The steep pinch above The Mermaid between Waterhouses and Royal Cottage in Staffordshire was the scene of many broken propshaft’s on our Fodens. Then again there are plenty of steep banks locally that caught folk out both going up and coming down, Sydnope, Lime Tree and Cromford Hill’s have seen a few casualties in the Matlock/Cromford area over the years.
Pete.
How about Froghall in the Winter with too much weight on the back end of the trailer? I thought I was stuck in there until April at least!
Not much evidence of it any longer, but reminded of it today on the way to Brands Hatch and also since the village has sadly been in the news this week:
Wrotham Hill. Ground through the middle of the village many times watching the gauge hoping it wasn’t going to boil.
And then the other ones nearby, all of which are now completely different. Some of these were on the old routes to the Channel ferries.
Boughton Hill on the old A2
Lydden Hill on the old A2
Bluebell Hill on the old A229 before it was dualled.
Detling Hill on the old A249 again when it was single lane.
Retired Old ■■■■:
The steep pinch above The Mermaid between Waterhouses and Royal Cottage in Staffordshire was the scene of many broken propshaft’s on our Fodens. Then again there are plenty of steep banks locally that caught folk out both going up and coming down, Sydnope, Lime Tree and Cromford Hill’s have seen a few casualties in the Matlock/Cromford area over the years.
Pete.
How about Froghall in the Winter with too much weight on the back end of the trailer? I thought I was stuck in there until April at least!
Yes ROF, we had ‘fun’ when we resurfaced it many years ago! Didn’t need the body tipped a lot and those bends were awkward with an eight legger. I had to put my Foden into the bankside dropping down into Oakamoor from The Star once, the brakes were miles out of adjustment having been relined a month or two before and I lost all the air! Certainly gave the old arse cheeks some exercise…
billybigrig:
IIRC I did 4 or 5 loads up there over a month, usually nipping through the tunnel de Viehla to load in Llieda or Zaragoza. Now that is not a big deal but those who have ever been through that tunnel know it used to be a nasty tight bugger and had a strict 4m height limit on it.
Ah yes, you’ve reminded me of two particular steep climbs there: one from Llieda up to the Andorran border; and the northern route along the Pyrenees from Zaragoza to Pamplona via Huesca - some nasty climbs there! Robert
cav551:
Not much evidence of it any longer, but reminded of it today on the way to Brands Hatch and also since the village has sadly been in the news this week:
Wrotham Hill. Ground through the middle of the village many times watching the gauge hoping it wasn’t going to boil.
And then the other ones nearby, all of which are now completely different. Some of these were on the old routes to the Channel ferries.
Boughton Hill on the old A2
Lydden Hill on the old A2
Bluebell Hill on the old A229 before it was dualled.
Detling Hill on the old A249 again when it was single lane.
The road out of Folkestone docks
Castle Hill in Dover is still the same.
Thanks Cav551, your post is a timely reminder that we are not just talking about nasty hills, but hills that used to be nasty, and hills that are still nasty but by-passed! Detling Hill is still quite a challenge, even though it is short. I always think going down it is worse because of the bends and the narrow lanes. And as it is under trees, the road surface is always unpredictable. I’ve been driving down it for over 45 years and I reckon it’s best to gear down at the top and go down slowly, and let all the tear-arses run into trouble of their own making. Robert
Really Nasty Hills, Now this does’nt mean you have to have driven a Lorry up, or Down them. Most of them mentioned either here or abroad most of us have tried at some time or another. But not far from where I live is I believe, either the joint or the steepest hill in Britain. This is known locally as Rosedale Chimney Bank it is 1 in 2 1/2. When we first moved there it was a challenge, but now with modern cars, just about anybody can master it.
One for the Spanish regulars here. What or where about exactly was that long slow hill that I seem to remember was somewhere near Burgos. I was taking two Massey Fergusson tractors circa 1981 from Trafford Park down to La Coruna at the time and I could see a huge wooden bull billboard advertising brandy (I think it was) stuck on the top of the hill. It seemed to take hours to reach it, just one big, long, slow, straight climb dropping down to a lower gear every five minutes. I can’t remember if I passed it on the way back as I had to load shoes in Porto for the reload but it was one of the longest and the slowest climbs that I can remember.
Saviem:
Personally…I hated going through Bridge…all those "Froggies…with big V8 engines up, behind and over my "big " Foden!
But great on a moonlight night, when you could really make the windows shake by gowing down the box…
Am I getting old?
Yes!
Away to the Bollinger!
Bridge: Following the fatal accident in 1967 when one of those Froggie V8 Scanias ran away down the hill and crashed into a house, there was a short and successful protest which resulted in the by-pass.
A lot of those already mentioned in italy and spain bring back memories
Also seem to remember there was a twisty/hilly section on the old n4 in spain, think it was in the la carolina region maybe.
Archie Paice:
Really Nasty Hills, Now this does’nt mean you have to have driven a Lorry up, or Down them. Most of them mentioned either here or abroad most of us have tried at some time or another. But not far from where I live is I believe, either the joint or the steepest hill in Britain. This is known locally as Rosedale Chimney Bank it is 1 in 2 1/2. When we first moved there it was a challenge, but now with modern cars, just about anybody can master it.
I used to reckon the Hardknott Pass and the Wrynose Pass in the Lake District were the steepest I’ve ever been up and down.
chilistrucker:
A lot of those already mentioned in italy and spain bring back memories
Also seem to remember there was a twisty/hilly section on the old n4 in spain, think it was in the la carolina region maybe.
It was known to many drivers as ‘the gorge’ - here’s a pic. I took when you could still park on it! Robert
I must say Robert,you have a fantastic collection of photos
Cheers! Your pic brought back memories: I’d forgotten that you could look down on the south-bound carriageway from there!
As for the pictures, a few people have remarked on my ‘collection’ on this forum. My pics fall into three categories: 1) the hundreds of pics I took when I was driving lorries; 2) the many I took incidentally, as a lorryist and 3) the hundreds I’ve pulled off the internet for my own private reference, but which have proved useful on these threads. Robert
Archie Paice:
Really Nasty Hills, Now this does’nt mean you have to have driven a Lorry up, or Down them. Most of them mentioned either here or abroad most of us have tried at some time or another. But not far from where I live is I believe, either the joint or the steepest hill in Britain. This is known locally as Rosedale Chimney Bank it is 1 in 2 1/2. When we first moved there it was a challenge, but now with modern cars, just about anybody can master it.
Is that the road from Whitby to York, I used to load from Whitby to Swansea many years ago and remember a steep hill not far from Whitby.
Retired Old ■■■■:
.
Pete.
How about Froghall in the Winter with too much weight on the back end of the trailer? I thought I was stuck in there until April at least!
About 40 odd years ago, I bought a Diamond T wrecker from a bloke in Waterhouses that used it to tow trucks up Froghall bank when they’d run out of gears.
As has been mentioned earlier, what were thought of as bad hills years ago are nothing these days.
When I worked for Vic Wild in the '70’s with an Atki with a Gardner 180, (The dogs danglies in them days!), we used to do a lot of work to and from the West country, this was before the M5 was built, no Avonmouth bridge either.
After getting down to Bristol, we had the choice of going down the A38 which meant “Going over Churchill”, which was one hell of a grind at 32 tons.
In the end most of us found it easier and almost as quick to come out of Bristol along the south side of the Avon, through Portishead and Clevedon through Weston Super Mare and rejoin the A38 by the Brent Knoll, (Just south of where the Sedgemoor msa is now, J22 on the M5).
I had occasion a few weeks ago to run from Weston to Frome, so I went as the crow flies, which fetched me out on the A38 for a couple of miles on what used to be the dreaded Churchill.
Hill, what hill? nothing to worry about these days!
Only went up At Ta’if in Saudi once, didn’t have the opportunity to come down again, that’s a bit of a drag.
For those who don’t know where it is, look on Flash earth, to the East of Mecca there’s a real squiggle in the road, but that gives no indication of how many twists and turns like going up a cliff face,There’s some pics around somewhere, who’s got them?
bestbooties:
Only went up At Ta’if in Saudi once, didn’t have the opportunity to come down again, that’s a bit of a drag.
For those who don’t know where it is, look on Flash earth, to the East of Mecca there’s a real squiggle in the road, but that gives no indication of how many twists and turns like going up a cliff face,There’s some pics around somewhere, who’s got them?
Jerry Cooke, who used to work for Trans Arabia out of Jeddah on internals, told me about Ta’if. They used to run double-bottom artics (road-trains) over Ta’if with containers at very high weights, with ERF MGC 380s (5MW), ERF NGC 420s (7MW) and ERF B-series. Quite a gruelling run, I understand. Saramat also ran their F88s over Ta’if (photo below). Robert
I had to put my Foden into the bankside dropping down into Oakamoor from The Star once, the brakes were miles out of adjustment having been relined a month or two before and I lost all the air! Certainly gave the old arse cheeks some exercise… 
What or where about exactly was that long slow hill that I seem to remember was somewhere near Burgos. I was taking two Massey Fergusson tractors circa 1981 from Trafford Park down to La Coruna at the time and I could see a huge wooden bull billboard advertising brandy (I think it was) stuck on the top of the hill. It seemed to take hours to reach it, just one big, long, slow, straight climb dropping down to a lower gear every five minutes. I can’t remember if I passed it on the way back as I had to load shoes in Porto for the reload but it was one of the longest and the slowest climbs that I can remember.
