I am currently researching a book about the 1970s BBC serial The Brothers, set in the fictional haulage company Hammond Transport. I have successfully identified the location of the first depot seen in the series (Ralph Hilton Transport of Lombard Wall, SE6) however the location of the second location used for the Hammond depot is proving more problematic. I have found a press article referring to “Kinloch’s at Epsom” but can find no mention of this being a haulage firm on the internet. Obviously we are talking 40+ years ago now, but I wondered if anybody had heard of this firm?
stokerob:
I am currently researching a book about the 1970s BBC serial The Brothers, set in the fictional haulage company Hammond Transport. I have successfully identified the location of the first depot seen in the series (Ralph Hilton Transport of Lombard Wall, SE6) however the location of the second location used for the Hammond depot is proving more problematic. I have found a press article referring to “Kinloch’s at Epsom” but can find no mention of this being a haulage firm on the internet. Obviously we are talking 40+ years ago now, but I wondered if anybody had heard of this firm?
As a “ex-pat” west Londoner, I can vaguely remember a Kinloch Transport, but I think more Isleworth/Brentford/Twickenham area. You might look there.
Bernard
Wikipedia says location Greenwich. Les.
You could always ask Colin Baker.
Hi
Kinlochs was a grocers and had a warehouse on the A240 between Burgh Heath and Epsom, the site is now an Asda supermarket
billybob:
Hi
Kinlochs was a grocers and had a warehouse on the A240 between Burgh Heath and Epsom, the site is now an Asda supermarket
Thanks guys for all the advice. Thanks for the tip “Billybob”. Perhaps that is why I can find nothing relating to road haulage in the area - I’ll refine my search and see if something comes up.
Is this the yard you’re referring to ?.
youtube.com/watch?v=hIpCxicQe4M
Unfortunately I can’t remember the layout of the present day Asda site at Burgh Heath during the 1970’s,to know if it was a match but I’d be doubtful if it being anywhere around Epsom.
I think it was George Hammonds Transport in Sittingbourne, which is now used by SWEEEP.
SeldomSeenKid:
I think it was George Hammonds Transport in Sittingbourne, which is now used by SWEEEP.
That looks like the depot in the video and hasn’t changed much in all those years. 
If you reverse the street view the old elevated bridge way shown at 21.46 opposite the entrance gate is also still there.
Remembering back to when the series was shown I seem to recall that the first series was modelled on Ralph Hilton and used his depot for location filming, but the second series used another location, and CF has come up with the right location. Can anyone recall when Ralph Hilton went bust, which might tie in with why different locations were used.
The only location I remember was filmed on top of the White Cliffs of Dover. Maybe 72 or 73. It was the last shot in one of the series. There were, I think, two bothers standing there looking across the channel. One raised his arm and pointed to France and said “thats where the future lies, over there”.
They were also my feelings word for word and the location was one I had visited many many times in the 60’s and early 70’s.
Gingerfold
Some years back I obtained the Department of Trade report into HTS. Here is a quote from the second paragraph of the introduction. “HTS changed its name on the 16th September 1974 to Roadships Ltd. (“Roadships”). On 6th June 1975 Roadships was placed in the hands of a Receiver and Manager.”
The QC who wrote the report had been asked in September 1973 by the DTI to look onto the company. Apart from some legalese, its fairly easy to follow and obtain the big picture.
I remember an interview with Ralph Hilton after the demise of HTS (can’t remember if ‘roadships’ was still going.) He was quite wistful about having realised the company had been failing, but that he still had to present a happy face to the world since his two power boats were still involved in some international racing.
I also recall an earlier interview where he said that they scrapped all of their trucks, rather than sell them second hand (I seem to remember they had a lot of Fords) because he didn’t want his opposition benefitting from well maintained second hand trucks. Seemed like a foot shooting exercise to me! I can understand scrapping some for spares, but the parts you needed were always the ones that were knackered on the scrapped truck anyway…
By coincidence I reread last year, the paperback that was Produced from the TV series. There were a couple of things that had amused me at the time and still did.
The road foreman is chatting to the oldest brother (Glyn Owen’s character) and the brother says he could still manage an artic. The foreman says something like ‘well, you might struggle with one of the new Scanias’. Anyone who had driven the previous generation of lorries wouldn’t have ‘struggled’ with a Scania!
The same road foreman is bollocking a driver and says ‘you were twinning’ I had never heard the expression before - or since for that matter. He obviously meant that 2 drivers were running together, which for some strange reason was forbidden. Peculiar at the time and on rereading the book!
John.
Hello John
Thanks for the information. I have done a bit of digging myself and Ralph Hilton Road Services apparently failed in 1973. In August 1974 Ralph Hilton was remanded on bail of £10,000 (a tidy sum in 1974) charged with conspiracy of publishing false accounts and intent to defraud on various dates between August 1st and October 31st 1972. At that date Ralph Hilton had an address at Chislehurst. Ralph Hilton Transport Services Ltd. was a public company.
Interestingly back in April 1971, Richard Marsh MP for Greenwich had opened Hilton’s new depot at Charlton. It was the same day that Richard Marsh was appointed Chairman of the new British Railways Board.
gingerfold:
Hello JohnThanks for the information. I have done a bit of digging myself and Ralph Hilton Road Services apparently failed in 1973. In August 1974 Ralph Hilton was remanded on bail of £10,000 (a tidy sum in 1974) charged with conspiracy of publishing false accounts and intent to defraud on various dates between August 1st and October 31st 1972. At that date Ralph Hilton had an address at Chislehurst. Ralph Hilton Transport Services Ltd. was a public company.
Interestingly back in April 1971, Richard Marsh MP for Greenwich had opened Hilton’s new depot at Charlton. It was the same day that Richard Marsh was appointed Chairman of the new British Railways Board.
Now you mention false accounts, I think that one of the things they were doing to boost turnover was that every time a trailer was dropped in a depot that wasn’t the Home Depot, that depot was charged by the sending depot for ropes and sheets etc. these were then ‘sold’ back on the return.
John.
This has developed into an interesting thread guys regarding Ralph Hilton etc.
The second Hammond Transport depot can be seen clearly in this video youtube.com/watch?v=ReYXvhmZuRU
Around the 32.33 mark. I think the clue here is that it passes a truck carrying the Wavy Line brand logo, which I am certain that Kinloch Provision Merchants used to operate. I am therefore thinking that their depot in Burgh Heath must be the answer to my location query particularly as an article on the series indicated it was in the Epsom area.
I am always surprised that nobody ever produced a model truck bearing the Hammond Transport logo back in the 70s given the popularity of the series.
Depends what you mean by popular, I remember as a young lad being disappointed with this series and looking through the clip from you-tube you can see why, most of it is talk which I found totally boring while waiting to see scenes of lorries and what did you get an old TK pulling a very old single axle trailer out the yard. I quickly lost interest and found the later series with James Hazeldine a better watch. Franky.
stokerob:
This has developed into an interesting thread guys regarding Ralph Hilton etc.The second Hammond Transport depot can be seen clearly in this video youtube.com/watch?v=ReYXvhmZuRU
Around the 32.33 mark. I think the clue here is that it passes a truck carrying the Wavy Line brand logo, which I am certain that Kinloch Provision Merchants used to operate. I am therefore thinking that their depot in Burgh Heath must be the answer to my location query particularly as an article on the series indicated it was in the Epsom area.
This looks much more like the entrance would have been from the A240 in the day before the Asda redevelopment,at 12.15.Followed by a sequence in which the car was driven turning left from the yard along the A 240 towards the junction with the A 217 at 13.05 - 14.05.
youtube.com/watch?v=UBs966vvpfQ
The row of houses on the right shown at 14.05 is still there shown here.So deffo spot on the yard in question that you’re referring to in series 9 was the pre Asda development site at Burgh Heath.
Which leaves the question of the clearly different and seemingly identified yard in the previous video.Which then suggests another second location used in the earlier series 3 which confused the trail in confirming your previous information.
Frankydobo:
Depends what you mean by popular, I remember as a young lad being disappointed with this series and looking through the clip from you-tube you can see why, most of it is talk which I found totally boring while waiting to see scenes of lorries and what did you get an old TK pulling a very old single axle trailer out the yard. I quickly lost interest and found the later series with James Hazeldine a better watch. Franky.
Series 6 and 7 at least seemed to have their moments with the 6v71 TM being a bit more impressive.Then in the Newhaven Dieppe scene with the interesting Transcon 16 tonner ,probably draw bar prime mover,which must have been fun to drive in those pre limiter days without a trailer. 
youtube.com/watch?v=sROwvAOqx0Q
30.10-36.46
But yes a lost opportunity to produce what could have been a great piece of transport history in film with more money spent on it with more emphasis on the trucks and the journeys they were doing and less on the silly office and management life bound stuff.
Carryfast:
Frankydobo:
Depends what you mean by popular, I remember as a young lad being disappointed with this series and looking through the clip from you-tube you can see why, most of it is talk which I found totally boring while waiting to see scenes of lorries and what did you get an old TK pulling a very old single axle trailer out the yard. I quickly lost interest and found the later series with James Hazeldine a better watch. Franky.Series 6 and 7 at least seemed to have their moments with the 6v71 TM being a bit more impressive.Then in the Newhaven Dieppe scene with the interesting Transcon 16 tonner
youtube.com/watch?v=sROwvAOqx0Q
30.10-36.46
But yes a lost opportunity to produce what could have been a great piece of transport history in film with more money spent on it with more emphasis on the trucks and the journeys they were doing and less on the silly office and management life bound stuff.
I think the point to be made about the series is that it was called The Brothers, not Truckers On The Road. It was always intended that the road haulage side should be a background to the lives of the three Hammond brothers and the Boardroom battles to keep the company afloat. In this they succeeded as the weekly battles with each other and outside interests attracted up to 12 million + viewers. But if you wanted a show that was about the drivers themselves, then no this would not be it.