Recently I was looking through some old papers and I came across a couple of type-written pages that my late father had made, and I thought they may be of interest to older drivers. My dad was training to be a plumber just before the second world war but the plumber he was apprenticed to received his call-up papers. This left my father high and dry and without any recognised skills, so he duly reported to the local dole office and the only job they could offer him was as a driver’s mate at a transport firm in Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire. At this point I will use the words that my father typed out.
"I applied for the job in person and was given instructions to report to the depot at 7 a.m. the next morning. I was assigned to the driver of a six wheel ERF and draw-bar trailer. The driver was Charlie, a Londoner who had come from London with the firm when it transferred to the Potteries and taken over a former fruit depot in Albert Street in Newcastle under Lyme… The name of the firm was A.Davey and I believe there is a transport company still running in the locality who are descendants of the above company. (My words - I assume this would have been A & H Davey (Roadways) Limited).
I climbed into the cab and was given instruction into the finer points of operating a trailer brake by Charlie the driver. The trailer braking system was connected to the lorry by a cable that was controlled by a large hand brake situated on the mate’s side and was straddled by my legs. It was connected to a spring loaded drum and when the brake was moved back and forwards on the ratchet the cable was wound around the drum bringing the trailer brakes into operation. Releasing the ratchet let the drum unwind thus releasing the brakes. There was little need for me to operate the brake while the lorry was empty, but when it was loaded it was vital that I kept alert and ready for Charlie’s signals to apply the brake. After a few journeys around the country I became quite adept at braking and did it automatically without Charlie’s promptings. I think that the reason I soon learned the art of braking was that I had learned at the age of fourteen to shunt a three ton lorry around the local coal merchant’s yard - I used to spend a lot of time there and was able to earn a little money to help out at home.
I stayed with Daveys for quite a while until at the age of sixteen and a half I joined G. Rhodes a transport company based in Biddulph. I had already applied for a driving licence giving my age as seventeen. No one really bothered in those days and because you did not need to be twenty one to drive a heavy goods vehicle. I was given a lorry and issued with all the necessary paper work together with petrol coupons and directed to the British Aluminium factory in Milton. I was to take a load of ally discs to a factory in Birmingham and then to proceed to Bilston to collect a load of smoke chimneys for Liverpool. Those chimneys were used to create a thick blanket of smoke when lit to prevent enemy bombers from seeing the city. They were placed around Liverpool and various other cities but to say they were successful - who knows?"
At this point my dad stopped typing but how the world of road transport has changed. My dad subsequently joined the Royal Marines and was a part of the South Pacific fleet in the second world war, and spent some time driving Diamond T tank transporters in Australia.
I hope this proves of interest to any old-timers out there and maybe jogs a few memories.
