Chris Webb:
Sorry evo,I’ve just remembered it was Davey not Davis.May have been A.Davey or A.H.Davey.
Arthur and Hilda Davey,they used to run out of Vernon Road Stoke and up to the '70’s did similar work to the Wild Group who I worked for,in fact there was a regular turnover of drivers between the two firms.Like Vic Wild operating only ERF and Atki trucks,Daveys only ran ERF’s.
They were running until quite recently because they use to do all the clay roofing tiles out of Eternit at Madely.
They moved to operating out of Beech’s new premises,(Beech’s are ERF agents),just by the A500 going North out of Stoke.
In fact I think it’s A and H’s son Barry? Davey who is now top man at Beech’s.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
daveys bought beech’s garage in the early 90’s i think, there used ERF’s came from ANC at chesterton the son is called Bernard Used to know a fitter from wilds Ashley Allsop knew him when i was apprentice fitter at Deggs in the 70’s
i always thought hilda’s son was named barry and as ian said he now owns beech’s garage
You are both probably correct its been a long time since i was in there
Chris Webb:
The old S-o-T company I remember was Davis Brothers(I think) with ERFs in the 60s with artic tippers loaded with pebbles or whatever they were known as running out ot the Smoke at night when I was going in.I think they ran in a beige livery with fancy signwriting.
Them pebbles were flint stones,and were loaded onto sided flats and had to be shovelled off to tip.They were for the local pottery industry,(Now sadly almost gone)and were ground up to make the glaze for the pots.
Been away for a few weeks, on the A & H Davey line, Barry Davey took over from Hilda (his Mum) after she passed away, Barry bought Beech,s and still owns it A & H Davey are no longer operating as previously said.
Beechs are now MAN & Isuzu agents after the demise of ERF, they are still parts agents for ERF
I worked for Barry on the Beechs side for a couple of years selling ERF in 2000/01, very good business man and gentleman, only moved from them to Scania becauase of the problems ERF had when MAN took over.
Think I have some photos of some old A & H Davey ERFs somewhere, I’ll see if I can dig them out.
Some photos below of J L Coopers Leylands, which I found.
Rob Campbell:
Never forget how they were grouped together region by region Henry Long,Ellerpack, A- one,Transflash and Brian Yeardley from Yorkshire then Eric Hunwick,Smiths of Eccles in their ERF with Jennings conversions from Manchester then the pottery boys it literally was a whos who and not forgetting the Brum boys of course Chambers Cook ,S jones Ware Trans etc
Hi Willie,
I haven’t got any photos of JSL but I do remember the company. I used to see alot of them on the IFOR/SFOR run when I was doing Slovenia and Croatia in the mid 90’s. I was on for Kenny Harvey from Bolton as was another driver on here Dafdave (Bilko)
I remember on 1 run I was weekended on the Austrian/Slovenian border at the Karawanken tunnel with 1 of their drivers and a subbie to them whom if I remember rightly was driving a bull nose Scania I also think he was Scottish, cant remeber his name though. I think the JSL driver was called Steve or maybe Ian, and I am sure there was an article in 1 of the truck mags of him a few years later on for a different company that did hanging garments from Romania, but for the life of me I cant remember the firm although I am sure they were from the Stoke area.
We were all there from friday afternoon I was loaded with whiskey for Llubijana and because I couldn,t get cleared and tipped that day they wouldnt let me in as it would be on the agents insurance until I was empty. Once the paperwork was done we always got an ■■■■■■ to either the customs compound in Llubijana or to the Croatian border if we were tipping in Zargreb or Rijeka.
The JSL lads had some problems with there paperwork and were told they couldn.t sort it until monday. So as you can guess we had a weekend on the beer both in the restaraunt under the Austrian agents or back in the cabs.
Come monday morning we all went to the agants for paperwork and the Jsl driver had big problems, apparantly he was loaded with flares ( not the 70.s trousers) and they wouldnt let him through the tunnel. I got my paperwork completed and my ■■■■■■ arrived and I said my goodbyes to to JSL lads. I tipped the next day and returned into Austria and the 1 with the flares on was still on the other side still waiting to get through. I then did a change over in Germany for another load of whiskey for Slovenia. In those days we used to but a months tax for the truck in Austria so it was cheaper to do a few trips at a time than have 2 trucks passing each other. When I got back to the Slovenian border on the Wednesday he was still there but when I returned back on my way home he had gone so things must have been sorted or he had to go via a different route.
Never did meet up with the 2 guys again although I did pass the driver with the scania a few times after that.
Paul:
Hi Willie,
I haven’t got any photos of JSL but I do remember the company. I used to see alot of them on the IFOR/SFOR run when I was doing Slovenia and Croatia in the mid 90’s. I was on for Kenny Harvey from Bolton as was another driver on here Dafdave (Bilko)
I remember on 1 run I was weekended on the Austrian/Slovenian border at the Karawanken tunnel with 1 of their drivers and a subbie to them whom if I remember rightly was driving a bull nose Scania I also think he was Scottish, cant remeber his name though. I think the JSL driver was called Steve or maybe Ian, and I am sure there was an article in 1 of the truck mags of him a few years later on for a different company that did hanging garments from Romania, but for the life of me I cant remember the firm although I am sure they were from the Stoke area.
We were all there from friday afternoon I was loaded with whiskey for Llubijana and because I couldn,t get cleared and tipped that day they wouldnt let me in as it would be on the agents insurance until I was empty. Once the paperwork was done we always got an ■■■■■■ to either the customs compound in Llubijana or to the Croatian border if we were tipping in Zargreb or Rijeka.
The JSL lads had some problems with there paperwork and were told they couldn.t sort it until monday. So as you can guess we had a weekend on the beer both in the restaraunt under the Austrian agents or back in the cabs.
Come monday morning we all went to the agants for paperwork and the Jsl driver had big problems, apparantly he was loaded with flares ( not the 70.s trousers) and they wouldnt let him through the tunnel. I got my paperwork completed and my ■■■■■■ arrived and I said my goodbyes to to JSL lads. I tipped the next day and returned into Austria and the 1 with the flares on was still on the other side still waiting to get through. I then did a change over in Germany for another load of whiskey for Slovenia. In those days we used to but a months tax for the truck in Austria so it was cheaper to do a few trips at a time than have 2 trucks passing each other. When I got back to the Slovenian border on the Wednesday he was still there but when I returned back on my way home he had gone so things must have been sorted or he had to go via a different route.
Never did meet up with the 2 guys again although I did pass the driver with the scania a few times after that.
Paul
Paul,
Thanks for that story, there was some good lads on there at the time all disperced or retired now, I will be seeing the guy next week, hopefully he has sorted the photos out for me, I’ll post them as soon as.
I used to work for JSL from 89 (as a newbie continental driver only done Royal Mail previously) until 99 when taken over by the dreaded Stobart machine.
I agree there were some good lads on there, but during the UN / IFOR / SFOR days there was a big turnover of drivers.
It seemed like we had every Rental truck in Stoke at one point and drivers from all over the country chasing the imaginary glory.
I’ve got a few photos on paper somewhere I will try to find them and beg steal or borrow a scanner and try to post some of them.
The owner was originally a middle east man and we used to get to some out of the way places as well as the normal Italy, Spain etc.
Amongst the more exotic were, Moscow, Ankara, Adana, Rostov-on-Don, Varna, Helsinki, St.Petersburg, Biggleswade, Watford, Bicester
We never seemed to be skint in those days, probably coz I was single and enjoyed seeing Europe and getting paid for it
toowise:
I used to work for JSL from 89 (as a newbie continental driver only done Royal Mail previously) until 99 when taken over by the dreaded Stobart machine.
I agree there were some good lads on there, but during the UN / IFOR / SFOR days there was a big turnover of drivers.
It seemed like we had every Rental truck in Stoke at one point and drivers from all over the country chasing the imaginary glory.
I’ve got a few photos on paper somewhere I will try to find them and beg steal or borrow a scanner and try to post some of them.
The owner was originally a middle east man and we used to get to some out of the way places as well as the normal Italy, Spain etc.
Amongst the more exotic were, Moscow, Ankara, Adana, Rostov-on-Don, Varna, Helsinki, St.Petersburg, Biggleswade, Watford, Bicester
We never seemed to be skint in those days, probably coz I was single and enjoyed seeing Europe and getting paid for it
After JSL was bought by Mr Stobart a lot of the drivers and a couple of office staff come to work at Danesbury.
Ben9:
After JSL was bought by Mr Stobart a lot of the drivers and a couple of office staff come to work at Danesbury.
I came for an interview at Danesbury, it was to replace a girl that was going on Maternity leave at the time, i decided to go working for Hornigold out of Wellingborough as it seemed a more permanent postion .
I think Phil Houlton took the job in the end. I did my CPC with Martin Heap?(think thats his name)from Danesbury. Seemed a good company what happened to them in the end…
Ben9:
After JSL was bought by Mr Stobart a lot of the drivers and a couple of office staff come to work at Danesbury.
I came for an interview at Danesbury, it was to replace a girl that was going on Maternity leave at the time, i decided to go working for Hornigold out of Wellingborough as it seemed a more permanent postion .
I think Phil Houlton took the job in the end. I did my CPC with Martin Heap?(think thats his name)from Danesbury. Seemed a good company what happened to them in the end…
Phil Houlton got the general managers job, and Jackie came to work in the office after a spell at Stobarts.
Martin left and went to drive for Arclid Transport.
Danesbury just lost a couple of big contracts and could’nt really carry on.
