Taken on london rd calne…
well mr daniels, remeber me?john stewarts lad shunter at east leake? great to know some of the lads are still about! :
Havent visited the site for a while,sad news comes in heaps of three,Frank (plummer)alison,John carr,Tony perry.2010 a bad yearR I P.Still a few of us about,well mr Stewart,i hope your side of the operation is ok.If so regards to dad.Are maurice,tommy,and barry still about? Some of the best days of my life, working for 333 sqadron.must visit this site more often. Best of luck BOB(exsyms) PS time we had another reunion,i think the boss wants one.
gunnerheskey:
I never got round to posting congrats last night on this thread! What a great outfit Symes were ---- my kind of operation! A proper haulier in the true sense of the word I remember seeing them up and down the road!Cheers Bewick ! Syms & without question yours are a long gone breed of what we all used to love and enjoy about the industry.
Smart livery’s and an excellent well looked after outfit, and good kit too.
A bit off subject Bewick , but, I remember having a night out with one of your lads many years ago, he had the R cab 112 with the name " goalie john " on it. Small bloke, short black hair, nice bloke…
probably jonny gingel and as for that ole red raider he is still just as ugly {chris oldam}
brake1275:
gunnerheskey:
Nice pic of that B-series Carl. I’m guessing that Roy Brake probably could’ve been an ex driver or could’ve well been an ex subbie. I’ll have to ask my mate " Chris Oldham " who had 16yrs on Syms.Roy Brake drove for Syms of calne from the early sixties to his tragic death in Nov 1978. He mostly drove the night trunk from Syms yard to British Gypsum, Nottingham
His ERF B series MMR 909R left the road early one Nov morning with 20 ton of plasterboard and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
I travelled as much as I could with my Dad and loved every minute of it.
I bought KYR 408X in Oct 2008 and restored her in Syms colours as a tribute to my Dad and named her Pamela Lilian as a tribute to Mum. I have a few photos of Syms trucks and as soon as I get the hang of posting them, I’ll put them on.
Cheers Kev Brake
What a lovely thing to do, judging by the photo of KYR 408X earlier in the thread you did a lovely job too Kev, fair play to you & thanks for sharing that.
BB
Basilbrush:
brake1275:
gunnerheskey:
Nice pic of that B-series Carl. I’m guessing that Roy Brake probably could’ve been an ex driver or could’ve well been an ex subbie. I’ll have to ask my mate " Chris Oldham " who had 16yrs on Syms.Roy Brake drove for Syms of calne from the early sixties to his tragic death in Nov 1978. He mostly drove the night trunk from Syms yard to British Gypsum, Nottingham
His ERF B series MMR 909R left the road early one Nov morning with 20 ton of plasterboard and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
I travelled as much as I could with my Dad and loved every minute of it.
I bought KYR 408X in Oct 2008 and restored her in Syms colours as a tribute to my Dad and named her Pamela Lilian as a tribute to Mum. I have a few photos of Syms trucks and as soon as I get the hang of posting them, I’ll put them on.
Cheers Kev BrakeWhat a lovely thing to do, judging by the photo of KYR 408X earlier in the thread you did a lovely job too Kev, fair play to you & thanks for sharing that.
BB
Thanks BB. I loved every minute I spent with dad on the old night haul on a friday night after school. Going back to an earlier age both me and my brother travelled in his old ERF LV THR 322J and then a brand new A series NWV 605M taking in turn to sit in the seat or on the bonnet, those were the days.
brake1275:
Basilbrush:
brake1275:
gunnerheskey:
Nice pic of that B-series Carl. I’m guessing that Roy Brake probably could’ve been an ex driver or could’ve well been an ex subbie. I’ll have to ask my mate " Chris Oldham " who had 16yrs on Syms.Roy Brake drove for Syms of calne from the early sixties to his tragic death in Nov 1978. He mostly drove the night trunk from Syms yard to British Gypsum, Nottingham
His ERF B series MMR 909R left the road early one Nov morning with 20 ton of plasterboard and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
I travelled as much as I could with my Dad and loved every minute of it.
I bought KYR 408X in Oct 2008 and restored her in Syms colours as a tribute to my Dad and named her Pamela Lilian as a tribute to Mum. I have a few photos of Syms trucks and as soon as I get the hang of posting them, I’ll put them on.
Cheers Kev BrakeWhat a lovely thing to do, judging by the photo of KYR 408X earlier in the thread you did a lovely job too Kev, fair play to you & thanks for sharing that.
BB
Thanks BB. I loved every minute I spent with dad on the old night haul on a friday night after school. Going back to an earlier age both me and my brother travelled in his old ERF LV THR 322J and then a brand new A series NWV 605M taking in turn to sit in the seat or on the bonnet, those were the days.
Those were indeed the days Kev, I used to spend as many days as I could riding shotgun with drivers from a local cattle haulier to us.They’d call on us to pick something up for market & I’d be in the cab & gone. Mother used to go nuts because I missed so much school time.
I met one of the drivers several years ago & we had a natter about those good old days. He was surprised that I could remember every detail of what we got up to. I told him I wouldn’t swap those memories for a win on the lottery but I just wish I’d had a camera. So many memories & not one photo.
Take care
BB
exsyms:
Havent visited the site for a while,sad news comes in heaps of three,Frank (plummer)alison,John carr,Tony perry.2010 a bad yearR I P.Still a few of us about,well mr Stewart,i hope your side of the operation is ok.If so regards to dad.Are maurice,tommy,and barry still about? Some of the best days of my life, working for 333 sqadron.must visit this site more often. Best of luck BOB(exsyms) PS time we had another reunion,i think the boss wants one.
hi dad died about 3 yrs ago, paddy also passed away. tommy still around and maurice, dont know about barry? a reunion would be good! cheers kev.
Syms drivers reunion 2011 is on Sept24th. It will be held at calne woodlands social club. Any of you ex syms boys want to come contact Bob Daniels 07759581233. or Jock Henderson07879843918, look forward to seeing you BOB.
cant wait for the reunion got some mint photos to put on display and hopefully a model of a f10.i will never forget the enjoyment of being in a convoy of up to 13 trucks coming back to calne on a saturday morning from east leake stopping at jacks hill at towcester for breakfast it was such good times back then as a youngster …old times were good times the treble 3 squadron together again
Big jer, get ya pics up on here an lets have a butchers… 
as soon as i sort them out i will get them put up…got thousands of pics all in boxes must get round to sorting them in to some sort of order !
Superb mate ! Look forward to it…
if any one has any photos of syms that we could put on display at drivers reunion please contact me on 07901 555734 i am happy to pay for prints money not a problem
Big jer you have a pm
Does anybody recall a driver by the name of Chris or Dave(cant remember his christian .name 
) Law.
He was local to Calne and when he finished at Syms,he started his own driving school with a Ford Cargo.
He put me through my class 1 in 1982.
Not long after i heard he died from a heart attack . . . . hope it wasnt my driving 
On second thoughts, i think his name was John Law ?
Dont forget Syms reunion 24th Sept.Please make an effort to attend might be the last one,(hopefully not)thanks to
big jer for the photos,will get some enlarged to go in the hall.looking forewards to seeing all of you ,the ones i know and the ones i have to meet,see you soon 333. Best wishes BOB.
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gunnerheskey:
Hi folks,
A farm where i tip on a regular basis nr Devizes is where i met " Chris Oldham " . Now Chris and I started swapping a few stories and it transpired that he had 16 years as a driver for Syms of Calne. Well superb i thought as i remember seeing there smart F86s 88s F7s 10s & 12s flying around in the 70s & 80s. So i managed to cadge some absolute gems of pictures off him to share with the good folk of T-NET.
There may be some ex Syms drivers or associates, or some people who recognise some of the Syms lads. So enjoy…
Chris Oldham, in his younger guise,
Thats just a few to be starting off with, and there’s plenty more where they came from…
remember that yard,was it beaversbrook?the blue f10 was me dads
gunnerheskey:
Nice one R-Jacko… Here’s a couple more…
Anybody recognise these rogues…
is the bloke on the left Ivor Chivers?
you are correct it is ivor chivers on the left john wells in the middle and dave hazell on the right