A Group of vans with drivers which would appear to have been a line up of what was available the day the photograph was taken. Given prior notice I’m sure we could have assembled a better row of vehicles. However it does illustrate a cross section of the type of vehicles we operated. Try as I may I have tried to identify the names of each driver next to the vehicles but I am unable to. Perhaps someone can at least one and I would value it if you could put on a reply.
I suppose it does illustrate that until the early 80’s we ran an entirely British fleet. I remember the DAF representative coming to see me over and over again asking why w would not consider one of their vehicles. The reply I gave as was the information I had been provided by our workshop was that we had not the facilities to maintain foreign built vehicles. ‘But our engine is a Leyland Engine that we bought the rights for and have turbocharged intercooled and reengineers’ came the reply. At this time all our Leyland vehicles with the exception of AEC were breaking down almost daily with engine products. Leyland were producing the silly fixed head in the Lynx for instance. With all the engines they had designed over the years it was unbelievable that they couldn’t make good engines and yet it seemed one good engine intellectual rights had been sold to DAF. Eventfully we did buy a second hand DAF 26 ton tractor which by all reports at the time was excellent.
Our first foreign vehicles were two second hand Mercedes 16 ton gross rigid curtainsiders (We were influences by our outstanding Mercedes Cars). We went on to buy a further 6 new Mercedes 16 ton gvw rigid curtainsiders and our final vehicle we purchased was a new 13 ton Mercedes with 26 foot box body built in Glassonite with conventional tie rails inside which was the prototype of what we expected would be the replacement of all our aging Bedfords. The only two other foreign vehicles were two 7,5 ton gross Magrius Deutz Luton vans that operated out of our Sheffield Depot that I had bought second hand in Birmingham that had ironically originally belonged to Durham Pine,
It is difficult to quantify to what extent using British made commercial vehicles contributed to our demise but it certainly was a significant factor.
Carl Williams:
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Hi ,thanks for the pm its good to see how this thread as taken off lets hope it keep going Vic, never worked for the company but delivered your fuel for a lot of years thanks for the memories.
Hi Victor nice to hear from you, which fuel company did you deliver for? Its been a lot of years ago and its good that someone still remembers
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Yeah carl, i worked for Phillips Petrolium on a contract basis from 1976 till i retired in may 2010, they became Petroplus at a later date,i also delivered to Watsons Carriers ,and others in the the town some i don’t remember their names, maybe Jones pop,and a company who done box van work like you ,i think they were just behind the Top Hat ,and a tipper firm up the main road towards B/Auckland, they moved to Toft Hill and became Barrons. Vic
My grandmother died in 1969 and had been a comforting presence behind my grandfather when he started in business in 1919, and a valued help to my dad in the years he ran the business since 1948. She had many sayings and one of those was ‘Don’t worry when one door closes another opens. Towards the end of the seventies several of our manufacturing companies began to close. One in particular was Advance Textile Mills, originally part of Pretty Poly and later part of the Global Giant Monsanto, closed their factories in Crook and West Auckland making vast redundancies. We carried 100 per cent of their production mostly to the Leicester area. My father was totally against making any redundancies.
About 1977 D.G. Craig a removal contractor from Darlington run by Wendy Craig’s brother (the famous television actress) had closed because their major work was from the massive Patton & Baldwin Wool mill in Darlington was in the process of closing. We bought four of their vans and gave employment to David Dalrymple who was their estimator/salesman. We actively looked for work to keep all our workers in employment.
Patrick Cavagner was trading in Newcastle as Bainbridge Removals. A little naughty as many people wrongly thought he was part of Bainbridges the famous John Lewis store who once had a removal department. He approached me and we took over his office in Sunderland Street in the centre of Newcastle and employed him and a female clerk plus some of his employees. We emptied warehouse premises occupied by him into our Spennymoor warehouses and repainted three of our vans with Newcastle on Tyne instead of Spennymoor and the Newcastle phone number. It was a success and we managed to be chosen as removal contractors for a respectable portion of the lucrative long distance removal market.
Soon afterwards it was announced that Courtaulds were closing their massive Spennymoor Factory with a loss of 3,000 jobs. We had done all the transport out of this factory since it had started in 1969.Again my father did not want redundancies and although there was still several months work from Courtaulds after production stopped the day was approaching where we would have a massive hole in our work. David Dalrymple was working South Tyne and Pat Cavagner North Tyneside to try to obtain any work that was suitable for us to carry on our van fleet. Although we had a good market for removals South of Spennymoor to Darlington Catterick and North well into Northumberland we did very little in Sunderland area. We therefore decided to open an office in Sunderland. Somehow we never made a success in Sunderland like we had in Newcastle.
We had worked for Freemans the mail order people from Peterborough since 1961 where we weekly collected a load from hem of furniture and electrical goods and delivered to private houses in North East. The mail order companies were very close in those years and we did not know but Great Universal that traded under about 6 catalogue names and Kay’s of Worcester were looking for a company who could handle their two man furniture items throughout the UK. Freemans had recommended us and I received a telephone call which ended with us delivering 2,000 Beds and mattresses and 300 three piece suites a week. As they were to private homes and there was no such things as mobile phones let alone sat navs in those days we had to open warehouse depots where our vans could deliver to in bulk so that it could be broken down into smaller loads for smaller vans to be delivered to private homes.
We therefore opened warehouses in Sheffield, Wellingborough and London and had sub contractors in Edinburgh and Midsummer Norton near Bristol. We had one van in London (pictured) four in Sheffield and one in Wellingborough. These were augmented by about 10 subcontractors with their own vehicles at each location. Had things gone on we would have continued in opening premises in Edinburgh and Bristol.
The work in this direction developed rapidly with Freemans Gratin’s and Empire Stores and many manufacturers including Homeworthy Furniture using our services. We tended to use artics with 40 ft trailers between our depots and vehicles going South with beds, 3 piece suites and furniture made in North East were returning with flat Pack furniture which was split between our depots.
I had hoped to develop each depot into smaller versions of Spennymoor doing Removals and van haulage as well as the mail order deliveries but unfortunately time and money was not on our side, Sometime later I may explain what went wrong
I’m pleased to have a picture of the Ford D series based in London. My dad must have been sent it by the depot manager and hung onto it. We never took a photo although it was painted at Spennymoor and signwriten by Peter Butler. It illustrates the new lay out of our livery. Our existing layout had been designed in 1965 and remained unchanged and everyone thought it was looking old fashioned. My dad came to me one day and said the tractor units which were mainly brown looked dull and he thought they would be better cream. This was about 1984 and one of the L reg Bedford TK Luton vans was in our paint shop at the time being repainted. I went out and said paint it all cream and then sat down and roughly drew out how I wanted it painting. W.H>Williams was still in white Capital writing shaded in black on the brown background but on the sides the brown rectangle had been moved towards the top of the van. The remainder of the writing was in what I considered to be a more modern style in red with no shading. The Spennymoor vans would have Spennymoor, Newcastle and Sunderland with the appropriate telephone numbers and then underneath also at London Wellingborough and Sheffield. Similarly each vehicle based at the other depots would have that name i.e. London with the phone number and also at Spennymoor Wellingborough Sunderland and Newcastle. As I expected Peter Butler did an excellent job in interpreting my ideas and writing it on the vans. Everyone seemed to think it was an improvement. However I was disappointed when travelling down the A! And coming up behind one and noticing it didn’t sand out and in fact I could have passed it without realising it was ours. Four tractor units were painted cream. The DAF and 3 ERFs In this case we were able to put the name in a brown rectangle on the cab doors and have it in the same white with black shading. Close up they looked better.
Having these depots meant a lot more travelling for me but this was reduced to a minimum by my dad using trusted long serving Spennymoor drivers as basically spies who would quietly investigate everything when they were delivering and by this means he knew as well as the depot managers what was the situation at each depot.
This was Ford’s effort at a fifteen cwt van before the Transit. We had a 15cwt Bedford CA with an integral Luton built on it by Locomotors of Uxbridge but it was replaced by the Morris 2 tonner. The Bedford was registered in 1957 and was a lovely little van. I was too young ever to drive it. It was sold to a small one band removal contractor from Stanley called Don Clegg, who had pestered for about a year to buy the little Bedford Don in his youth had been a professional heavyweight wrestler who wore a mask. He was a real gentle giant and had pulled off another wrestlers ear in match and decided to retire from the sport. He was a friend of Tom Liddle (TT Liddle Stanley) and seemed to like to collect other removal contractors vans. He never painted or ran the CA just polished it and cherished it. I think it was something to do with the A Licence system that caused us to buy the little Ford. The Bedford CA had required an A Licence and as we needed that for the Morris two tonner, the Ford was handy as it did not require one.
It had a 3 speed column change and wipers that worked on suction which meant as long as you were accelerating they worked but going down hill they went off. No wonder the Ford Transit was such a miracle. Yet by driving this little Ford, during my school holidays I had some of the happiest days of my life. I used to deliver groceries for Thompson’s Spennymoor, Chilton and best of all West Cornforth and Walter Wilson’s in Spennymoor. In the early sixties married women tended not to work and the shops’ staff were a Manager and about 6 young 16-18 year old GIRLS. Better still when we went to the shops one was given the job to accompany me to help do the deliveries Life was paradise.So it was worthwhile suffering driving this contraption.
The Ford was replaced in 1966 by a Morris J2 with a Luton body 2.2 Litre Diesel… One day I had gone to Stockton to make a delivery with the J2 and had had to call back at Thompson’s West Cornforth where when I arrived I saw Valerie one of the girls cleaning the shop window. So happy was I to see her that I jumped out and forgot to put the handbrake on and the Morris ran into the car parked in Front.
We dd about a couple of years later buy a Ford Transit petrol standard 15 cwt which was a pleasure to drive. We then subsequently bought 2 35 cwt Transit with Luton Bodies by Marsdens and A Bedford CF similar specification. The difference between the Transit and the CF was like chalk and cheese. The Ford winning outright. We also bought a new Transit petrol 15cwt which was painted in Courtaulds Livery which was used to deliver samples. We ran it for exactly 12 months and it had clocked well over 100,000 miles.
Article from Motor Transport September 20 1974
My Dad at our stand at the opening of an exhitition in spennymoor meeting a Government Minister and two members of Sedgefield Distric Council about 178. The young lady standing behind was Linda Turnbull one our office staff at the time.
My Grandfather, W.H.Wiliams Senior (Willie) started the business in 1919. He retired about 1950 and handed controll to my father W.W.Williams Junior (Harry. I joined my father when I left school after ‘A’ Levels 1966. Although I had one of the longest apprentiships going. Helping my dad on a removal when I was 8 a rear van door blew round in the wind and flung me back in the van over the drop well and behind the wheel arches. The boxes I were carrying flying wit me. From as long as I can remember I was assisting with the accounts. That helped me learn to add.
Found this 30 cwt 1938 Bedford in a field. My Grandfather and me travelled to West Midlands , near where Leslie Whittle, the daughter of a Bus buisiness owner was kidnapped and held down a drain shaft and eventually murdered by the Black Panther. It was about two weeks after the body was discovered. It took several years to make it roadworthy and in this condition again.
Seddon 16ton GVW Boxvan as it was orriginally used in ATM livery. When ATM closed its factories in Crook and West Auckland it was repainted in our cream and brown livery. From being new until we finnished it was driven by Dennis Lee. Dennis had orriginally worked for ATM and transferred to us when we took over their transport.After leaving us he gained employment as a tipper driver and it happened hat one day travelling down Crawleyside bank his brakes failed ad Dennis tried to jump from his cab, but unfortunatly his coat got caught by the cab door handle and he tragicly was killed as he his body hit a tree. Dennis was a quite person who kept himself to himself but one day when I had been on a trip to France to see round the Renault Truck factory whilst travelling on A1 home on a Scots Grey coach I saw Dennis in front and I asked the Scots Grey driver to stop him as he passed. I competed my jouney back to Spennymoor with Dennis and got to know him a little better. What a sad end to such a nice chap.
Bedford KG chassis/cab with Glassonite box body built by us for ATM contract and orriginally painted in ATM livery. We had five vans painted in ATM livery and our agreement with them was that we would replace one each year so that the oldest was 5 years old. When ATM closed it was repainted in our livery and used mainly on Courtaulds work until they also closed the Spennymoor plant making about 3000 people redundant. As it was small in capacity by our standards we had limited work for it and probably ended its days doing home deliveries in North East and ■■■■■■■
Tom Liddle was a real character. He ran his removal business T.T. Liddle from Stanley. In the fifties he had a fleet of 5 ERF pantechnicon vans which were all identical and beautiful vans. When my dad was taken by ERF for a tour of their factory in the late 70’s, they had a photograph of one of these vans on display. Like us he also had a Thames 4D Luton and my dad and Tom could swop recollections of all the things that had gone wrong with their respective 4D’s.
Throughout the fifties if we went out onto the A1 I always watched to see one of Liddle’s ERFs and also Alfred Bell’s in their easily recognisable green and red livery.
Tom liddle’s main customer was Vono beds from Tipton. He had three large warehouses at Stanley where he brought them from production at Tipton and delivered them as ordered to furniture shops in Northern England and Scotland. He replaced the ERF’s with Bedford TK Luton vans in the sixties and went on to have 16 of these once again all identical. For some reason about 1964 Tom decided to buy a New Bedford TK chassis cab and have the same body builders who built his vans build a new breakdown. Tom had very few breakdowns so it rarely was used, ran on Trade plates and was never registered.
We could never justify the costs of building one like that, and when he was bought out by P&O we got the opportunity of buying his old vans which all were in excellent condition. It was said that if a driver had no work on a day he was given a paint brush and paint to paint the wheels & front bumper bar and then proceed inside the vans cream for the sides and grey for the floor. Unfortunately his vans were not as high inside as ours and weren’t too useful to us so we only bought two.
At the entrance to his depot he had a very large bungalow with adjoining office, which P&O took over as their offices, so Tom passed away some time building a massive new bungalow. I remember him telling me that one wall was knocked down several times until he was perfectly happy the pointing was precise. (Most bricklayers I have known would have told him what to do) He had two huge kitchens one being the old kitchen from the old bungalow which was used the second just for show. Like all hauliers he got bored and bought out Stanley Removals Ltd and went on to expand it until he lost a large contract and decided again to pack in. He had by then mostly arics with boxvan trailers, but had four newish rigids and the cherry on the cake, his breakdown. We bought the rigids and the breakdown. It only had about 2,000 miles on the clock from new. Here it is once we had painted it. I do wish I had taken a photo in Tom liddle’s livery and I do wish I had photographed one of his 1950’s ERFs
With the exception of the small service vans Landrovers etc used by the fitters all vehicles had a fleet number. The Breakdown, for instance was number 54.This doesn’t mean it was our 54th vehicle. To be honest I don’t have any record or idea how many vehicles we owned between 1919 and 1986.
In the transport office was a very large white board with fleet number, reg number, what goods the vehicle was carrying and when it was due home. When we sold a vehicle the registration number was removed and when a new vehicle was added it was given the vacant fleet number. So several vehicles before the Breakdown could have been number 54.
We obviously had several vehicles which to all intents and purposes were identical. However all had several giveaway signs that I for one could spot. In the late sixties I happened to be walking up Bishop Auckland Main Street when a Bedford SB painted in Courtaulds livery went passed. I never saw the reg no but I knew which it was. When I went back I said to my dad ‘What was so & so doing in Bishop Auckland’ as according to our records it should be in Leicester. We waited to the next Monday morning to have a look at his log sheet. (It was before tachograph days). On interview the driver denied it was me saying I must have been mistaken for another Bedford SB in Courtaulds livery. My father gave him the benefit of the doubt, but that weekend, and a week or so afterwards, equipped with a signwriters brush I put a fleet number on every vehicle. Every vehicle was then clearly identified from the side.
Bob Bradley and Cess Ramsey having a discussion before they leave Green Lane. In actual fact it was a set up by the photographer from Bedford Magazine who wanted a photoof Bob with the Bedford woth another Bedford in the background.
In actual fact as there were no more Bedfords in that day the only van was Cess with his Seddon Vanplan. It wouldn’t do for a Seddon in the Bedford Magazine so the front of Cess’s van had to be hdden. Cess had a lonely sudden death in his flat in Coundon on his own having a heart attack. Police had to forcibly enter and found Cecil dead inside.
Inside our warehouse as it is being built on our site on Green Lane Insustrial Estate. We also had additional warehousing in Spennymoor on the old Courtaulds site
Another photograph taken the same day from outside of the warehouse under construction
We had five AEC’s in total and all were excellent vehicles. Two Mercury Tractor Units Two Mercury rigid box vans which we inherited when we took over the ATM fleet and did all their transport and 1 Mandator which we purchased second hand from A1 Transport. We would have had at least another five new AEC tractor units had they been able to offer reasonable delivery dates. Instead we were persuaded to purchase new Comets and Lynx which were not up to standard
Makes you wonder if Leyland had intentionally stopped AEC in their tracks to make n excuse to close them down.
The AEC in this photo together with the trailer were signwriten by Peter butler. He even did the chair drawing on the Ness Trailer.Peter was a genious and one of the greatest signwriters ever.
Carl, I worked for your father about 74/75 and drove one of the Ford ‘d’ series artics out of Smart & Browns (Electrolux). You mentioned Ray Juler who was my best man when I got married in September 1975. I had known Ray for a lot of years and it was he who put in a good word for me with your Father. As I married and moved to Teesside I needed to find work over there and started for Durham’s late 1975. My memory of W.H. Williams goes further back to the early 50’s as my Grandparents lived in No.9 Marmaduke Street and I can recall occasionally playing out on the street with yourself. I can recall several names from my time at Green Lane in the 70’s, both drivers & fitters. I was apprenticed to ‘Dickie Porter’ at Dents Transport in mid 60’s though never saw out the full apprenticeship, the lure of driving being too great. It’s nice to reminisce over the good old days and the photographs are very much appreciated, keep up the good work.
Hi Carl,
Thanks again for mentioning my dad Peter, Im very biased, but he was very good at what he did, thats probably why many Transport firms in North east and Teeside asked him to signwrite their trucks. He mentioned one story in particular, which he had just finished lettering one of your vehicles, i think your father asked if he could do another one straight away - he then proceeded to work well into the night, and following morning, just to finish the vehicle.
May i correct an error, you mentioned that Ford D series Box Van JLP 148T was lettered by Peter. In fact this was not his work, judging by the spacing, and style of lettering. The AEC artic - Ness Box Trailer was indeed his work, i do know his style of signwriting - if you compare both pictures, you can see the difference.
Some of his other work is pictured on theOld North East Truckers Thread.
Regards 
Phil.
Mysterron:
Carl, I worked for your father about 74/75 and drove one of the Ford ‘d’ series artics out of Smart & Browns (Electrolux). You mentioned Ray Juler who was my best man when I got married in September 1975. I had known Ray for a lot of years and it was he who put in a good word for me with your Father. As I married and moved to Teesside I needed to find work over there and started for Durham’s late 1975. My memory of W.H. Williams goes further back to the early 50’s as my Grandparents lived in No.9 Marmaduke Street and I can recall occasionally playing out on the street with yourself. I can recall several names from my time at Green Lane in the 70’s, both drivers & fitters. I was apprenticed to ‘Dickie Porter’ at Dents Transport in mid 60’s though never saw out the full apprenticeship, the lure of driving being too great. It’s nice to reminisce over the good old days and the photographs are very much appreciated, keep up the good work.
hi Mysterrone, Its so good to hear from an ex driver. Its also brings back memories of Ray Juler who was your best man. Ray was very friendly with Brian Sheldon as they both drove vans usually carrying Courtaulds products. Brian drove a Ford D Series Box van reg FPT whilst Ray drove a Leyland Laird Box Van. They say the good die young, and whilst Ray was no angel he was a thouroughly nice bloke, and its sad he died so young.I never did live in Marmaduke street but it was the home of my Grandfather and because of the garage being there most of my youth was spent there. Times were so better then, everyone knew each other and my grandmother hardly ever needed to lock the doors. ■■■■ Porter left Dents and came to work for us whilst we were still in Marmaduke Street and then transfered to Green Lane when it was built. He worked with Kenny Armstrong and many other fitters, who due to my memory I cannot remember their names.When you worked there was the workshops managed by Eddie Thornton or had Allan Henderson taken over? If you can remember the reg no of the vehicle you were driving I would be pleased also if you can list any names of drivers, fitters etc you can remember I would be so pleased as it will jog my memory. So good to hear from you
PHILBUTLER:
Hi Carl,
Thanks again for mentioning my dad Peter, Im very biased, but he was very good at what he did, thats probably why many Transport firms in North east and Teeside asked him to signwrite their trucks. He mentioned one story in particular, which he had just finished lettering one of your vehicles, i think your father asked if he could do another one straight away - he then proceeded to work well into the night, and following morning, just to finish the vehicle.
May i correct an error, you mentioned that Ford D series Box Van JLP 148T was lettered by Peter. In fact this was not his work, judging by the spacing, and style of lettering. The AEC artic - Ness Box Trailer was indeed his work, i do know his style of signwriting - if you compare both pictures, you can see the difference.
Some of his other work is pictured on theOld North East Truckers Thread.
Regards
Phil.
Hi Phil
So nice to hear from you again, hope your dad is still keeping as well as can be expected
I do remember one occasion and I think it was on a Saturday. Peter and Bob were lettering a van which was as I have said before was for most sign writers 3 days work, when a Ford D Servies Luton Van came back with extensive damage to the Luton. We were beat as we needed it loading and away again on the Sunday. Bill Bailey who did our bodywork cut off the luton and altered the front to make it into a boxvan, and put a cab light sign on top of the now exposed cab. Between them I do not know how the alluminium pannel was given an etched primer and painted in our cream and brown both undercoat and finnishing coat. Your dad knew what dryers to use to make it dry quickly and it was signwritten together with W.H.Williams on the Hatcher cab light/sign (Now it was a boxvan) and went out on the Sunday as if nothing had happened to it. That was one case I remember. No doubt there were more.With regard the Ford Boxvan, If it wasn’t your dads lettering I cannot rememer. We did experimentr with Vynil lettering but I, as the van was smaller than our norm, I don’t think we had anyone who would have known what size lettering they would have needed. Certainly the setting out would have been coppied from your dad’s work.
Finally wishing you the best of health and luck and give your dad my kindest regards Carl
