realy good thread , i used to loadout off ici runcorn and ridings always there , good bunch lads always ready to help. i rem ■■■■ he had a volvo, ken moon and mick and i think one called marley.
After being in service with W & J Riding for many years quite a number of the vehicles in their fleet were sold on to other operators where they carried on working for a number of years.
We have now included a Life after Ridings section which you can go direct to HERE[/b]
hiya,
From one of your former drivers in the mid 60s.
All the very best Tom and very many more of them.
thanks harry, long retired.
Great picture Paul,he does look good for 80…Happy Birthday Tom and thanks for all the pictures on Pauls W&J Ridings site. 
Cheers Bubbs, 
Happy Birthday Tom,and many more of 'em ! You truly are one of the finest men to have ever operated within the British transport industry,sadly many of your contemporaries are no longer with us,oh! and who managed to snaffle that one slice of cake before the photo was taken ?Aye these Lancashire lads weren’t backward in coming f’orard when’t t’cake was put o’nt table eh 
! All the best,kind regards Dennis.
Sorry to hear that Tom is “in dock” I hope his op was a success and maybe he’ll be home for Christmas,in the meantime I wish him all the best and hope it will not be too long before he’s 100% fit again.Kind regards Dennis.
Bewick:
Sorry to hear that Tom is “in dock” I hope his op was a success and maybe he’ll be home for Christmas,in the meantime I wish him all the best and hope it will not be too long before he’s 100% fit again.Kind regards Dennis.
Seconded
gingerfold:
Bewick:
Sorry to hear that Tom is “in dock” I hope his op was a success and maybe he’ll be home for Christmas,in the meantime I wish him all the best and hope it will not be too long before he’s 100% fit again.Kind regards Dennis.Seconded
Thirded
Fourthed I had same opp 3 year ago and if he doe’s what they tell him too, he will be ok.All the best and get well soon.
Just an update…
Tom is back home now and feeling a lot better and on the road to recovery.
Thanks to all of the above for your kind comments
moomooland:
Bewick:
Bewick Transport were “sometime” subbies for W&J R over the years we were operating,and we were always glad to help out where we could.The jobs were mainly the odd consignments from Kent as this part of the UK was alien to W&J,the UK map in the Longridge traffic office was,apparently, just plain white south of Birmingham !!! They were a great outfit with a “diamond” G’uvnor!! Cheers Dennis.
Spoke to Tom regarding not going South of Birmingham and he said that was the norm for the general haulage fleet as it was to much trouble messing about getting a back load when we had more than enough work in the North and Scotland.
As regards the powder tanker fleet they ventured in to the South East on a regular basis as ICI paid for a full round trip even though the tankers always returned empty
lovely picture moomooland . reminds me of ICI Fleetwood thank you Trevor .
Get well soon Mr Riding you are one of the finest hauliers of all time.
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
The depot I remember was on Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, somewhere near where the A66 roundabout is now. They then moved to Old Airfield industrial estate Thornaby, that site is now a housing estate. Regards, Mizzo.
mizzo:
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.The depot I remember was on Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, somewhere near where the A66 roundabout is now. They then moved to Old Airfield industrial estate Thornaby, that site is now a housing estate. Regards, Mizzo.
hiya,
Thanks for the info “Mizzo” found the area the only thing standing with any relevance
is the Navigation Pub which was just down the road from the digs (long demolished)
which in turn were only a short walk from the old depot which as you say would have
been quite near where the A66 roundabout is now, I used to get on well with Fergie
who secretly was a BRS man which I was before redundancy and coming to work for
Riding’s, he knew and was still in touch with some of the Blackburn staff, Ridings was
a great firm to work for but me living in Darwen found the travelling a bit much and
not being able to take your motor home found it was quite expensive getting to a fro.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Can anyone tell me the location of the Riding’s Teesside depot in use in the
60s and beyond Frank Ferguson was the manager I’ve tried searching on the
Google maps site but I can’t remember the name of the road so no luck.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry,
Spoke to Tom Riding regarding the Teesside depot and he sent me this reply via email…
Harry is quite right.
We were at Middlesbrough Road. South Bank, where Dad had built a new small depot in the early 50’s.
How ever, the Council eventually placed a compulsory purchase on it so that they could build houses there, i think this would be the late 1970s.
Quite fortuitously at this precise time, Mr Tom Lleyellyn, MD of Econofreight decided to move out of Thornaby Old Airfield and into the ex depot of W G Thomas Ltd at Eston Grange. Econofreight was a TDG Ltd group company.
This presented me with a good opportunity so I stopped the purchase of land to build a depot on the Redcar Trunk Road which had been the plan,and instead bought the Thornaby Depot.
We spent a fair amount of money concreting the yard and tidied up the building.
We also installed a brand new sack filling installation which worked for many years packing nylon chip for ICI Ltd.
This was still working fully when I retired in 1995.
I hope this is helpful to you.
Regards
Tom
The W & J Riding website has now had over 180,000 hits.
Tom Riding and i would like to thank everyone for their support.
The in-depth site now contains almost 1000 images, all with detailed information, and we hope to add more interesting material over the coming months.
Hiya,
Am I the only one interested in this fantastic site, please don’t let it slip away.
thanks harry, long retired.