Pat Hasler:
Updated to 40 years ago this week I was driving a Ford Transit delivering to show repair shops and factories like Hawkins (Dr Martens) within a 70 mile radius of Northampton.
Hiya Pat,did you ever collect/deliver at this firm in Liecester,we used to pick up there twice a week for delivery to K Shoes in Kendal as well as collecting from component makers in N/ampton and Kettering areas.This traffic had been a very long standing job that went way back into the early 50’s and had been done by the old established haulier J.B.Hudson Ltd. of Sandside nr Milnthorpe.We took over this firm in '76 and carried on with the job until around '82/83 when Clarks took K’s over and proceeded to run them down as a manufacturer with eventually 2000+ of K employees losing their jobs The boss man at Loakes was John Loakes a third or fourth generation member of the family and what a grand chap he was to deal with,they lost a great deal of compoment business when Clarks took over.This shot is of the last dedicated motor we had on that traffic and it was coupled permanently to a 37ft Crane Fruehuaf trailer which was just about all that could be reversed into the leather warehouse at K’s,we loaded this artic twice a week out of Libby’s or the Paper Mill to the East Midlands so it proved to be a very lucrative seam of traffic for us for 6 or 7 years.Prior to this artic doing the job a J.B.Hudson liveried ERF 6 wheeler flat mainly did the work but the traffic outgrew it so we went artic.Cheers Bewick.
Hey I was mostly repairing lorries and trailers (and repairing a lot of F88 headgaskets and leaking Scania liners ).
Realy the best time in my life, and after years of driving, will finish in the same way by repairing.
1973 was a year of change for me, I started the year off instructing at an HGV driving school, this was the time when a lot of drivers was having to upgrade their licences owing to the introduction in 1969 of the Ministries “new” HGV driving licence and groups thereof.
That job was really interesting and I met some great characters from whom I learnt a lot. Unfortunately the wages weren’t the best so from tootling about Lincolnshire in the likes of these training Vehicles I decided that the time had come to sell my services for a higher price.
I then moved to work for the best company of my working life, Rugby Cement and one of the many trucks I drove there was the venerable ERF KV.
Trucks have improved no end since the days of the KV but I don’t think the atmosphere has.
Pat Hasler:
Updated to 40 years ago this week I was driving a Ford Transit delivering to show repair shops and factories like Hawkins (Dr Martens) within a 70 mile radius of Northampton.
Hiya Pat,did you ever collect/deliver at this firm in Liecester,we used to pick up there twice a week for delivery to K Shoes in Kendal as well as collecting from component makers in N/ampton and Kettering areas.This traffic had been a very long standing job that went way back into the early 50’s and had been done by the old established haulier J.B.Hudson Ltd. of Sandside nr Milnthorpe.We took over this firm in '76 and carried on with the job until around '82/83 when Clarks took K’s over and proceeded to run them down as a manufacturer with eventually 2000+ of K employees losing their jobs The boss man at Loakes was John Loakes a third or fourth generation member of the family and what a grand chap he was to deal with,they lost a great deal of compoment business when Clarks took over.This shot is of the last dedicated motor we had on that traffic and it was coupled permanently to a 37ft Crane Fruehuaf trailer which was just about all that could be reversed into the leather warehouse at K’s,we loaded this artic twice a week out of Libby’s or the Paper Mill to the East Midlands so it proved to be a very lucrative seam of traffic for us for 6 or 7 years.Prior to this artic doing the job a J.B.Hudson liveried ERF 6 wheeler flat mainly did the work but the traffic outgrew it so we went artic.Cheers Bewick.
A '76 Saturday morning depot shot of the 1972 ERF Ridgid that was replaced by the Sed/Atk.
Hello all. I was 23 and had just left Fridged Freight as general dogsbody and joined Podmore Haulage on the Travenol Laboratorys contract driving a transit 175 out of Thetford. Got to know the country and my way around London Manchester etc. but driving wasn’t for me so I went back to engineering and retired early 2 years ago. Managed to see a lot of the world as a welder, but still love lorries. A FH12 does nothing for me nor a Scania with forty lights plasterred all over it. If it has a bit of plastic in the cab it’s modern and nasty. Sheet metal on a wooden frame takes me back to being being trailer boy on Wyatt’s Mk 111 Mammoth Majors crawling over Woodhead, Beatock or Brough sitting with your feet on your case wrapped up like Nanook of the North shouting jokes to each other. Those are the motors that I like. Just like you gentlemen. jmc jnr (Jim)
Getting skelped for taking a tractor and a set of gang mowers to school to cut the field as we were not allowed on it due to the grass being to long and the caretaker being off sick…i went at 5am and cut the grass and parked it up in the corner.
I got found out two days later by chance…and got Skelped.
Aged 10 . And we still own the tractor too!
I left school in 1972 on a Friday and started work the following Monday as a second man for G.N. Ridley, at the time he did a lot of wood shavings from the UBU frame factory at Blaydon to various poultry farms around the north and into southern Scotland, it was my job to stack the hessian bags in the back of the lorry then jump on the stack to try and flatten it down it was very dusty work but things improved later when they started using plastic bags. He also did a lot of removals and also delivered new furniture to shops throughout the UK.
I stayed with Ridley for 11 years leaving when he closed down his haulage operation. He put me through my HGV, I passed my class 2 in 1977 but only drove class 3 vehicles mainly Bedford TK’S and a Ford D-series.
I’m 6’ something but I still managed to sleep on the parcel shelf in the TK’S and across the seat in the Ford or if I was delivering beds or three piece suites I would sleep on them. regards prattman.
40 years ago, and being not quite old enough to take my car test, I was a second man on a 7.5t Bedford TK for a wholesale hardware company in Chester called Crowder, Marr.
The older hands looked after me and even trained me in bartering skills when they showed me how lots of trades went back and to with the Corona (fizzy pop) depot guys on the other side of the two depot’s shared back fence.
The boss man at Loakes was John Loakes a third or fourth generation member of the family and what a grand chap he was to deal with,they lost a great deal of compoment business when Clarks took over.This shot is of the last dedicated motor we had on that traffic and it was coupled permanently to a 37ft Crane Fruehuaf trailer which was just about all that could be reversed into the leather warehouse at K’s,we loaded this artic twice a week out of Libby’s or the Paper Mill to the East Midlands so it proved to be a very lucrative seam of traffic for us for 6 or 7 years.Prior to this artic doing the job a J.B.Hudson liveried ERF 6 wheeler flat mainly did the work but the traffic outgrew it so we went artic.Cheers Bewick.
).
go id just started at Shell Teesport!! Happy days indeed
