ricka:
Hi Archie,i ran into Billy Cooper recently he’s retired and well.I passed thro Thornton -Le- Dale on the way to Dalby at the weekend. Was this your old stamping ground-a very scenic village.
Hi Tony a good idea to set up this site. I remember your tractors (grey scanias?) coming into the Hull depot, and also at Dover.
ricka
Hullo Rick,
You should have called in mate, I’d have made you a pot of tea. I did used to live in Thornton Dale but moved into Pickering way back in about 1981, mind you it’s only two miles away. What was you at then ? Mountain Biking ? My lads get up there at that lark when they come up to visit. I remember B.J.Myers coming up to Hull, real good lads, (well they would be, being Southerners like me ) although I can’t reacall any of their names.
Cheers, Archie.
Yes, we did have some grey Scanias in those days, plus Volvos, DAF’s and Mercs and we came up to Hull quite regularly.
We were in the arches at Bermondsey, not Barking, and the company with the light blue Scanias from Barking was Felgate Transport, who we worked alongside for donkeys years.
And yes, we were in Greenwich 1985-1991 where the O2 is - but we didnt pack up - the company has been in business now since 1969 and continue in traction work from Tilbury, Purfleet and the other East Coast ports.
The original Felgate Transport sold out around 1982 to Russell Davies, although Ernie did start again after working for Brain Haulage and continued until about ten years ago - all documented on the Brain Haulage thread here somewhere I think.
hiya,
What was the tie-up between W H Bowker and MAT transport I worked
for Bowker’s in the 60s and 70s in the early years both Cliff leader and
Angus Sutty were also Bowker drivers and all the motors had the MAT
insignia incorporated in the livery.
thanks harry long retired.
Sorry about that, of course it was Bermondsey. I am so unlike wine, I do not get better with age.
knowall:
Hello Guys
Yes, we did have some grey Scanias in those days, plus Volvos, DAF’s and Mercs and we came up to Hull quite regularly.
We were in the arches at Bermondsey, not Barking, and the company with the light blue Scanias from Barking was Felgate Transport, who we worked alongside for donkeys years.
And yes, we were in Greenwich 1985-1991 where the O2 is - but we didnt pack up - the company has been in business now since 1969 and continue in traction work from Tilbury, Purfleet and the other East Coast ports.
The original Felgate Transport sold out around 1982 to Russell Davies, although Ernie did start again after working for Brain Haulage and continued until about ten years ago - all documented on the Brain Haulage thread here somewhere I think.
harry_gill:
hiya,
What was the tie-up between W H Bowker and MAT transport I worked
for Bowker’s in the 60s and 70s in the early years both Cliff leader and
Angus Sutty were also Bowker drivers and all the motors had the MAT
insignia incorporated in the livery.
thanks harry long retired.
Harry, W. H. Bowker Ltd was the Northern agent for MAT from, I think, 1961.
The first load was from Singer Cobble in Blackburn to Hilversum. The preserved Mk.1 Atki, no.47 (which doesn’t have the MAT logo on it any more) was operated on contract to MAT at Barking (on a B licence, I believe) for the first 4 years of its life. That was John Hemelryk’s motor, of course.
Tony Myers…what a fabulous surprise. And thank you for the professional help you gave me as a traffic operator back in the 1980’s when on the UK desk in Milton Keynes. I was young and inexperienced, but tried so hard to make the bits of string connect for the right reasons. You were reliable and extremely helpful throughout and…I think about you often. I work with somebody from Bermondsey now and every time that is mentioned, I think of you. I have even tried to ring you you just to say hello, as I live in West London. So you are responsible for this thread? Excellent reading indeed. I have some great stories from my ‘transport’ career ha ha. Did you know I was probably the first BT enquiry for an 0800 number circa 1984/5…they told me that. Also one of the first offices at MAT that BT supplied an ‘auralite head set’ for the telephone because I used to answer hundreds of calls a day…and it allowed me to lay on the floor and speak to people when exhausted…true!
I wish I had one of those MAT traffic diaries now Tony as a memento…all we had was a pencil and rubber…that was it! Printing the notes was a revolution back then as well as automated telex waybills. We had some good drivers and subbies. They worked through difficult times without communication or tracking. Who would have thought that there would even be a TV programme in HD dedicated to a haulier. I still lecture people about everything you eat or buy for your home, somebody somewhere has had it in a lorry…
Another one for the collection. Felgate from Barking were another of MATs long standing subbies. The picture of the container is interesting and you don’t see them like this now with full opening side and some of them had removable steel roofs. the problem with the opening sides was that when they were loaded you could not shut the doors so you had to either pack the box up before you loaded it or get the fork lift driver to lift the bottom up while you closed the doors.
Cliff
And if you didnt do the bottom catches up … the bottom of the container and load stayed on the deck and the roof and sides ripped away from it as it was lifted.
I know this happenned at Harwich many times.
There were several variants of the MAT ‘XOS’ type container, 20, 30 and 40 footers, 8ft high, 8ft 6ins high, clear opening sides, sides with a non removable post in the middle (a real pleasure to tip if the fork lift driver wasnt up to much), some had grain hatches in the roof + discharge hatches in the rear, and all this before true curtain sider containers.
New in August '82, was converted to a rear lift six legger in May '83 + weighed about 9 tons unladen.
I was thinking recently that LKW Walter hadn’t changed their livery in all these years - we worked for the UK office in Attleborough, a lovely man named Roger Nixon - any one know what happened to him?
) although I can’t reacall any of their names.
constantly on yer back, a total pain.
