stort ash

[norman_s]

Hi All.
Just found this site.

I used to drive for Stort Ash in the mid 70s.

We used to carry scrap steel out of Dagenham up to Stanton near Nottingham and PFA dust from the power stations for a breeze block maker in Ware for a return load.

Also carried a lot of the stone from Chelmsford to the M11 when that was being built, another job we had was ash for tennis courts that we delivered to the house where the court was being built, sometimes very tight entrances and single track roads.

We had a job for a while shifting coal out of Fords Dagenham to the local Charringtons, the first load I got onto the Charringtons weigh bridge gave me an all up weight of 60tons!!! turned out that iron ore was mixed up in the coal, was more iron ore than coal. Lucky we drove through Fords and only had about a mile on public roads to get to Charringtons.

Charringtons had to wash the coal to sort the iron ore out from the coal.

Eddie was one of the best employers I ever had, he would loan his drivers money to buy their house and stop the payments out of their wage every week.

We always had new lorries, I worked there for a couple of years and had 2 new motors, I was one of the few drivers that had a class one so had one of the 2 artics he had, bad news for tipping ash at the tennis court sites, you had to check that the ash did not stick in the front as you tipped otherwise the tipper was liable to tip over on it’s side. I was lucky that it never happened to me but it did happen to another driver.

Another contract we had was shifting coal out of Stortford sidings to the local coal merchants ( I remember one of the drivers delivering coal to Chelmsford filled up 4 bags and hid them in a layby to collect on the way back but someone found them first and they were gone when he got back to the layby.

I still have somewhere a pay slip made out on a scrap of paper with my weeks earnings and extra load money on. We used to have a job like yard to Stanton with scrap, return PFA from Ratcliffe power station to Ware as a days work, if we had any time left we could do a sand load from Ware area to Stevanage, we used to get 2/6 extra per load for that.

We also used to go up to Scunthorpe steel with scrap and return with PFA from one of the power stations on the Trent.

Well I think that is the lot for now.

[erf]

[norman_s]

Hi All.
Just looked at that Scammel picture, Eddie had two artics, all the rest were rigids. He also went over to Leylands, he had a contract with Leylands of some sort as we never kept a lorry for more than 2 years, I was one of the artic drivers as I had a class one most of the others had only class two’s. Mick Burton was another driver who had a class two, we used to work together at Hayter mowers in Spellbrook, he left Hayters and moved to Stort Ash and told me that Eddie also had a job for another artic driver so I followed him, went from £21 a week to £200 + in 5 years. Made a big life change that money. I worked there from about 1974 till 1979 when I moved up north.

Eddies brother was in charge of the workshop at the bottom of the yard and was a bit of a pain at times, he once bought a load of remold tyres and they were the worst ones we had ever had, none of them lasted a month, we refused to have them on the front axles they were so bad. We always carried a spare wheel and changed our own on the road.

On reflection there might not be any other drivers left as most of them were older than me, except Mick who was a couple of years younger.

[donpablo]

34 years ago my friends dad worked for this firm near bishops stortford, as a treat in the summer holidays we went for a ride to sheffield , i remember it clear as anything, i was 10 the truck was a atkinson gardener 180 on yellow an red colours, we were picked up at 4am, to me nobody existed at this time the street lights werent even on! there was only 2 seats we took it in turn to sit on the engine in the middle! unheard of now how dangerous!, then we stopped peterborough and had a pole of sausage sandwiches for breakfast, then we either tipped or loaded in sheffield an back again, we used to wander round the yard in those days as there was a public footpath through it! we used to climb up an look in the cabs, i used to long for a ride in the scammell crusader artic, or the erf artic. never did though.

[whooshwhoosh]

have a look in 80s trucking thread,i love the looks of the crusader(way before my driving age) truckerash has put a few pics of em in

[mrken]

remember them big bold writing on doors

[mark_r]

Yes i remember Stortash very well, they used to run a lot out of Thurrock power station with my old dad during the 70s. One of my dads mates worked on there,he had a Leyland Marathon, yellow and red, and i think they had some Scammells & Atkinsons. We also used to see them alot in Sheerness steel mill bringing in scrap. I think they were taken over by a firm called Gables which also packed up soon after.I have loads of old photos but none of a Stortash motor , i ,d love to see one again if anyone could help!!.

[donpablo]

yep, i was over that way a few weeks ago and found the yard still there allthough all fenced up with cameras now!!! it is owned by darlington aggregates now, couldnt see any trucks, and yes it would be good to see some pics, there were leylands also ,

[fred_kelly]

yes i remember this company yellow trucks red letters
owned buy i think a guy called eddie bentley
my mum worked with his daughter on the ambulance service in harlow
i will ask her if she has any info on them but it was 24 years ago

[donpablo]

yes please do that for me! eddie bentley definately rings a bell if you could get some pics great would love to see them, my friend is now living in florida, i will email this site to him he will no doubt add to it may even have sum pics if his dads truck, i know he will remember the trip all those years ago,

[bob-lad]

[donpablo]

blimey bob lad!!! that is probably the truck i climbed up an looked in 30 years ago as i think they only had one? way back then i thought the crusader was the ultimate truck! was you the driver? how did you get the pic?

[bob-lad]

hia donpablo found it on a scammell brochure sorry not the best of quality

[donpablo]

haha still cool that i have actually been on board that truck all those years ago,