum as they were idling.
My dad John Freeman, had a beautiful flat nosed Comet TXV 105.
I remember also TLN 104 and TLN 105.
The names for those two, Dennis Tickner and Joe Jupp from London ring a bell.
I think Ted Stanley also had another flat nosed Comet.
John Spicer (Cheyenne) and his brother drove the bull nosed models.
I was about 10 at the time (70 now) and dad took me all over the country in his pride of the fleet.
Happy Days!!
I think there must be more of these great photos around…
John Spicer now theres a name from the past he was one of my shunters on Henleys proper old school and a good old boy .
He would tip out A night trunk from Rochdale depot then reload in the afternoon for one of our famous overnight market runs he could have 6 or 7 collections which would equate to up to 14 or 16 drops so no easy task getting it right , if I ever gave him loading instructions with 2 spaces going spare on the trailer I would get the comment only half a load then , so I would sort out another 4 pallets to the comment of that’s more like it a challenge as if it wasn’t a challenge enough!
II have heard the Cheyenne mentioned before but we always referred to him as Lofty as that was his preference due to being about 6ft 4 I would say.
I remember one Saturday morning he took a load from Paddock Wood of soap powder to Tescos in Byfleet in one of the Erf E series with a 320 ■■■■■■■ he done it in 55 minutes, the days before speed limiters.
pathfinder48:
Lovely photo of the old bull nosed Comet.
Ray Smyth emailed me about this (thanks Ray) and thought I might have recognised the gent in the cab but I think this was taken before Reece’s opened up their operation in Horsmonden.
When Reece’s moved to Horsmonden during the early 60’s they brought down a lovely fleet of both the bull nosed and flat fronted Comets.
What a wonderful hum as they were idling.
My dad John Freeman, had a beautiful flat nosed Comet TXV 105.
I remember also TLN 104 and TLN 105.
The names for those two, Dennis Tickner and Joe Jupp from London ring a bell.
I think Ted Stanley also had another flat nosed Comet.
John Spicer (Cheyenne) and his brother drove the bull nosed models.
I was about 10 at the time (70 now) and dad took me all over the country in his pride of the fleet.
Happy Days!!
I think there must be more of these great photos around…
John Spicer now theres a name from the past he was one of my shunters on Henleys proper old school and a good old boy .
He would tip out A night trunk from Rochdale depot then reload in the afternoon for one of our famous overnight market runs he could have 6 or 7 collections which would equate to up to 14 or 16 drops so no easy task getting it right , if I ever gave him loading instructions with 2 spaces going spare on the trailer I would get the comment only half a load then , so I would sort out another 4 pallets to the comment of that’s more like it a challenge as if it wasn’t a challenge enough!
II have heard the Cheyenne mentioned before but we always referred to him as Lofty as that was his preference due to being about 6ft 4 I would say.
I remember one Saturday morning he took a load from Paddock Wood of soap powder to Tescos in Byfleet in one of the Erf E series with a 320 ■■■■■■■ he done it in 55 minutes, the days before speed limiters.
Worked with John from late 60’s to about 76 when we both worked for Mitchell and Robertson. Always known as Cheyenne, rarely John. He was a loader, one of the best. I remember on one occasion he had loaded soft fruit in our small Bedford box lorry and I had the job of delivering it. Started off in Spitalfields market then Borough market before heading out to Brentford. All was going well but with soft fruit you often had different size trays plus I had a load of mush in baskets. All very difficult to secure. I then had to complete my deliveries in Covent Garden. I backed into a bay by Central Avenue and opened the sliding door on the back of the lorry. What a mess. It looked like the whole load was shot. I tried to sort out the undamaged fruit but I reckon I lost about forty trays of strawberries and raspberries. I delivered the mush, shut the door on the rest and took the lorry back to the yard. Next day, with great trepidation I went to the yard late afternoon. Cheyenne was there. He gave me a right bolla-king. I made sure I double secured everything in the back of the lorry after that. I didn’t want to fall out with him again. He was a great bloke though and not just in stature.
pathfinder48:
Lovely photo of the old bull nosed Comet.
Ray Smyth emailed me about this (thanks Ray) and thought I might have recognised the gent in the cab but I think this was taken before Reece’s opened up their operation in Horsmonden.
When Reece’s moved to Horsmonden during the early 60’s they brought down a lovely fleet of both the bull nosed and flat fronted Comets.
What a wonderful hum as they were idling.
My dad John Freeman, had a beautiful flat nosed Comet TXV 105.
I remember also TLN 104 and TLN 105.
The names for those two, Dennis Tickner and Joe Jupp from London ring a bell.
I think Ted Stanley also had another flat nosed Comet.
John Spicer (Cheyenne) and his brother drove the bull nosed models.
I was about 10 at the time (70 now) and dad took me all over the country in his pride of the fleet.
Happy Days!!
I think there must be more of these great photos around…
John Spicer now theres a name from the past he was one of my shunters on Henleys proper old school and a good old boy .
He would tip out A night trunk from Rochdale depot then reload in the afternoon for one of our famous overnight market runs he could have 6 or 7 collections which would equate to up to 14 or 16 drops so no easy task getting it right , if I ever gave him loading instructions with 2 spaces going spare on the trailer I would get the comment only half a load then , so I would sort out another 4 pallets to the comment of that’s more like it a challenge as if it wasn’t a challenge enough!
II have heard the Cheyenne mentioned before but we always referred to him as Lofty as that was his preference due to being about 6ft 4 I would say.
I remember one Saturday morning he took a load from Paddock Wood of soap powder to Tescos in Byfleet in one of the Erf E series with a 320 ■■■■■■■ he done it in 55 minutes, the days before speed limiters.
Worked with John from late 60’s to about 76 when we both worked for Mitchell and Robertson. Always known as Cheyenne, rarely John. He was a loader, one of the best. I remember on one occasion he had loaded soft fruit in our small Bedford box lorry and I had the job of delivering it. Started off in Spitalfields market then Borough market before heading out to Brentford. All was going well but with soft fruit you often had different size trays plus I had a load of mush in baskets. All very difficult to secure. I then had to complete my deliveries in Covent Garden. I backed into a bay by Central Avenue and opened the sliding door on the back of the lorry. What a mess. It looked like the whole load was shot. I tried to sort out the undamaged fruit but I reckon I lost about forty trays of strawberries and raspberries. I delivered the mush, shut the door on the rest and took the lorry back to the yard. Next day, with great trepidation I went to the yard late afternoon. Cheyenne was there. He gave me a right bolla-king. I made sure I double secured everything in the back of the lorry after that. I didn’t want to fall out with him again. He was a great bloke though and not just in stature.
Just getting away from the thread I had both John Spicer and Norman Horsford (both ex Mitchell and Robertsons) working for me as shunters at Henley Transport.
The senior management would always make sarcastic comments to me about the amount of hours they used to book.
Considering the job they done it wasn’t a case of pull up put a full load on that’s the trunk loaded , it would be 6 0r 8 collections if not more in the Paddock Wood area could be loading for say up to 18 drops all different sorts of produce all different quantities that was quite a task, but never any shortages or damages on trailers either John or Norman loaded and they always liked to get another couple of pallets over the top on the load , so as far as I was concerned they got the job done and were spot on.
I never did tell the senior management about the extra pallets going on the trailers when they made room for them by stacking up which far outweighed the hours that they booked as they would have only expected them to get even more on !
From the Paul Gee photos page, here’s a page from the Volvo F86 brochure that shows a couple of Louis Reece F86’s, bottom left. Looks like NKJ908M though the image isn’t clear.
Ray Smyth:
I think this is an L.A.D. cabbed Leyland Beaver, pictured sometime in the 1960s.
The driver, John Freeman, would have handballed about 1500 boxes of fruit,
sheeted and roped the load, then driven to some fruit wholesaler, maybe many
miles away, then hand balled the buggers on to pallets, while the forklift driver
sat there waiting for the pallet to be filled. Just had a “Mary Hopkin” moment.
Picture is courtesy of John Freeman, Horsemonden, Kent, Son of John.
Regards, Ray Smyth.
Many of today’s gymnasium poseurs would regard that as a good workout, yet there is Mr. Freeman, performing the task- as he probably does every day- with a cig in his mouth!
Louis Reece 40ft Tautliner and Glass Glover Volvo 6 wheel unit. The Louis Reece
company became part of Glass Glover Distribution. Picture from John Freeman
of Horsemonden in Kent. Ray Smyth.
Ray Smyth:
Louis Reece 40ft Tautliner and Glass Glover Volvo 6 wheel unit. The Louis Reece
company became part of Glass Glover Distribution. Picture from John Freeman
of Horsemonden in Kent. Ray Smyth.
Hi Ray,Glass Glover had some of these 112m 3 axled units at Wigan and ran two loads of fruit over to MFS Maltby for Littlewoods which was part of GGD.
Not my photo.
Ray Smyth:
Louis Reece 40ft Tautliner and Glass Glover Volvo 6 wheel unit. The Louis Reece
company became part of Glass Glover Distribution. Picture from John Freeman
of Horsemonden in Kent. Ray Smyth.
Hi Ray,Glass Glover had some of these 112m 3 axled units at Wigan and ran two loads of fruit over to MFS Maltby for Littlewoods which was part of GGD.
Not my photo.
Hi Chris, Thank you for you comments and picture. The last picture that I have just put on is taken
in the yard at Horsemonden in Kent, kindly sent by John Freeman, whose Dad appears in the two
Leyland Super Comet pictures earlier in the thread. John is about to do some further research into
Louis Reece in Horsemonden, where many of the residents of this small village worked. In the early
1980s, I did some “Last Minute Runners” for Louis Reece at Wigan. A chap called Peter Peet would
phone me about 4pm, and say, “Get your Transit boxvan up here straight away, load 2 pallets of pears,
and get straight off to Safeway at Bellshill or a wholesaler at Team Valley, Gateshead”. Happy Days.
Kind Regards, Ray.
The first one of Louis Reece’s yard reminds me of the many times I was there collecting part loads for a variety of locations whilst working for Mitchell & Robertson. It looks as if a pallet of ‘Carmel Celery’ is being loaded onto the trailer.
The second photo looks as if it may have been taken in Covent Garden after turning left off Bow Street with the Central Hall then straight in front of you. The Louise Reece lorry is perhaps backed onto the hall. I always parked on the other end as I had to barrow the produce into central avenue. It also reminds me of the occasion one of my colleagues got banged up in the police station in Bow Street after wacking an over zealous traffic warden at seven in the morning in that short bit of road between Bow Street and Central Hall.
Same photo featured on the cover of a Boalloy brochure.
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Hi Dean, Thank you for the Tautliner advert pictures, I have seen the first one before, but not the second.
I believe that Boalloy are no longer with us. About 2 years ago, I had a few conversations with the then
owners of Boalloy, Angela and Craig Pickering, who confirmed to me that the very first “Tautliner” was
designed and built for Louis Reece. It spent most of its time with Louis Reece at Wigan Wholesale Fruit Market.
This AEC Mandator and drawbar outfit belonged to the Apple Growers Association in Horsemonden, Kent.
It will have loaded apples from the packing sheds of Louis Reece, also in Horsemonden and many other
apple growers and packers in the area. The very smart " Tautliner " bodywork is by Boalloy at Congleton
in Cheshire. There is a GB sticker on the front bumper which makes me wonder, Did the AEC go over the
Channel to deliver apples, or were apples brought in for the UK market ?. Click on picture for full image.
Ray Smyth:
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.
Afternoon Ray.
If you are still interested in Louis Reece photos Jaja Turnball has also requested them on Kent Hauliers F/B site and he has been given about 25. Some we have seen before but many are new especially the ones of the packhouse. Maybe if you have a word with him he will agree to them being posted on Trucknet. Of course he may need permission from whoever gave them to him.
