Old companys from stoke -on trent

Hi all
Just seen the B Kettle Bedford photo & it brought back some great memories. As I have mentioned in earlier write up’s, My Dad Joe Dulson drove for Kettle’s for quite a few years , until he had to finish due to angina.The chap in the driving seat is Keith, his surname I can’t remember but I can remember him coming to our house to pick the old man up to go & partake in a few.When Mountfords laid us off in the Steel strike in the early 80s,The old man got me on kettle’s on a temp basis until the end of the strike & I actualy drove this motor for 3 weeks while Keith was on holls. I also remember falling out of it as on Mountfords I had an 86 at the time & when you got out of them you automatically put your right hand on the wing & jumped out.As you can see the TM was a lot higher , so I went to get out on the first load & yes there was no wing there,& yes it did hurt but not so much as my pride though as there were about 8 other Kettle’s drivers there also. Incidently I also fell out of my first 88 on Mountfords doing the same thing, luckily this time I was up Huntley Wood loading gravel so this time it didn’t hurt. Memories eh!!
Cheers
Duls

Hiya wild thing… remember big george from Leek who drove for Kettle’s for years.
he lived about 7 door’s away from me. what heppend to him he’ll be retired now i’d think.
i moved to north wales so lost touch of him.nothing much in Leek to go back for really.
John

Hi John
I remember most of the old crew ie 69 to 82 when dad had to finish I think I know a couple of George’s , both from Leek so he must have been the bigger one.I went to Kenny Hunter’s funeral the other week , the lads did him proud , very good turn out

Has anybody got any pictures of Comarts yard? I work in stoke & it would be interesting to see what it looked like. Bet its houses or an infuriating retail park now…

Slater & Son:
Has anybody got any pictures of Comarts yard? I work in stoke & it would be interesting to see what it looked like. Bet its houses or an infuriating retail park now…

Hi,
Comart’s old yard up till a few months ago was still being used as a transport yard with the same offices
Regards
Ant

Hiya…Ant you did’nt say just where it is… traverling through Meir tunnel towards Stoke there’s a row of older terreced
houses on the right side.comarts yard is the next opening. you’ll have seen the post office lorries parked up by the A50,
look across the road and its their.the yard was owned by smiths at one time, i don’t know who owns it now.
John

3300John:
Hiya…Ant you did’nt say just where it is… traverling through Meir tunnel towards Stoke there’s a row of older terreced
houses on the right side.comarts yard is the next opening. you’ll have seen the post office lorries parked up by the A50,
look across the road and its their.the yard was owned by smiths at one time, i don’t know who owns it now.
John

Hi John, think Clive still owns the land he was renting to Traction 2000 a few years ago
Ant

Willie Roadstar:

3300John:
Hiya…Ant you did’nt say just where it is… traverling through Meir tunnel towards Stoke there’s a row of older terreced
houses on the right side.comarts yard is the next opening. you’ll have seen the post office lorries parked up by the A50,
look across the road and its their.the yard was owned by smiths at one time, i don’t know who owns it now.
John

Hi John, think Clive still owns the land he was renting to Traction 2000 a few years ago
Ant

Hiya ,…Ant at least its still their to give us some memories.i had a friend who rented
the old offices and garage just further down the road. they did car repairs. after a while
they had a purpose built place across the road, that was flattened for the A50, it was just
across some demick ground from the post office place.north staffs bodywork i think it was
called…i’ll bet there’s hundreds of drivers on TN who drive along the Meir and did’nt know
thats where comarts run from…good old days…
John

top cat leek:
Thanks for all the condolences messages from all his trucker mates. Top cat/terry was a very special person and will be sadly missed.
For anyone interested his funeral is friday 17th may at 3.3opm at carmountside crem.

Unfortunately,with working an early nightshift,I wont be able to attend Terry’s funeral,otherwise I would have liked to pay my respects.
There will be many who will miss his posts on here.
RIP.

Hi, I worked at W&J Wass Ltd as an apprentice mechanic (actually errand boy!) in 1966-67. Are there any former drivers out there ?
Does anyone remember Gordon’s Transport in Bridgewood Street, just around the corner from Wass’s ?
Their fleet of immaculate Ford’s was a sight to behold !
John

Does anyone remember these old companies ?
Becketts Transport, Smithpool road, Fenton
Hannah Griffiths, Goldenhill, Fenton ( all the trucks were in British Gypsum livery).
J. Critchlow, Harrisehead
Forward Transport, Copeland Street, Stoke
A.H Thorley & Sons, Cooper Street, Shelton ( they were farmers merchants, and I think are still in business at Aston, Stone).
They had a fleet of mostly Commer TS3 artics, plus ERF and Leyland Comet units.

John

johnny51:
Does anyone remember these old companies ?
Becketts Transport, Smithpool road, Fenton
Hannah Griffiths, Goldenhill, Fenton ( all the trucks were in British Gypsum livery).
J. Critchlow, Harrisehead
Forward Transport, Copeland Street, Stoke
A.H Thorley & Sons, Cooper Street, Shelton ( they were farmers merchants, and I think are still in business at Aston, Stone).
They had a fleet of mostly Commer TS3 artics, plus ERF and Leyland Comet units.

John

Working at Longton Transport i can well remember Hannah Griffiths he was on the next street along on Goldenhill Rd as you said, spoke to the old man on a few occasions, he came across a decent chap, i also remember J Critchlow, they bought three new Guy Big J tractor units of us, i converted them to sleepers, maroon livery if i remember correctly.

johnny51:
Does anyone remember these old companies ?
Becketts Transport, Smithpool road, Fenton
Hannah Griffiths, Goldenhill, Fenton ( all the trucks were in British Gypsum livery).
J. Critchlow, Harrisehead
Forward Transport, Copeland Street, Stoke
A.H Thorley & Sons, Cooper Street, Shelton ( they were farmers merchants, and I think are still in business at Aston, Stone).
They had a fleet of mostly Commer TS3 artics, plus ERF and Leyland Comet units.

John

Working at Longton Transport i can well remember Hannah Griffiths he was on the next street along on Goldenhill Rd as you said, spoke to the old man on a few occasions, he came across a decent chap, i also remember J Critchlow, they bought three new Guy Big J tractor units of us, i converted them to sleepers, maroon livery if i remember correctly.

You’re right about the maroon livery.
The Critchlow truck that I always remember ( I’m going back to about 1962 now), was a 1950’s 8 wheel Foden 2 stroke tipper,
fitted with a high sided Boalloy body. This was in a dark blue livery, and when I saw it it was always carrying coke from Etruria gas works.
Looked and sounded beautiful !
John

Hiya…one of the critchlow guy big J’s has survived.its partly rebuilt at moss and lovatts. the cab is like new.
the problem is moss and lovatt have seased to operate due to loseing their main contract, then mr edwards
passing away about 4 years ago. a pal of mine was the mechanic who was putting the guy back together,
he got finished and the guy has been left in a corner.
John

johnny51:
Does anyone remember these old companies ?
Becketts Transport, Smithpool road, Fenton
Hannah Griffiths, Goldenhill, Fenton ( all the trucks were in British Gypsum livery).
J. Critchlow, Harrisehead
Forward Transport, Copeland Street, Stoke
A.H Thorley & Sons, Cooper Street, Shelton ( they were farmers merchants, and I think are still in business at Aston, Stone).
They had a fleet of mostly Commer TS3 artics, plus ERF and Leyland Comet units.
John

Did a few shifts for Hannah Griffiths through an agency when I first came out of the army in 1969 and was looking for a full time job.
I think all the motors were draughty old ERF’s apart from one smart Atki that was driven by his son/son in law.
Another job I had in the early '70’s was doing motorway recovery from Keele msa when it was Blue Star garages.
I got to know one of Critchlows drivers quite well as he would call into Keele services as he started his Glasgow trunk in a Big J,lad by the name of Ian Turner,anyone know him?

Double post!

johnny51:
Hi, I worked at W&J Wass Ltd as an apprentice mechanic (actually errand boy!) in 1966-67. Are there any former drivers out there ?
Does anyone remember Gordon’s Transport in Bridgewood Street, just around the corner from Wass’s ?
Their fleet of immaculate Ford’s was a sight to behold !
John

Hi john
Alan Gordon now works on Sainsburys & has been there for about 9 yrs . He gave me some great pics & has a lot more besides. When he came for his first interview he bought along loades of photos , so we went through them & interview over & he has been there eversince. I remember AH Thorley from Shelton also, my Dad drove for them in the 60s he had a brand new Austin FFK . The transport managers name was Les McCann & one of the Drivers was Howard who still works for Barry Procter & was a very good friend of my Dad
Cheers
Duls

Hi, Johnny 51, Do you remember iff Critchlow, had a Layland beaver with the Lad cab with a Gardener 6lw in it ,Cheers Barry

Hi, Johnny 51, Do you remember iff Critchlow, had a Layland beaver with the Lad cab with a Gardener 6lw in it ,Cheers Barry