Carl
The lighter end of the Leyland range circa 1980
Not sure if you owned/ran any of these types
transporter man:
Carl
You asked why Leyland sold the Super Comet and Lynx in parallel and competing against each other.
I presume of the vehicles you had the Comet had a 400 engine and the Lynx the 500 ’ headless wonder ’
Sometime in the early / mid seventies I was at a Leyland promotional ’ roadshow ’ at the Station Hotel in Newcastle part of which was a film which explained that Leyland was trying to establish two transport sysems or solutions the 400 and 500. ( a range of vehicles with 400 engines and a range with 500 engines)
I think they wanted to aim a specific system to specific users.
We were lucky enough to buy two headless wonders both 4x2 tippers, one SWB & one MWB, both ended up 6 wheelers, one rear steer and one double drive. One of them had an engine problem, the engine had to be removed and stripped from the bottom end up. It turned out that we required a piston and liner not having a clue as how to remove the liner from the block we contacted Leyland on the Team Valley who said that they had not done a one but had kit to do the job and we could borrow it. It was clear to see that the kit was new and unused and contained no instructions, PAW123 and myself finally worked out that part of the tool cut a rim into the liner and the puller expanded into the groove to allow it to be pulled out; then came the crunch, Leyland only supplied pistons and not liners! To cut a long story short we managed to find a liner with the correct o/d and had the bore machined out. The vehicle was built back up and both trucks sold shortly after.
As for the Lynx vs Super Comet debate, we changed from Comets to Badgers and Reivers to Retrievers which were a far superior with the de-rated 600 engine, the only weakness been the AEC box.
[/quote]
Hi Transporter Man
unfortunatly we had 4 Lynxes
The 500 engine, although trouble seemed to take to our work a little better than it did with others and it was everything else as well that seemed to go wrong with them. They were constantly breaking down with gearbox and every problem you could think of. The engines were a problem but with what we had heard from others our problems with the engine was not as bad as some other operators had, but even the cabs rusted twice as fast as any other make.
With regard to the 500 engine this was also fitted to the National Bus which United ran so many. I had it unofficially confirmed that the Ministry of Transport had to turn blind eyes to defects that would warrent immediate GV9s but if they did not United would not be able to maintain their services.
Also we were approached by the Ministry of Transport on behalf of Newcastle Corporation who had so many double deckers off the road with engine problems (500 was fitted into deckers as well) they desperatly needed help with fitting replacements and we were asked could we do some engine changes for them. They were offering excellent paymemts especially as our workshops were high enough to accomodate the deckers. But we declined as our workshop staff had schedules to keep to in the maintenance of our vehicles and we would not compromise our high standards on our vehicles
All we wanted was a good reliable 24-26 ton gross tractor unit. Leyland let us and everyone down and destroyed our great Commercial Vehicle Industry.
Regards
Carl
Wheel Nut:
Carl Williams:
My other hobby was reading Yellow Pages, whenever I stayed in other areas of the country. This is something very few people could understand, but by reading Yellow Pages you could find out who was operating where and often there were photos or artists impressions of their vehicles.Not the strangest hobby apart from wearing them.
My friend worked for a local wheeler dealer who bought and sold tractors. I spent hours in the office reading Yellow Pages, he had every single area in the UK and used to send his son out armed with a YP to contact all the farmers and try to buy a tractor or two. My job was to try to find these farms whilst driving his old F86 with a drawbar trailer to collect the purchased stock.Great Story about the rise and fall of JD.
Hi Wheelnut
One or two more tales about JD to come that will interest you
Best wishes
Carl
tyneside:
Carl
The lighter end of the Leyland range circa 1980
Not sure if you owned/ran any of these types
Hi tyneside
Thank you for the brochure
We had one EA van which was used on local work and I can never remember driving and infact cannot remember much about
We had 5 FG’s 1 Integral Marsden 3 Marsden luton vans 1 Coachskill Box van and a little 30cwt platform used by the fitters.
Bearing in mind the Fg’s were designed as local delivery vehicles such as bread vans and we used them on long distance a lot they were quite good apart from being bad to drive with the crash gearbox and no synclamesh. In fact I drove one to Naples south Italy to bring a removal back and I can think of no other British Leyland product apart from AEC I would have dared as I would probably have broken down.
Our second artic, the first for several years was a Mastiffe with Perkins V8 engine. I could only describe it as poor to average. I have heard people prasing the Mastiff but ■■■ was not goog for our operation.
Finally we turn to one of their greatest accomplishments the Boxer.The lairds had breen lousy, and Barret-Atkin from Turvey’s came and said with the new Boxer they had put the engine upright and with various other modifications ans improvements put it right. We felt sorry for him and because of the hugh discount he was offering to win back our business we bought a chassis cab and built a Coachskill box van body on it. It was dreadful and so unreliable.
After a couple of years Barret-Atkin had joined Hargreaves at Stockton who had taken over the franchise and come to tell us they had put a Perkins 6354engine in the Boxe4r so all would be well now. So after he virtually agreed to nearly give us one we bought another Chassisd Cab and built on it a coachskill Boxvan. The 635.4 Perkins hadb been OK in our Dodge and Seddon rigids . we had problems with the Dodge tractors but usually they were ok in Rigids. Not in the Boxers Again one of the most unreliable vehicles we had ever operated.
Quite honestly I wish Bathgate and their gang of workers had never existed
Best wishes
Carl
Hi Carl
I have got some more Leyland brochures, some for the Marathon, there is a thread elsewhere on this site and I have posted some samples on there. Also have some for the Bison and Octopus. We had several Bison tippers,a good machine for the type of work we did and one Octopus which was underpowered with the 502 engine.
Then the Constructor6 came along with the TL11 engine which proved very reliable. Was not to keen on the Spicer split gearbox though.
Carl Williams:
tyneside:
Carl
The lighter end of the Leyland range circa 1980
Not sure if you owned/ran any of these types
We also suffered with the Bathgate guys, Our biggest customer Buists were agents for Morris trucks, we felt duty bound to buy trucks from them, the family had bought vehicles from them since the 1930s. The BMC tractors were not brilliant but the crunch came in 1965 when they produced a tilt cab F360 version with the engine laid on its side, I collected the first truck in Bathgate and delivered it to Carrimores in Finchley to be fitted with hydraulics and transporter trailer; when I arrived they congratulated me on completing the journey a) some had not made it b) I still had the spare wheel attached to the vehicle.
I collected it from Finchley about 6 weeks later, it was raining cats and dogs about a mile from the factory I brought the traffic to a stop the trailer brakes had come on, I turned the red line off and drained the trailer tank to move the truck, I continued my journey back North and stopped at the Hiltop Blyth that night. The next morning I turned the air back on and continued only to have the brakes come on again. On return it was taken to Buist for PDI and to have the fault repaired: it turns out that the air tank capacity was not big enough and as the vehicle had air 2 speed, air clutch, air wipers it could not cope. To cut a long story short it had 4 engines in 12 months, Tyneside will know the driver Oliver Whitwood the reg no was FNL 100C and from this the truck was known as F-ing L. BMC must have felt sorry for us and gave us another one for £0 it was better but mot much. We ran it 3-4 years and donated it to Gateshead Tech for the students to play with. Thank goodness Buist took over Paynter Stadium and we moved to ERF.
Carl Williams:
tyneside:
Carl
The lighter end of the Leyland range circa 1980
Not sure if you owned/ran any of these typesHi tyneside
Thank you for the brochure
We had one EA van which was used on local work and I can never remember driving and infact cannot remember much about
We had 5 FG’s 1 Integral Marsden 3 Marsden luton vans 1 Coachskill Box van and a little 30cwt platform used by the fitters.
Bearing in mind the Fg’s were designed as local delivery vehicles such as bread vans and we used them on long distance a lot they were quite good apart from being bad to drive with the crash gearbox and no synclamesh. In fact I drove one to Naples south Italy to bring a removal back and I can think of no other British Leyland product apart from AEC I would have dared as I would probably have broken down.
Our second artic, the first for several years was a Mastiffe with Perkins V8 engine. I could only describe it as poor to average. I have heard people prasing the Mastiff but ■■■ was not goog for our operation.
Finally we turn to one of their greatest accomplishments the Boxer.The lairds had breen lousy, and Barret-Atkin from Turvey’s came and said with the new Boxer they had put the engine upright and with various other modifications ans improvements put it right. We felt sorry for him and because of the hugh discount he was offering to win back our business we bought a chassis cab and built a Coachskill box van body on it. It was dreadful and so unreliable.
After a couple of years Barret-Atkin had joined Hargreaves at Stockton who had taken over the franchise and come to tell us they had put a Perkins 6354engine in the Boxe4r so all would be well now. So after he virtually agreed to nearly give us one we bought another Chassisd Cab and built on it a coachskill Boxvan. The 635.4 Perkins hadb been OK in our Dodge and Seddon rigids . we had problems with the Dodge tractors but usually they were ok in Rigids. Not in the Boxers Again one of the most unreliable vehicles we had ever operated.
Quite honestly I wish Bathgate and their gang of workers had never existed
Best wishes
Carl
Carl Just to let you know I bumped into Barret-Atkin last year at North East Truck & Van he was still working> His son Richard who sold Renault Trucks to us has a bus company in Southern Ireland
Transporter Man Is Oliver Whitwood still around ■■?
transporter man:
Carl Williams:
tyneside:
Carl
The lighter end of the Leyland range circa 1980
Not sure if you owned/ran any of these typesHi tyneside
Thank you for the brochure
We had one EA van which was used on local work and I can never remember driving and infact cannot remember much about
We had 5 FG’s 1 Integral Marsden 3 Marsden luton vans 1 Coachskill Box van and a little 30cwt platform used by the fitters.
Bearing in mind the Fg’s were designed as local delivery vehicles such as bread vans and we used them on long distance a lot they were quite good apart from being bad to drive with the crash gearbox and no synclamesh. In fact I drove one to Naples south Italy to bring a removal back and I can think of no other British Leyland product apart from AEC I would have dared as I would probably have broken down.
Our second artic, the first for several years was a Mastiffe with Perkins V8 engine. I could only describe it as poor to average. I have heard people prasing the Mastiff but ■■■ was not goog for our operation.
Finally we turn to one of their greatest accomplishments the Boxer.The lairds had breen lousy, and Barret-Atkin from Turvey’s came and said with the new Boxer they had put the engine upright and with various other modifications ans improvements put it right. We felt sorry for him and because of the hugh discount he was offering to win back our business we bought a chassis cab and built a Coachskill box van body on it. It was dreadful and so unreliable.
After a couple of years Barret-Atkin had joined Hargreaves at Stockton who had taken over the franchise and come to tell us they had put a Perkins 6354engine in the Boxe4r so all would be well now. So after he virtually agreed to nearly give us one we bought another Chassisd Cab and built on it a coachskill Boxvan. The 635.4 Perkins hadb been OK in our Dodge and Seddon rigids . we had problems with the Dodge tractors but usually they were ok in Rigids. Not in the Boxers Again one of the most unreliable vehicles we had ever operated.
Quite honestly I wish Bathgate and their gang of workers had never existed
Best wishes
Carl
Carl Just to let you know I bumped into Barret-Atkin last year at North East Truck & Van he was still working> His son Richard who sold Renault Trucks to us has a bus company in Southern Ireland
Hi Transporter Man
If you search Buists on this thread you will read of how together with Minories I think they must have had one f the worst parts department in the country.
We used both Buists and Minories and I can realise that working for them you had to use Buists.
Again, although it was long before my time, it seems like from the late 20’s we always had at least one Morris in our fleet, and it would appear they always were trouble. I seem to remember hearing of a Morris Z type that was sent back to the factory to be partially rebuilt, and still was troublesome when it came back.
Also I am so pleased ■■■■ Barrett-Atkin is still kicking about. If again you search his name on this thread you will read what I have said about him. Words cannot express what a good salesman he was. In both my eyes and my late father’s if he had sold Bedfords instead of Morris-BMC-Leyland not only would his life have been a lot easier but his reputation would have been even better. Adams & Gibbons had sales staff that weren’t fit to tie his shoelaces but were fortunate that the vehicles sold themselves. Barrett-Atkin had to work for every sale, and really I should have disliked him because had it not been for him we would have operated none of the Bathgate rubbish, but with his great salesmanship, skill and determination it is impossible not to be impressed by the man.
If you ever meet him again, please give him my kindest regards, and perhaps if he reads this thread he will find my words are a tribute to his skills
Best wishes
Carl
My grandfather’s first model T Ford had solid wheels. The second had balloon tyres and the third ordinary tyres, more like we expect today.
On one occasion he had his older brother driving for him when the first Ford was only a few months old.
Only readers from the North East will have any idea of where I’m describing but here goes. As you are travelling along the road leaving Willington near Crook towards Brancepeth turn left on the road that leads down to Jubilee Bridge on the road that leads to Binchester. The road runs down a small steep bank with a bend that Leeds further down to the bridge. On the steep bank there is a large tree straight ahead (It’s still there today as it was in 1920) and my grandfather’s brother went straight into the tree. (In those days you just drove and learnt as you went on)
Every time I went down that hill with my grandfather he used to tell me ‘That was the tree’ and went on to say that his brother had assured him he could drive.
They got a bogy and put it under the axle and tied it on and then had the horse pull the Ford back to Marmaduke Street Spennymoor. That must have made an early type of recovery vehicle, a bogy and a horse.
My grandfather went on to tell me that they stripped out everything from the front of the Ford and straightened it out and reassembled working right through the night so it was ready for work the next morning.
tyneside:
Transporter Man Is Oliver Whitwood still around ■■?
Funny you should say that I have not seen him for years until this morning when I bumped into him in Tesco (thats my street cred gone) he is just the same joking on and looks ok for 78!!!
After our problems in the seventies with Bedford 330 cu in engines in TK integrals dropping valves and damaging pistons and bores to various degrees we started looking or other chassis for our pantechnicons.
We had four Seddon Penines built by Marsden and Vanplan and although these were alright they certainly were no better than the Bedfords and cost a lot more money .As it happened the problems with the Bedfords never reoccurred and were still running all of the 330s well into the eighties.
One possibility we looked at was AEC Renown coach chassis. The engine was mid mounted under the floor and there were problems of access when loaded through the floor, which wasn’t the problem with a coach, but we decided we could work on the engine underneath over a pit. Our reasoning was that Howes OK who was based in Marmaduke Street had incredible success and we were delighted with our Mercury tractor unit.
We approached Marsdens to give us a price for an integral pantechnicon body on one and they claimed it was too expensive as a one off, and we were not prepared at that time to consider a larger order.
Foden must have been struggling for orders at that time and approached us saying they were considering building a chassis for the pantechnicon market an if we were interested what would be our requirements. That was simple about 13ton gvw, Gardiner engine with good fuel consumption and able to cruise at 60 mph on motorways. We thought it was possible that they could come up with an ideal vehicle, but their thoughts never even reached the drawing boards.
‘Anyone who buys a Daf must be Daft’ were words that came back to haunt me.
One of our customers over many years was John Lewis Partnership with their department stores. At Stevenage they were ideally located for us to collect loads on our artics returning from the south. Most of the loads were into Bainbridge at Newcastle but time to time we did deliveries into their Scottish department stores.
Colin Watson one of our longest serving drivers from about 1958 was calling with one of our BEAUTIFUL LEYLAND LYNX tractor units, loaded and promptly broke down (Quite a regular occurrence). Later that day we were surprised to see him pulling into Green Lane with one of John Lewis Daf tractor units pulling one of our 40 ft van trailers.
He explained that he had broken down and got Ford & Slater out to his wonder machine and John Lewis had kindly loaned him a DAF saying that he could use that and drop it back when the Lynx was repaired. He was full of praise for the DAF.
The DAF rep continually called to see me and we were still 100% British. I remember him asking me what I had against DAF and I told him that our workshops were geared up to repairing British vehicles. He said the DAF would be no problem as they had bought an old disused Leyland engine and had stripped it and reengineered it, turbo charging and intercooling and that it had been a good engine with Leyland and now was greatly improved.
Years later when we bought a DAF it proved an excellent vehicle. It would appear that I was the DAFT one and also Leyland for selling DAF the rights and design of a good engine when they were producing the likes of the fixed head 500.
One of the biggest set backs we encounter over the years was being based in Spennymoor.
It seemed to us that the Surveyor of Spennymoor Urban District Council had it in for us and that every time we applied for planning permission we were stopped.
In hindsight I can see that developing Marmaduke Street and the area around it had problems and it was mostly a residential area, and that modern thinking would be against bringing into that area the additional traffic of HGV’s would be undesirable.
However we did come forward with better ideas that were dismissed out of hand. In most other areas we would have found empty industial area we would have found empty buildings and sites we could have adapted but there was non in Spennymoor. Also quietly to my dad the Surveyor, a Mr Marley had admitted that he didn’t want us to expand.
On his retirement his replacement was much more helpful and came up with Green Lane Industial Estate, but the problem was that the land belonged jointly to Spennymoor Urban District Council and Durham Count Council and they wanted to see what we had in mind before they would sell to us.
They recommended an Architect along with Structural Engineers, Quality Engineer, and Quantity Engineer who, if we used would be guaranteed to meet their acceptance. Read into this as you will, but we didn’t give a bung directly to council officials.
The team of experts were responsible for phase 1 which was concreting and tarmacing the site, including drains in the parking area, fencing and erecting the Office and first workshop. Part of our agreement with the Architect was that he was responsible for getting quotations from several nominated builders with us being responsible for making the ultimate choice of builder from the quotations provided.
One of the problems that haunted us over the years was the flat roof of the original buildings. Also the professional fees were more than we had intended for building, but to get our new base because of the Local authority it was necessary.
The builder used was Wearmouth Construction Ltd and I will have more to say about this at a later date.
All the other buildings were built by ourselves arranging the individual contractors with the majority of the building work being done by our own employees. Needless to say everything had conventional roofs
Another line up of vehicles at green lane showing two of our Mercedes 16 GVW.
The Mercedes were good working vehicles and in my opinion nothing exciting to look at, just a good functional vehicle.
Also the only vehicle that I had a problem driving. Like in the old days I would have simply jumped into a car without knowing about how to stop I had problems and had to swap another driver in a Bedford. That is a long storey and I’ll tell it later.
Similarly during the last 7 years I had three Mercedes S Class cars. In those days diesel was not an option in the better Mercedes and so mine were petrol which I preferred.
One day my dad and I had been together to our Sunderland office and on our way back called to see Peter Vardy at Stoneygate as I was due a replacement car. I really loved the Jaguar XJ and nearly convinced dad that we should place an order to replace my Mercedes.
Dad argued that the depreciation would have been dreadful which it was with Jaguar and the Mercedes nearly always sold about the same as we bought them so I got another one. Also none of our cars went into our workshop for servicing as we used Nick porter at Oakley Service Station Bishop Auckland as he was Mercedes Benz authorised repairer and his standard of work was first class and reasonable. Goodness knows what Jaguar’s standards been like and the price?
The trouble with them was they drove you. They did all that was required of them with ease and when you consider that on one Friday night leaving our London Depot at 5-00Pm I pulled into Denehurst at Ferryhill, where I was living at that time just after 7 (About 260 miles in just over 2 hours), speaks volumes of them.
But the Jaguar XJ was like a lady. It was graceful and you wouldn’t wish to misuse it. However it probably would have gobbled up much more petrol and lost money on depreciation like mad and finally probably has broken down.
I looked at the Mercedes Commercials similarly, boring, cheap to run and reliable.
In about the mid 60’s we were approached by Rex Preston who had just formed Preston Powell Insurance brokers in Gosforth Newcastle to ask if we would give him the opportunity of quoting for our insurance needs.
Rex was young and hungry and his partner Powell had not yet joined the business as he was contracted not to for a length of time by his previous employers.
Being persistent and ambitious Rex pitched his position just right. Although always immaculately dressed in his Italian Suits he never appeared conceited or arrogant and always appeared the type of person you could do business with.
Since the twenties we had dealt with brokers called Capstaffs at Newcastle who had changed their name to Northern Counties Guarantee Corporation. Harry Aitchison who was running the company at the time had known my grandfather and dad since he had joined the company as an office runner and had become complacent. For well over thirty years he had placed the motor insurance with Cornhill and the goods in Transit with Provincial.
Harry Aitchison had come along as usual with an invoice to renew at just over £7,000, not knowing that Preston Powell had quoted £1,600. My grandfather had said we should just pay the money and renew, but my dad was uncertain. Being younger I had had little dealing with Aichison , who had known me all my life and still considered me as just a youth.
I persuaded dad to give Preston Powell a go, after all .the saving was so much, and money was very different in those days, before inflation. Aichison came back practically begging, saying we could not leave after all those years, and was at one point crying. He certainly was talking to me then and taking me seriously. Then he made a fatal mistake and reduced the proposed fee down to approximately £3,000, telling us that the goods In transit Policy which had been drawn up in about 1923 was unique and if we changed away from Provincial we would never again get such conditions.
We rang Rex Preston and he agreed he would place Goods in Transit with the original insurers and absorb any additional costs, so we chose them. It was a sad time for my grandfather and dad as they had come to accept Harry Aichison as a personal friend, and sadly we heard that about a year later he suffered a heart attach and died.
Meanwhile we had our motor insurance with NIG (National Insurance and Guarantee Corporation and not long into the year there was the problems where large insurance companies were going bankrupt and NIG was one mentioned in the press as possibly in financial troubles.
The big worry was that when an insurance company went down you were in a position of running vehicles without insurance as you desperately found another. .Preston assured us that his company had insurance to cover that eventuality and not to worry. However after the year was up and renewal was
Due we found we were insured with a more substantial insurance Company, but still at a sensible fee. However from that year onwards I was given the responsibility of getting two additional quotes from brokers to see Preston Powell remained competitive.
Rex (■■■■ Rexy) Preston. We were also one of his very early clients. About the same time as you are talking about. You are right he was always dressed to the limit but a ’ canny feller’ all the same. At least he would come and visit every so often, not like the faceless wonders you get nowadays.
We used Preston Powell as insurance brokers until they sold out. I heard that unofficially that Rex Preston received a huge sum and retired, very young,.
I cannot remember the name of the company we used for about two years after that but they did not have ‘a personality’ we could relate to until I met someone (his name escapes me) who was manager of Bolton Corder Darlington through my connections with Darlington Driver Training Ltd.Perhaps a reader of this thread will remind me of his name.
He asked if they could quote and basically price matched but he presented a person who was there to speak to who would deal with us personally and sort out any problems we had.
Bolton Corder was eventually taken over by Frizzell.
240 Gardner:
Carl Williams:
240 Gardner:
I wonder if you’ve seen this photo?Hi 240 Gardner
Thank you so much I hadn’t seen that photo, and had just faint memory of that Guy GGG325L
It was fitted with Gardner 180 engine and I think it is probably been driven by Kenny Hardy who I have previously mentioned on this thread. Its wonderful to see vehicles working instead of static publicity shots and its also very rare to catch one of our tractors pulling one of our 40 ft platform trailers.
I don’t surpose anyone knows where the photo might have been taken.
Also is there anyway that I can obtain a copy to post on this thread.
Best wishes
Carl WilliamsI just happened to spot it, and remembered this thread!
The chap that posts them sells prints - if you follow the links back to his profile, there are contact details there
And here’s another… flickr.com/photos/roadtransp … otostream/
As far as tyres were concerned we always used new. In our eyes remoulds were false economy as one tyre breakdown could cost us so much in loss time and faith with our customers.
Names like Gorrills and Briggs come to mind until we settles into using Pirelli, supplied by ATS. Some of the Bedfords came with Michelin X as new and although they were excellent tyres these had to be changed as without power steering it was impossible to turn the steering.
When I received my first Rover 2000, in 1964 it came with Pirelli tyres and they were excellent giving unbelievable wear. When the rep came to see us from Pirelli my dad readily praised their tyres.
We came to a deal that through ATS we would buy only Pirelli tyres and ATS would send a van and fitter every Saturday, check tyres and pressure and fit and repair as necessary. Pirelli would send once a month one of their technical team to check not only ATS’s work but also quality check their tyres.
Dad was horrified to see them cutting the tyres and had to be assured that they were regrovable. Even then he insisted that they were taken off the front and run off regroved on the rear axles.
The other benefit was that I could easily walk round a vehicle and check that all tyres were Pirelli making it so much more difficult for drivers to sell and exchange tyres with the likes of owner drivers.
I received the first Pirelli colander and each year another. At the end of the year they were thrown out, who ever would have thought they had any value.
I can never remember having a vehicle call in with a flat tyre and we had very few problems. Eventually we came to a deal with Kings Road Tyres that they would supply us cheaper in bulk and then it became worth while us having our own tyre fitter. Our first tyre fitter was called Roy I cannot remember his second name. He left us after some personal family problems and a few years later dad was horrified to see him in Darlington waiting to be allowed back into the YMCA where they accommodated homeless. Their rules were that residents vacated the premises daytime hours and were only let back in on a night. He was wandering the streets of Darlington passing away the time. It is sad to meet up with people in these circumstances.