Lawrence Dunbar:
I remember a haulage man ran Fodens, David Mellor, Ashbourne area, Im sure we bought a Lister lighting set from him some years ago,& another chap from Winkhill,Waterhouses Graham was his name I think, he was another Foden Operater, any photos about anywere, Regards Larry
David Mellor parked up and sold up. A few pictures from the sale.
i remember working for him on saturdays and after school it wos great fun working with dave and willy wen he had his fodens and the 2 erfs new
You did well with that then Larry, when I worked for Tilcon S&K used to have stuff off of us and by the time that they got rid the trucks must have been worked nearly to death!
Aye, my cousin bought an 8wheeler off S&K, TRB 132 K, It was an Ex, Tilcon Tanker, & they fitted a alloy tipping body to it, The body was a Thyne, made by the tipping gear firm from Bolton, it was a good pay load, & also good on fuel with the 180 Gardner.Regards Larry
The S 21, was originaly Lewis Bros, Ltd, Congleton, Then Braithwaites the Tilcons, the Sellers & Kent, this old Foden coped with anything & everything, I wish I had kept it, to take to the shows, Happy Days Larry
those s&k fodens earned their corn . in the early 70s they would do a ballidon to canterbury , back empty and reload every day with the flatbeds . i did a canterbury , get a backload on and park up in london , that was enough for me . btw that was going through the blackwall both ways , cheers ,dave
Lawrence Dunbar:
Aye, my cousin bought an 8wheeler off S&K, TRB 132 K, It was an Ex, Tilcon Tanker, & they fitted a alloy tipping body to it, The body was a Thyne, made by the tipping gear firm from Bolton, it was a good pay load, & also good on fuel with the 180 Gardner.Regards Larry
TRB was the first Foden that I drove after passing my test Larry, took it to the test station at Derby! I can recall an ex S&K driver coming to Ballidon and was given one of the old S50 halfcab tippers, he was chuffed to bits with it as it had a suspension seat (the S&K S21 he had driven had the seat bolted solid to the cab back!) plus power steering! Like Dave said they worked them hard, I remember their old two stroke powered four wheeler flat and they ran that for years.
I saw Bob Sellers a couple of years ago in Matlock drawing the halfshafts out of an O/D’s Foden unit that had a busted diff, he still keeps his hand in even though his fleet has long gone.
Yes I remember the 4 wheeler 2s, it was in their yard at Ilam when I went to look at at the S21, which as you know I bought, The 4 wheeler as I recall had a 2 speed device fitted on the back of the gear box, the also had an old Commer 4 wheeler for delivering bagged coal. Regards Larry.
HI Mr .Stanfield just looking at the photos of Sam Longtons Bedford O B S .They must have had some handy fitters for i remember some of the Bedfords had 4 L K Gardenr engines in no room for a pasenger seat but it worked i bet they ran on air great photos . Regards Barry Waddy
hi barry , all of sam longson’s old bedfords were retrofitted with 4lk engines , he had a large fleet of o type and ql types as well as the 6 and 8 wheelers . , cheers , dave
HI .DAVE .Nice to hear from somebody who knows abount the old stuff that needed drivers not just feeding them A. The photos of Longtons on this site are exelent .Brings back a lot of memorys Regards Barry Wad .
hi barry , i never worked for longsons myself , but worked alongside them on the ici work for many years . they were a crazy gang at times , but top blokes , good drivers and good company on a night out . i think we have one or two younger ex longson men on here . cheers, dave
hi barry , out to grass this past 7 years , had to finish at 62 with heart disease . i drove anything and everything , but working round here ( buxton ) it was mainly foden and erf . first proper lorry was a foden fg , and the last a foden alpha . most of the work over the years was out of ici , flats, tippers and tankers all over the country , did 7 years on food distribution ( boring ) and a few years on brick and block hiabs . you couldn’t swap around like that now , too many cards and training courses , cheers , dave
HI Dave .I had to finish two year ago at 64 legs have gone need hip and two knees all jumping on and loads and lying under them every night and weekend .We ran a mixed fleet of tippers flats all makes shapes and sizes ran a lot of stone dust in bags out of R M C Halkyn North wales to most of the pit in South wales and loaded timber or steel back or over to Avonmouth for pulp back home to Greenfield .I new a lad from up our end he had his own FodeNUUn artic whith a hyab ran from your neck of the woods a ll week came home on fri .YOU might have met him tall shaved head keep fitter Mike Thomas a hard driver but a good lad he seen the light and sold up .yours Barry wad
i did s wales for years off and on barry , steelworks , mines and waterworks with lime. we hardly ever backloaded at one time , because ici rates made it more profitable to run back empty for another load . i can’t say i remember that lad with the brick hiab , but there were 4 or 5 plants round here until a few years ago , there is only one now , most of the crane operators have given up now . the quarry job is about played out now as well . the lorries are being run 24 hours to make them pay . i think we are well out of it barry , driving was my life , but it’s gone now and will never come back , it’s rubbish now . take it easy and enjoy your retirement , regards , dave
HI DAVE. Back in the 70 and 80 S my ex relation used to drive a tanker artic think it was blue ? .It was a firm just off the A 5 1 5 on the A 5032 I THINK THERE YARD was just on the corner as you turned down .He was baised at Cilcain they had a couple local lads working up here out of Tilcon Trimrock Cilcain . Yours Barry MERRY XMASS and Ahappy new year
Hello, new to TruckNet, this is my first post. Came acrsos the site by accident. Nostalgia time, my dad and uncle were both lorry drivers in the 50’s and 60’s and I wondered if anyone has any recolections of any of the following operators that they used to drive for.
Here goes, Faldo at Middleton by Wirksworth, Cyril Webster at Carsington, FJ Webster at Wirksworth, John webster at Wirksworth, Fred Adams (Winkhill near Leek I think), Mrs Housley at Middleton by Wirksworth, Longliffe Quarries and Harry Evans at Longcliffe (both lime spreaders). Worked out of Hulland Gravel, Hilton Gravel, Hulland Products, Ballidon and Longcliffe and others that I can’t remember. If anyone has any recollections or photos of these operators/quarries in the 50’s/60’s, it would be brilliant if you can share them.
My first job when I got my licence back in 1975 was at Hoveringham Stone, Dene quarry, first drive was Octopus reg no BTV63T
Cheers
Hiya…i run out of products for many years for richo at waterhouses and harrisons of milton…i remember george hickmott
when he had a seddon on wirksworth transport black bob slaney had a v8 dodge on the same firm before going to salisburys
haulage and then midland storage… fred adams at winkhill had red ford traders my pal norman drove for him but sorry
no photo’s.tommy babb you’ll know him(foden man) and phillip jones he was at richo’s with me in the 70’s… kevin taylor
he was on a 4 wheeler for years working for wigg with another cousin of mine charlie ratcliffe… you’ll be feeling at home
i would think with a few of these names i collected bag lime out of balidon up untill 2002 when i give up the big stuff
for a little time at home… anny how welcome to trucknet you’ll have a laugh with us lot and hopefully tell us some tales
John
Hi Jimbly and welcome. I recall a lot of those companies, worked at Ballidon myself for 27 years and also ran out of Dene and Longcliffe at times. If you were at Dene in 1975 you probably knew my old ‘gaffer’ Eric Gough and my neighbour Rod Gill, also a friend of mine (Tony Fox) drove for Mrs Housley at one time years ago. Was FALDO the block firm at Middleton where a murder was involved, if so I believe Gough Transport worked for them at one time? Used to run with some of Wirksworth Transport’s as well. What were your Father and Uncle’s names as I may know them?
