edworth:
Hi Carl…Dwarf, it would not surprise me at anything they got up to, what a education for life , I was entertaining in my van one night in Leicester, when two very well known drivers opened my van and proceeded to settle down on the wrappers for a gossip, I was in the luton, when they relized I had company the whole car park lit up, how some of us where never locked up baffles me, mind in all the city’s and Town’s we stopped at on a regular basis, we all got on well will the police, anybody remember Griff Fender’s from South Wales…I remember Jesus he was a character, Dev’s eued to deliver cheese around London and when you pulled into Kingston for the night you knew if they where there from the smell, the lads had to soak there hands in hot soapy water for a long time to try and get the smell off them…What about Betty’s Bar,Elliott Street, Glasgow anybody remember, come on you guys, we all did not go straight to bed like harry (alright mate) …what about Oldham and Walsall…Woeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Eddie
Hi Eddie,
I think in those days it was wok hard and play hard. Noone could accuse the majority of drivers of not getting through one hell of a lot of work, and after a very hard day you all needed to wind down.
My most vivid memories of drivers coming in with their loads saying they still had a bit room on and asking if they could get more deliveries squeezed on. If you remember we used to take the film from 3M at aycliffe to the film studios at Elstree, Borehamwood etc, and there was aways a gap for it.
i remember asking what Devereux wee carrying as I thought we had dried the market up from north to South , but when I heard cheese I thought we wouldn’t want that.
Gordon Ball This is a photo from the bad winter of 1979 when these trucks failed to get home & only a few miles to go.W H Williams was everywhere. A167 passing through the village of Chilton near Ferryhill, years before it was bypassed
Carl Williams:
Gordon Ball This is a photo from the bad winter of 1979 when these trucks failed to get home & only a few miles to go.W H Williams was everywhere. A167 passing through the village of Chilton near Ferryhill, years before it was bypassed
Thanks Gordon for providing this photograph. So near yet sp far. If you magnify the photo you can just make out the outline of another on the left in front. I am sure it was a Friday night and drivers were returning home when the road in front towards Ferryhill was completly blocked. Later vehicles got stuck around about the roundabout at Rushyford next to the Eden Arms Hotel. Drivers started walking trying to get home and many wee taken in overnight by residents living in Chilton. We had over thirty vehicles stuck and had to send for them and bring them back to Grreen Lane as the roads were made passable. This is a very rare photograph, showing a bad winter from the past.
Eddie looking @ your fantastic photo’s of wagon’s from the past great memories for me i remember all the faces, but the group in which your ex wife is shown @ the works do & you do not know the woman far left her name is i beleive Christine Robson & lived in York Hill Crescent & lived in Australia for many years but died about 2 years ago she is my sister in law’s sister.
goggietara:
Eddie looking @ your fantastic photo’s of wagon’s from the past great memories for me i remember all the faces, but the group in which your ex wife is shown @ the works do & you do not know the woman far left her name is i beleive Christine Robson & lived in York Hill Crescent & lived in Australia for many years but died about 2 years ago she is my sister in law’s sister.
Hi goggietara…yes I think it was christine, so who would she be at the party with, do you know, I have a feeling it is one of the lads I know but my mind is blocked …Carl I well remember 3m when i was a lad on the small vans I used to collect film from the CWS warehouse on the quayside at Newcastle, they used to store film for 3m as it was kept at a certain temprature I do not know why as we never had to keep it cool or whatever when it was on the vans, I rememeber I was with Harry Blachtford when we delivered film to Pinewood and on the back lot of the studio’s was the remnants of “The Guns of Naverone” in the film they looked like they were solid and made of steel, they were wood and plywood, go’es to show what they can do in films…Back to 3m I was in some trouble one night at “The North Eastern” in Spennymoor after booting someone I bust a blood vessel in my foot,the next day I had to go to Pontadilus near Swansea to 3m’s place, by the time I had got there and all the gear changing as it was my left foot, I could hardly work, the lads at 3m unloaded my van and the nurse at the factory bathed my foot and put some kind of gel on it, then wrapped it all up for my return home, it was great after that and I have never forgot how good they were to me…is goggietara a old williams driver ?.
Eddie
Carl Williams:
Someone was saying earlier I should write a book, but unfortunately I don’t think that ever will happen as my health is not good enough, and I could never do it credit, but if the true story was ever told it would make a film, although it would be difficult to find actors ugly enough to play some parts (Joking)
Think I said that at some point
Not sure you are doing ok here with the stories so they are not lost forever
Hi Eddie i am Gordon sorry for that
Christine Robson married a lad from Merrington called Kenneth Williams & was a bus driver they emigrated to OZ many years ago, i had not seen that photo before thanks for showing it.
I remember Betty’s Bar on the waterside in Glasgow it was a great pub, all the Prostitues used to get their business from there & one night after the pub shut a crowd of the wee girls all Angels ha ha were gathered outside waiting for a night on a ship moored up, 30£ a night i heard to satisfy the crew & help them sleep by whatever, a problem developed one of the girls boyfreinds did not want her to go & hit her then the Group of girls jumped on him & gave him a real hiding what a mess he was.We also went to the big newspaper publishers just along from Betty’s for our dinner it was called the ------ Echo but cannot remember what lovely grub.Harry Blatchford lived near me in Chilton a nice lad
Gordon.
Hi Eddy,
Forgot to ask are you fully recovered from food poisoning(fish). I was poisoned by fish in Kent after a lovely big fish & chips meal i was very ill for a couple of days sick for hours & all energy went, been wary since.
Carl remember Peter Winship he was a real character, one morning after a night in Pontefract he said give me a knock on the door in the morning if he was not up which i did he was sleeping but put his thumb up as we do meaning OK i got into the depot & was given a job elsewhere then a couple of hours later the office asked where he was as we had been on on exhibition together in Walsall.It turned out he had a heart attack i felt terrible poor lad.
goggietara:
Hi Eddy,
Forgot to ask are you fully recovered from food poisoning(fish). I was poisoned by fish in Kent after a lovely big fish & chips meal i was very ill for a couple of days sick for hours & all energy went, been wary since.
Carl remember Peter Winship he was a real character, one morning after a night in Pontefract he said give me a knock on the door in the morning if he was not up which i did he was sleeping but put his thumb up as we do meaning OK i got into the depot & was given a job elsewhere then a couple of hours later the office asked where he was as we had been on on exhibition together in Walsall.It turned out he had a heart attack i felt terrible poor lad.
Gordon Ball
Hi Gordon,
Of couse I remember Peter Wnship, but I only have faint recolection of his heart attack. It seems I have a good memory up to 1980 then it seems to go, s Peter must have suffeed his heart attack after 1980.
Employees names from the past continue being past on to me.
Remember Billy Raine? He lived in Bishop Auckland near John Hull
and Stan Harper who was a fitter that all the girls in the office seemed to fancy. Stan left us and set up a garage at Willington, eventually getting the Rover agency, which was unfortunate as it was part of British Leyand and they drove him to bankrupsy.
edworth:
Hi Carl& Gordon…Will have to call and see you and your mam, will have to sort something out, my wife Elizabeth is a Williams and is related somewhere down the line, her Dad was Harry also a W H Williams he was chauffer over the factory for years also had “The Ship” at Middlestone Village, see if my memory is correct or not (your mam might know) Harry who I have just mentioned also had a relation (brother I think) who had the “Salvin Arms” for a few years, but am I right thinking your Mam actually lived or worked in the “salvin Arms” did your dad meet her there, all the conversations your dad and I had when I was a wagon lad, sure he mentioned the Salvins, Gordon…you must have a good memory, me and the other lad on the horse in the field on Barnfield Road, is Keith McCrone (died when he was 45 twenty year ago) as Carl as mentioned before about Ozzy Broomfield, Ozzy was Keith’s uncle and he used to get lots of old cars for scrap, most of them where still runners, so he use to let us take them into the field and drive them around, as a kid it was fantastic, we had Austin’s, Morris’s and even a Alvis, one day we had one that the petrol tank was knackered, so Keith sat on the front mudguard with a gallon tin of petrol and gravity fed it straight into the carb, we where flying around the field and the petrol was spilling all over and it set the car on fire, we were alright and it did not matter about the car, Ozzy also made stock cars out of them and raced all over including Aycliffe Stadium, Carl…with all the story’s you could write a few books about some of the things we use to get up to, think some of them would have to be put on the top shelf with some of the shananagins we all got up to.
Eddie
Hi Eddie
I wonder how much the Alvis would have been worth today?
I bet if you knew how they would go up in value you woud have dne a deal with Ozzy and done it up and kept it.
Dad told me a story of how when he was seven or eight Grandad had come in with an old car (Old in about 1928) He had given a pound for it and had driven it home and it was still taxed. Dad wasn’t sure what it was but it had a canvas body. My Grandfather sold it for a fiver in about a day. Not bad profit, but as the car was probably from the nineteen tens. What would it have been worth today?
If only we knew then!
Best wishes
Carl
P.S We haven’t heard from Peter for a while. Hope you telling him he should have been a ban surgeon hasn’t split his head in two, as it got bigger!
Gordon BallCarl Williams
Carl this was while en route to the South of France in i beleive TPT 19V approx 1984
to collect a removal (see previous photo) from near Bordeaux to Stockton. – Gordon Ball posted a photo to your Wall.
Hi Gordon & Carl…Christine on the photo, I am sure she went to Durham Road school and might have been a prefect, it is weird as you get older you seem to remember things more cleary from the past, I cannot remember what the hell I did last week…Carl i think there was a driver from Bishop called Beaumont, think he was related to John Willetts, the only saturday night I ever stopped out was with him, I had a lot of drops for ness and did not get away till late in the week, met up in Kingston he had the old TK 4 cylinder body to big (you know the one) he had been having trouble with it and as we were empty and on our way home we left about 4 in the morning (so I could get back to the club) anyway I stayed behind him all the way to wetherby, I was sick as a pig as it was so slow, I flashed him to stop and to see how it was running and he said it was going brilliant, so I said goodbye to him and off for the club, next morning (monday) when I came in I got such a bollocking off your dad for leaving him as he broke down shortly after I left him, but what made matters worse was when your dad told George Hardy (black spot) to attend him, George went to him in his car and had no bloody gear with him, so when he could not fix it, he had to come back to spennymoor and get something to tow him, no wonder your dad went ballistic, but that was George…wish I had that Alvis now, there was also a 1000cc Vincent in the yard, we use to start it and sit on the seat, but we were not big enough to handle it, what a bike…Gordon, over the food poisoning now, have been bad with it, but like the doc says, as you get older you cannot fight such things as when you are younger, I suppose that go’es for a leg over and all
Eddie
Hi Carl /Eddie. I am still here and my head hasn’t split in two,just pressures of work and rebuilding our 1947 Bedford (marsden) removal van. Can you remember when Neil Corner bought a bedford TK from Sydney Taylor racing to carry his racing cars,It was fitted out as a workshop.It was brought up tp marmarduke street where it was overhauled and repainted red and White. I believe he engaged a professional design company to design a logo and sign writing on the sides and rear of the body.The sign writing was his name and Croxdale Co Durham in a White band down the side of the body,but the logo was a five foot diameter White circle with a road sign for a bend painted on both sides and back (his name being Corner) it looked very nice, but I believe he was stopped by the police whilst driving down the motorway and being told to remove it as he was driving a mobile road sign. Hope you are both well Peter
Carl Williams:
FUP145C had another more serious accident when it was much older. We had two drivers at the time called Pinkney and I am not sure of the first name of the driver who was driving. In a small village in Lancashire whilst approaching a bend where there was a row of people standing at a bus stop waiting for the next bus our driver had a heart attach and died at the wheel. The van carried on travelling straight ahead and just missing the people standing waiting it hit a church wall and substantial damage was done to the cab. Normally in these circumstances the vehicle would have been towed back to Spennymoor, where no doubt the insurers would have written it off and we would have bought the salvage and repaired it and put it back on the road, but due to the circumstances we didn’t bother as I suspect no one would have felt like driving it again. We sent a driver to photograph it and I have in the recent year just managed to loose it. Looking at it recently, we would have only has to ask Marsden’s to supply half a cab front and bonded the fibreglass back into place, but after the driver’s death we just didn’t have the will to do so.
Carl mentioning that accident in i think Bury it was Bob Pinkney who died @ the wheel & the othe wagon our Lady driver was i think Christine a single mum from Croft they had just unloaded @ the same customer a short time earlier.
Carl Williams:
FUP145C had another more serious accident when it was much older. We had two drivers at the time called Pinkney and I am not sure of the first name of the driver who was driving. In a small village in Lancashire whilst approaching a bend where there was a row of people standing at a bus stop waiting for the next bus our driver had a heart attach and died at the wheel. The van carried on travelling straight ahead and just missing the people standing waiting it hit a church wall and substantial damage was done to the cab. Normally in these circumstances the vehicle would have been towed back to Spennymoor, where no doubt the insurers would have written it off and we would have bought the salvage and repaired it and put it back on the road, but due to the circumstances we didn’t bother as I suspect no one would have felt like driving it again. We sent a driver to photograph it and I have in the recent year just managed to loose it. Looking at it recently, we would have only has to ask Marsden’s to supply half a cab front and bonded the fibreglass back into place, but after the driver’s death we just didn’t have the will to do so.
Carl mentioning that accident in i think Bury it was Bob Pinkney who died @ the wheel & the othe wagon our Lady driver was i think Christine a single mum from Croft they had just unloaded @ the same customer a short time earlier.
Gordon.
hi Gordon,
I didn’t realise that Christine Oliver was following him when the accident happened. She must have been very shocked and must havve photographed the van. When someone you have just worked with unloading two large loads it would be dreadful to see that happen to them and ten have to carry on alone with your journey home.
I remember I was away somewhere and David Darymple pickd me up at Darlington Station and said did I mind if he called at home (He lived in Darlington). His wife made me a cup of tea and then he told me. He must have thought I would be shocked.
Old FUB hadn’t suffered too much damage, which is surprising as it had run straight into a heavy stone wall at 30mph and would not have cost too much to repair but it must have been nearly 15 years old and we were replacing the SBs and so we wrote it off.
It just shows how well the Bedford Marsden SB’s were buit and they were like the Routmaster bus and would run for ever.
parcelman:
Just like to know if anybody has pictures of williams vehicles,contacted carl williams through this site and has been very helpfull by having a few pictures added but admits he doesnt have many.Any drivers who may have worked there or knows somebody that worked there may have the odd picture laying about would be great,incidentally my father jim ferguson would also appreciate getting to see any pictures of williams or getting to hear of any drivers that are still kicking around he would love to hear from you,hope some of you can help?
Hi i worked with your Dad Jim a nice man he liked the scottish trips & am sure he likes living up there.I have put a couple of photo’s & stories on the W H Williams site.Ask your Dad about the Friday nights in the Bush @ Chilton after a hectic week @ work with myself also Neal Evans & many more.
Please let us know if your dad is doing well?
VUP 812L Seddon Pennine Passenger chassis with integral pantechnicon bodywork by Marsden of Warrington.
Body exterior and cab in Glass fibre. Engine Perkins 6.354. Overall exterior length 33ft 8ft2 1/2in wide 13ft 3in high.
This, was the first of several Seddon Pennines we had built by Marsden and Vanplan and I believe was the first that Marsden had built.
VUP 812L was given new to Eddy Ramsey to drive who previously had driven EUP488G from new. EUP was a bedford KF which had a ‘sleeper cab’ and up to that time we had turned a blind eye to drivers sleeping in their vehicle’s as technically they had by law to sleep a certain distance from the steering wheel, and the TGWU opposed sleeper cabs. When we decided to start using seddons replacements for Bedfords drivers were complaining that they would loose their sleeper cab and arguing that we gained by them sleeping in the vehicle as a ‘Security measure’. We therefore made a concession and had Marsden and Vanplan fit trapdoors in the cab roof into the luton to give the driver access and also agreed that drivers could carry a single matress on the luton and when they did not need the extra capacity of the luton to ‘tie it off’ leaving it empty. Eddy with VUP did a lot of large removals and usually needed the luton, but more than not unloaded on the night so he had access to the full van to provide accomodation for him and who ever travelled with him.
VUP812L did several overseas trips to Europe.
The Seddons were reliable vehicles and their running costs compared with those of the Bedfords. Strangely the Perkins engines performed well in these vehicles achieving acceptable mileages, differently from our experience with the same engines in other makes, but in the end we could buy three Bedfords for the cost of two Seddons and with no running expence savings to compensate we went back onto Bedfords.
pbsummers:
Hi Carl /Eddie. I am still here and my head hasn’t split in two,just pressures of work and rebuilding our 1947 Bedford (marsden) removal van. Can you remember when Neil Corner bought a bedford TK from Sydney Taylor racing to carry his racing cars,It was fitted out as a workshop.It was brought up tp marmarduke street where it was overhauled and repainted red and White. I believe he engaged a professional design company to design a logo and sign writing on the sides and rear of the body.The sign writing was his name and Croxdale Co Durham in a White band down the side of the body,but the logo was a five foot diameter White circle with a road sign for a bend painted on both sides and back (his name being Corner) it looked very nice, but I believe he was stopped by the police whilst driving down the motorway and being told to remove it as he was driving a mobile road sign. Hope you are both well Peter
Hi Peter,
You have a vey good memory.
When we got the van in it had to be painted red and then the designer gave the design with a large white circle on the side and a white panel wie length of the van about 1ft above the bottom and 1ft deep. noone at our place knew how to do the circle so I fitted a piece of chalk to a length of string the radius and by holding the end of the string in the centre we managed to draw a perfect circle and filled it in white. The white pannel was measued from the moulding on the bottom of each side of the van and when the painting was completed waiting for Peter Butler to signwrite including the ‘corner sign’, Neil Corner called up to see and said the back was a little plain and would like the white pannel continuing accoss the back. That is when the problem started as te two sides wee not exactly the same height and the white pannel would not join up. as one side was heigher tan the other.
By slightly dropping one side and slightly highering the other they joined up and it was not too noticable, and we got away with it.
What are you doing with the old Bedford? Does it need much work?
Look after yourself even you, Peter are starting to get older now.
Was it ever law to be a certain distance from the steering wheel when sleeping in the cab, if so what was the distance?
and what if you had a fold down bed in a day cab?.
, I was entertaining in my van one night in Leicester, when two very well known drivers opened my van and proceeded to settle down on the wrappers for a gossip, I was in the luton, when they relized I had company the whole car park lit up,
…Carl I well remember 3m when i was a lad on the small vans I used to collect film from the CWS warehouse on the quayside at Newcastle, they used to store film for 3m as it was kept at a certain temprature I do not know why as we never had to keep it cool or whatever when it was on the vans, I rememeber I was with Harry Blachtford when we delivered film to Pinewood and on the back lot of the studio’s was the remnants of “The Guns of Naverone” in the film they looked like they were solid and made of steel, they were wood and plywood, go’es to show what they can do in films…Back to 3m I was in some trouble one night at “The North Eastern” in Spennymoor after booting someone I bust a blood vessel in my foot,the next day I had to go to Pontadilus near Swansea to 3m’s place, by the time I had got there and all the gear changing as it was my left foot, I could hardly work, the lads at 3m unloaded my van and the nurse at the factory bathed my foot and put some kind of gel on it, then wrapped it all up for my return home, it was great after that and I have never forgot how good they were to me…is goggietara a old williams driver ?.
as Carl as mentioned before about Ozzy Broomfield, Ozzy was Keith’s uncle and he used to get lots of old cars for scrap, most of them where still runners, so he use to let us take them into the field and drive them around, as a kid it was fantastic, we had Austin’s, Morris’s and even a Alvis, one day we had one that the petrol tank was knackered, so Keith sat on the front mudguard with a gallon tin of petrol and gravity fed it straight into the carb, we where flying around the field and the petrol was spilling all over and it set the car on fire, we were alright and it did not matter about the car, Ozzy also made stock cars out of them and raced all over including Aycliffe Stadium, Carl…with all the story’s you could write a few books about some of the things we use to get up to, think some of them would have to be put on the top shelf with some of the shananagins we all got up to.
