Heritage Commercials - June 2015

THEBP GOING THOMPSON UNDERGROUND TANKER –BYLANDROVER

A very special Scammell

Straight-eight Gardner power back on the road

ARCHIVE

ALBUM Leyland’s Freighter

HAUL COM AGE P HISTOANY RY S

utto St He n of lens

1970sLeylandcollectionvisited

THORNYCROFT BIG BEN RESTORED

CITROËN HY AT WORK ■ WORKSHOP – TURNING METAL ON THE LATHE

One of my favourites – the Atkinson Borderer! I worked on one on my very first day at work as an apprentice mechanic. Photo Dave Craggs.

Petrol and PitstoPs As I’ve said before in this column, there are many interests from childhood that stay with you for the rest of your life. And this month we’ve put together an article about a vehicle that has fascinated me since I was about eight years old – and I like it so much I’ve owned one for decades! e vehicle in question is the BP Autotanker. As you’ll read, this lorry was built by ompson Bros (Bilston) Ltd, who were at the time one of Britain’s top road tanker builders. However, it’s not just the external design that’s different, as the engineering has far more in common with a modern coach than a late 1950s lorry. is lorry made a big impression when it went on display at the 1960 Commercial Vehicle Motor Show, but despite this only one was ever made, and that ended up being exported to Denmark.

However, although it disappeared from our

Only one real BP Autotanker was ever made, but there were thousands of toy ones!

Photo Stephen Pullen.

roads almost as soon as it appeared, the vehicle’s design was set to be immortalised by being made into a toy by Lesney. As such there must have been thousands made.

Back in the 1970s somebody gave me one of these models – and I still have it to this day. It was certainly one of my favourites when I was a kid, as you can see by its current condition, but I was always concerned about its lack of doors! I found out that the driver got in through the front ‘door’ between the headlights and I remember thinking, what happens in the event of a frontal accident?

Fortunately my assumption back then that the panel on the roof was an escape hatch turned out to be correct!

Right, I’ll now change the subject, but it still goes back to my childhood. As I’ve mentioned before, when I was a kid I was a big fan of the now sadly defunct magazine Truck. In fact I used to get it monthly from

about the age of 10, while other kids of my age were reading comics like Warlord or 2000AD. Anyway, I was recently going through some old copies of Truck to research a certain vehicle and instead started reading the old ‘Pitstops’ features on cafes. Don’t ask me why, but I really enjoyed reading these little articles from years long gone. ey were totally irrelevant to what I was supposed to be doing but they just give such a nice glimpse of a time long past.

As an example, in the January 1980 issue three cafes were reviewed. ese included the Pit Café on the A33 between Basingstoke and Winchester. Situated in an old chalk pit, this café sold gammon, chips and peas for 99p, but a sausage sandwich would only set you back 33p. Even more noteworthy was the fact that they had a phone box in the lorry park! It seems strange now but that was a real plus point back then. How things change.

Finally, please keep your letters coming in to tell me about your best and worst commercials. And to encourage you, I’ll include a picture of another of my favourites.

STEPHEN PULLEN spullen@mortons.co.uk

Contents

26

JUNe 2015

06 Ignition

News and events from the world of classic commercials.

10 Readers’ letters

Your chance to ask a question, tell a tale or put things straight.

16 Cover story

When Roger Annis decided to invest in a classic Scammell the decision came with one important proviso – it had to have been owned and operated by his father, the late Frank Annis.

44

30

24 Subscription form

Subscribe and you’ll get your copy of HC early and save money at the same time!

26 Haulage company history The final part of the story of Suttons of St Helens.

30 Classic lightweight

Need a coffee? Then visit this Citroën!

34 Classic collection

We visit a bloke lucky enough to own a pair of classic Leylands.

16

38 The Navy lark

Ex military Bedfords were the start for many haulage businesses after the Second World War, such as this OXC recently discovered

by Bernard Holloway.

44 Classics at work

Jo Roberts discovers an ex military Land Rover 101 which has embarked on a new career in Snowdonia.

50 Back to the future

We take a look at the history of a one-off lorry that’s also been made by the thousand!

Subscribe

Save money and get HC delivered to your door Page 24

38

56 Lift and carry

56

Mike Blenkinsop tells us the story of the beginnings of Coles Cranes.

62 From our archives

This month we feature one of the world’s best-selling lorries ever – Fiat’s 682. Did you drive one?

66 Archive album

More nostalgia from the superb NA3T photographic archive.

70 On location

Jim King reports from the HCVS South Midlands and CTP Great Gillingham gatherings.

74 Tower of strength

Alan Barnes looks into the history of Thornycroft’s Big Ben range and then finds out what goes into restoring one.

80 100 years not out

Bernard Holloway interviews Paul Bowen about his long established family haulage company, SA Bowen, Livestock Conveyors.

84 Automotive woodwork This month Colin Peck looks at making patterns and templates.

88

88 Workshop

Richard Lofting takes us through the basics of working a lathe.

95 HC Marketplace

The place to buy and sell anything to do with classic commercials.

106 Final word

A reader’s query last month has us trawling the archives!

InCOrpOrATIng CLAssIC TruCk

34

Ignition

Send your StorieS to Stephen pullen spullen@mortons.co.uk Heritage Commercials, Mortons Heritage Media, PO Box 43, Horncastle LN9 6JR

90th birthday lorry trip down memory lane e chairman of Parliament’s freight transport group has given a 90-year-old war hero a birthday trip down memory lane by treating her to a ride in a truck of the type she drove in the Second World War. Stoke-on-Trent South MP, Rob Flello, delighted Beryl Appleton, a former lorry driver with the Women”s Auxiliary Air Force, aer ‘invading’ her Trentham home with a fleet of restored military vehicles.

“When I heard Beryl had driven the massive 60 Bedford Queen Marys during the war, I knew something amazing was needed for her 90th birthday,” the Labour MP said. “So as honorary patron of the Bedford Enthusiasts’ Club, I started to make some calls and was delighted by North Staffordshire Military Vehicle Trust’s (NSMVT) generous response.”

In a carefully planned operation, Mr Flello, accompanied by trust enthusiasts, le their base – member John Keeling’s Motor Clinic vehicle

recovery and repair business in Longton – under instructions to rendezvous at Mrs Appleton’s Churchill Avenue home.

Pride of place in the convoy was given to NSMVT area secretary Andy Cottons Bedford MW, a truck similar to those driven by Mrs Appleton from 1942-46.

“People will wonder what on Earth is going on”, said Mrs Appleton, who watched as Mr Flello and his comrades roared into her normally quiet street. “e neighbours will be wondering who’s getting all this?”

Once over the shock, the widow hoisted herself into Mr Cotton’s cab and grinned as she began telling tales of her driving exploits, which began with tuition from an instructor called Max Speed.

“I can’t believe you’ve done this for me,” Mrs Appleton told Mr Flello, who listened as she recounted how she met her future husband, Noel, a flight lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force, by knocking him off his cycle.

Mrs Appleton then le her street

Albion memorial unveiled

Sunday, April 12, 2015, saw around 2000 people gathered together at the premises of Glasgow Training Group on Glasgow’s South Street, opposite the former Albion factory, to witness Robert Fulton, grandson of one of the Albion company’s founders, unveil a plaque marking the company’s achievements.

Organised by the Albion Club in conjunction with CTG, the event was made even more special by the superb display of Albions brought along by owners from all over the country – undoubtedly the largest number of Albion vehicles South Street will have witnessed since the company’s heyday. See next month’s issue for a full report.

6 Heritagecommercials.com

Rob Flello MP presenting Mrs Appleton with a photograph of a Bedford Queen Mary. They are accompanied by Mrs Appleton’s son, Darren.

for the first time in six years as Mr Flello and the trust members took her on a round trip to Newcastle-under-Lyme. “She loved it,” said her son, Darren Appleton, 52, a controller/ recovery driver of Erskine Street, Dresden. “It was very kind of Mr Flello to organise it.”

Aer presenting Mrs Appleton with a photograph of a Queen

Mary Bedford tractor unit and 60-long trailer bearing messages from the BEC and himself, the MP said: “We owe such a huge debt of thanks to people like Beryl, without whom the dark cloud of Nazi dictatorship would have taken away our freedom.

“I could sit and listen for hours to her stories of what she and those brave women did.”

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A to Z Spring Commercial Vehicle Road Run Words & photos Malcolm Ranieri The Commercial Transport in Preservation (CTP) commercial vehicle club’s A to Z Spring road run was held on April, 12, 2015, starting at the Central Car Park in the ancient town of Warminster in Wiltshire.

The concept is that the route is so organised that the road run visits places of all the 26 letters of the alphabet – not an easy task for the event organiser, Mary Bailey, vicechair of the CTP. This year was further complicated by fixing two routes, a shorter 50 mile one for the earlier classics, and the full route of around 100 miles, this being the full ‘alphabet tour’. Some wonderful place names in the beautiful counties of Wiltshire and Dorset are revealed, such as Affpuddle, Piddlehinton, Longbridge Deverill (where I spectated on the outward leg), Henstridge, Maiden Bradley, Yenstone and, for the elusive last letter of the alphabet, Bourton and Zeals. The route finished at Crockerton Shopping Centre on

the outskirts of Warminster.

Around 30 classic commercials took part in the road run, the earliest being the 1935-built Dennis 40/45cwt in unrestored condition carrying he green livery of JWN Coles, Contractor, Shrewton, Wilts. The CTP president and founder John Pomeroy went round the short route in his 1937 Austin Van in the brown livery of Harfitt & Son, Master Tinsmith of Salisbury. Another light commercial in workaday condition was Phillip Gumm’s 1946 Commer 25cwt in the green livery of W Powell & Son, Agricultural Engineers of Bridgnorth.

Phillip had also brought his 1957 Leyland Steer in the blue and cream livery of D Scragg Transport Ltd of Cheadle, Staffs. Gordon Fry had brought four of his collection on the run – a 1943 AEC Matador, 1951 AEC Mammoth Major Tanker, 1967 Foden S34 and a 1971 Atkinson Borderer.

On the shorter run was the 1950 plain green-liveried flatbed Guy Otter owned by Geoff Davis, the 1955 Atkinson 8x4 Tipper in the

Gordon Fry’s 1967 Foden passes Warminster’s Masonic Lodge.

Tony Sparkes’ 1962 Ford Thames Trader passing through Longbridge Deverell.

attractive light yellow and blue livery of John Wainwright & Co Ltd of Shepton Mallett, of Tony Evans, and the green liveried and canvas sheeted 1962 Ford Thames Trader owned by Tony Sparkes.

The numbers were made up by several 1970s, 80s and early 90s vehicles. These included a 1987 Freighter carrying an Allis Chalmers tractor owned by Martin Vincent, a 1973 Volvo F88 owned

by David Martin and, from 1992, an ERF E12 owned by Dave Lynn.

About a third of the entrants

George Smith’s superb unrestored 1935 Dennis 40/45 cwt out on the road.

completed the full route, and feedback indicates that the entrants prefer one route, not two.

I spectated at Warminster to catch the trucks driving through the centre of this ancient town, then at Longbridge Deverill a couple of miles or so out on the route and then at Corsley Heath on the way back. It amused me, however, to see that the Central Car park in Warminster where the vehicles parked up prior to the run, displayed quite clearly a sign that stated ‘NO LORRIES’!

CTP president and founder John Pomeroy taking his 1937 Austin round the shorter route.

Just one year apart!

For our on location feature this month Jim King has written a report on the CTP 17th Great Gillingham Gathering which features some fantastic restored vehicles. However, Jim has kindly sent in some photos of a couple of the vehicles as they were just one year ago. We’re big fans of these before and aer shots here at HC so just had to include them. So have a look here and then turn to page 72!

Send us your news Write in (address is on page 6), email or Facebook us. ✦ spullen@mortons.co.uk ✦ facebook.com/

HeritageCommercials

June 2015 7

Ignition Events for June 2015 Visitors are advised to contact the organisers prior to travelling. We cannot be held responsible for errors in this listing.

6-7 June VINTAGE VEHICLE SHOW Shropshire Showground, Berwick Road, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 2PF Enquiries tel: 01952 770985. Website: www.midshropshirevintageclub.com TEMPLE NEWSAM STEAM FAIR A63 Selby Road, Leeds, Yorkshire LS15 0EQ Enquiries tel: 07583 075016. Website: www.theeventsorganiser.co.uk GARDNER ENGINE RALLY Bugsworth Basin near Whaley Bridge, Cheshire Enquiries: Tel. 01270 780093.

Website: www.gardnerengineforum.co.uk 7th NORTH RODE VINTAGE RALLY Station Road, North Road, Bosley near Congleton, Cheshire. CW12 2PH Enquiries tel: 01625 614552/01260 281378 7 June EAST MIDLANDS BUS & COMMERCIAL VEHICLE RALLY Wollaton Park, Nottingham NG8 2AE Enquiries tel: 07971 105491. Website: www.nottinghamheritagevehicles.co.uk 33rd TYNE-TEES COMMERCIAL RUN Stockton to Gypsies Green Stadium, Seafront, South Shields, Tyne & Wear NE33 2LD Enquiries website: www.hcvs.co.uk 13-14 June SLAIDBURN STEAM & VINTAGE VEHICLE DISPLAY Hark to Bounty Inn, Lancashire BB7 4EP Enquiries tel: 01200 446605. Website: www.slaidburnsteam.co.uk FRADDON VINTAGE RALLY & COUNTRY FAYRE Penhale, Fraddon, Cornwall TN9 6NA Enquiries tel: 01726 860439. Website: www.cornishtractorclub.org.uk WILTSHIRE STEAM & VINTAGE RALLY Rainscombe Park, Oare near Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 4HZ. Enquiries tel: 01672 810534.

Website: www.wapg.co.uk BELPER STEAM & VINTAGE EVENT Salterwood Meadows, Street Lane, Denby, Derbyshire DE5 8NE Enquiries tel: 07803 902053.

Website: www.belpersteam.co.uk CLASSIC VINTAGE COMMERCIAL SHOW Heritage Motor Centre, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwickshire CV35 0BJ Enquiries tel: 01926 645029. Website: www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk

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ASTWOOD BANK VINTAGE GATHERING S E Davis & Son, Sandhills Farm, Edgioake Lane, Astwood Bank, Worcestershire B96 6BG Enquiries tel: 01926 881346 14 June 20th RABY CASTLE CLASSIC VEHICLE SHOW Raby Castle, Staindrop near Darlington, Co Durham DL2 3AH Enquiries tel: 01697 451882. Website: www.markwoodwardclassicevents.com COPYTHORNE STEAM & VINTAGE VEHICLE RALLY The Scout Field, Romsey Road, Copythorne, near Southampton, Hampshire SO40 2NZ Enquiries tel: 0238 081 4102.

20 June ‘THE CORACLE’ CLASSIC VEHICLE ROAD RUN Start: Bracelet Bay, Mumbles, Swansea Ends: Carmarthen Town, Carmarthenshire Enquiries tel: 07814 958379.

Website: www.swanseatransportfest.co.uk 20-21 June WESSEX MIDSUMMER VINTAGE SHOW Semington near Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 4JF Enquiries tel: 01225 754374.

Website: www.wessexsec.org MALVERN LAND ROVER SHOW & 4X4 SPARES WEEKEND Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW Enquiries tel: 01697 451882.

Website: www.4x4sparesday.co.uk VINTAGE VEHICLE RALLY, STEAM & CRAFT FAIR Oswestry Showground, Shropshire SY11 4TB Enquiries tel: 01244 818918.

Website: www.cvvms.co.uk STOKE ROW STEAM RALLY Hill Bottom, Whitchurch Hill, Reading, Berkshire RG8 7PU Enquiries tel: 01344 486634.

Website: www.stokerowsteamrally.com 7th VINTAGE VEHICLE & STEAM SHOW Doncaster Deaf Trust, Ledger Way, Doncaster, Yorkshire DN2 6AY Enquiries tel: 01302 867609 21 June SWANSEA FESTIVAL OF TRANSPORT Swansea City Centre, Swansea SA1 Enquiries tel: 07814 958379. Website: www.swanseatransportfest.co.uk MARSWORTH STEAM & CLASSIC VEHICLE RALLY Startop Farm, Marsworth, Tring, Hertfordshire HP23 4LL Enquiries tel: 07770 725461.

Website: www.marsworthsteamrally.co.uk

27-28 June 14th KELSALL STEAM & VINTAGE RALLY Churches View Farm, Kelsall Road, Ashton, Chester, Cheshire CH3 8BH Enquiries tel: 07739 958294.

Website: www.kelsallsteamrally.co.uk RUSTY RELIC RALLY Highbridge Farm, Highbridge Road, Coldern Common near Eastleigh, Hampshire SO50 6HN Enquiries tel: 07561 184245. Website: www.rustyrelicrally.wix.com/rusty-relic-rally CHAPLETON VINTAGE RALLY A377 south of Barnstaple, Devon EX37 9EB Enquiries: www.dtec.me.uk SHEFFIELD STEAM & VINTAGE RALLY Rackford Road, North Anston, Sheffield, Yorkshire S25 4DF Enquiries tel: 01709 545047 TOWY VALLEY VINTAGE SHOW Cothi Bridge Showfield, Cothi Bridge near Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire SA32 7NG Enquiries tel: 01269 592515.

Website: www.tvvc.co.uk FIRE ENGINE & VINTAGE VEHICLE SHOW Preston Park Museum & Grounds, Co Durham TS18 3RH Enquiries tel: 01642 526733.

Website: www.stockton.gov.uk/events EMERGENCY SERVICES WEEKEND Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, Station Road, Amberley near Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9LT Enquiries tel: 01798 831370.

Website: www.amberleymuseum.co.uk LITTLE WEIGHTON STEAM & VINTAGE RALLY Cowlam Farm, Rowley Road, Little Weighton near Cottingham, Yorkshire HU20 3XW Enquiries tel: 01482 848263 28 June LYMM HISTORIC TRANSPORT DAY Lymm Village, Cheshire WA13 0AB Enquiries tel: 01925 754080.

Website: www.lymmtransport.org.uk LEYLAND SOCIETY GATHERING British Commercial Vehicle Museum, King Street, Leyland, Lancashire PR25 2LE Enquiries tel: 07754 702497. Website: www.leylandsociety.co.uk FIRE ENGINE, STEAM & VINTAGE VEHICLE RALLY Nutwell Estate, Lympstone, Devon EX8 5AN Enquiries tel: 01404 814363

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Your say

was sacks of shoes to go to Payne’s shoe repairs in Small Heath. spullen@mortons.co.uk Another I remember were little boxes of Heritage Commercials, Mortons Heritage brake parts from Lockheed at Leamington to Media, PO Box 43, Horncastle LN9 6JR go to Brum, and I recall being in there one day when the air raid siren went off. e gateman told us to shelter in his office, but dad wasn’t too keen as it was all glass sided, so we sat under the van and ate our dinner instead. en there were all the other lorries to see. faith for these two young people just setting out Dozens of railway ornycros, Monk’s very on life together but somehow they raised the old Garner cattle truck, along with big old cash to buy a second-hand Model A Ford, Leylands, including a First World War type number UE 8707, and presumably the converted to a six-wheeler, with pneumatics necessary ‘A’ licence. I do know that it cost £60 and electric lights. from Soans of Leamington and mum always is seemed to work out of the Ford foundry said it was paid for in gold sovereigns. in Leamington and carried what looked like e two of them worked on this lorry metal castings – did Atkinson do these together gradually building up trade and conversions at one time? Occasional trips extending the route to include many of the further afield caught a few glimpses of the villages south of Stratford, then over to Fisher Renwick Scammells at Meriden.

Warwick, Leamington, Kenilworth and Watkins’ mustard coloured Bedford coal Coventry, and back through the little villages lorry always struck me as an odd choice of and hamlets home to Henley. colour and I marvelled at the enormous I have no memory of this lorry, but Brewer & Turnbull removal vans on apparently I was brought home from the lightweight Jensen chassis. hospital in it at a few days old. I am enclosing a Although the big boys like Carter Patterson photo of dad with the Ford, dressed in what and Pickfords had more modern Austin and appears to be his Sunday best.

Bedford panel vans, it seemed to me that the I was regaled with lots of tales from mom numerous small one-man-band firms made do and dad about this time, such as when mom with flats or dropsides fitted with wood or used to have to walk ahead during the metal hoops and sheets. notorious Brum ‘peasoupers’, wearing a white On the A34 there seemed to be an endless scarf across her shoulders – she and the scarf stream of blue Morris Commercial artics and would be black with soot by the time she could lovely Saurers with sheeted bodies transferring get back in the cab. car bodies and parts between the Nuffield I can now recount some of my own plants in Birmingham and Oxford. Other memories, as from a very young age I went sightings were the milk churn-carrying regularly with dad, by now on another model A Bedfords of Blakes of Loxley. Chalmers of Ford but this time a bit bigger at 30cwt, Henley did the same work but with Bedfords of reg WD 9697. a darker shade of blue.

A typical daily load included foodstuffs for Out towards Warwick were the orneycro delivery to various shops and bakeries. ese cattle trucks belonging to Oldhams at Barford, would be happily loaded alongside tins of and the immaculately kept Bedfords of Spiers paint from Postans, mudguards from of Claverdon. Seen around Coventry were the Fisher E Ludlow to Eagle Trailers at very long Guys of LEP carrying huge crates of Warwick, Dunlop tyres, acid from ICI aircra parts. packed with straw in wire cages, and I remarked just how overloaded our old Ford bicycles from BSA. oen was, and for some reason it always Along the route, various pleased me to see the cratch (tailboard) half packages would be picked up down, chained and sometimes roped as well, (some places had a board hung up piled up to roof level, which reminds me of saying Haynes Carrier to call). I some of the more unusual loads dad carried. think the most With a lot of horses still in use, he regularly common picked up wooden cart wheels, some 5 or collection more across and very heavy, and took them to the blacksmith at Claverdon to have new iron tyres fitted. en there were coffin boards collected from a sawmill near Hockley and taken to an undertaker at Stratford, and occasionally new bricks from Kenilworth which were handled using sections cut from an old inner tube.

House removals were also done and dad’s packing skills were very good – he oen even found room for the family to travel in the back to their new home.

Other fairly regular loads were sacks of nails made on a hand operated machine by an old man out Dudley way. Also I can remember

Stephen pullen

Early days in transport e mention a few months ago in HC of a 1907 Maxwell van which was lettered to a carrier that ran between Letter service Birmingham and Shirley, Hockley Heath, Henley in Arden, Wootton Wawen and Stratford-upon-Avon, triggered the memory of how my dad, Charles Henry (Harry) Haynes, set up his own carrier service along this same route, in 1929.

I don’t know how he learnt to drive, but suspect it was in the Army towards the end of the First World War. I do know he drove for a number of firms aer being demobbed, including Ben Franks of Warwick, and Johnsons of Henley which still runs a big coach operation.

Driving must have been in his blood, as his dad worked all his life with heavy horses. One brother drove Scammell tanker artics for Shell, and his youngest brother drove a Fordson tipper for Newcomes, and later ambulances in Birmingham.

My other grandad, Bill Woodward of Kenilworth, drove steam lorries for Birmingham & Midland Counties Transport. I enclose a photo of him with a Sentinel.

Anyway, back to dad. At the end of 1928 my mom and dad got married and he asked his then boss for a rise. He didn’t get it, but did get the sack for his cheek!

It must have been a huge effort and act of

★

Star

10 Heritagecommercials.com

load aer load of iron bedsteads being taken to Budbrooke Barracks at Warwick. e regular load I remember most, picked up on Friday and delivered on Saturday for years even during the war, was four or five sacks of broken biscuits, stale bread etc. is was to a gamekeeper at a big house estate near Kenilworth.

I think the shooting was for Government and military, hence the regular run to help feed the game birds. It was on this estate during these deliveries that I learnt to drive at the age of 11. Aer this I oen drove on quiet country lanes and in the yard at home but did not take a test until I was 23.

Although I drove lorries when I did my National Service in the Army, I did not go into road transport, but I have never lost interest in it.

Early on in the war, dad and the lorry were requisitioned by the Ministry of Food to carry foodstuffs, including meat out of the slaughterhouse at Stratford. is was heavy work and to see my dad (5 7in and about 10½ stone) carry a 200lb quarter of frozen beef into a shop and li it on to a hook was really something.

Some jobs were long distance and I well remember a trip down to London Docks for a load of American lard. It was a weekend job and I went with dad. A very early start got us into London mid-morning, the queue wasn’t too long and the paperwork all in order; but then trouble came in the form of a loud, pompous union bloke who wouldn’t let me in because I hadn’t got a union card. ere was a big row, but in the end I had to sit in the policeman’s hut for a couple of hours. I remember this so clearly because the policeman gave me an orange – the first I’d seen for years.

All through the war there were new types of military lorry to see, ranging from the little Austin and Standard 10 Utilities through to the mid-range 4x4 trucks and the really big stuff.

Austin predominated around Birmingham, and I can remember hundreds of them parked in fields awaiting delivery. Some were K4s which I think suffered very badly from engine problems, but most were K6s, many in chassis form awaiting specialist bodies. en there were all the different American trucks. I think my most vivid memory is of us being held up at the Tiddington end of Clopton Bridge in Stratford by a friendly American military policemen while a long convoy of tankers passed by.

Each consisted of a six-wheel tractor hitched to a long four-axle semi trailer plus a four-axle drawbar trailer. ey had been unable to get round the roundabout at the top of Bridge

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Street and came down the wrong side against the one way system to bunch up in the wide area before the bridge. Incidentally, these particular tractors were Corbitts.

Dad was a great scavenger who knew all the best places for berries or windfall apples. Sometimes he would suddenly stop and disappear through a gap in the hedge only to reappear aer a few minutes with a cap full of mushrooms.

Trees that were cut down during the war were felled by cutting a ‘V’ all round with an axe before sawing through. is resulted in wedge shaped pieces of wood which he would collect, dry out and then burn on our kitchen range. ere always seemed to be plenty of roadkill to pick up as well, and he rarely came home empty-handed.

As you can imagine, the Ford took a real pounding during these years. ere was even a Ministry scheme to increase the loading by fitting heavier rear springs and bigger rear tyres (the engine, brakes etc. were ignored), and dad did all these jobs himself, as well as all the routine maintenance.

I can remember regular decokes, and those long front wings used to flex and crack requiring welding. It was during this period that the body had to be lined inside with zinc sheets and fitted with removable slatted wood flooring.

Everything had to be washed out each night now, and the slats scrubbed with caustic soda.

Dad’s business was too small to be included in the postwar nationalisation, and with rationing still in force, life went on just as before. at was until the end of 1948 when the Ministry cancelled all his contracts at a week’s notice and transferred the work to Hutchings of Stratford which was owed by the newly nationalised LMS Railway. e fact that the firm only had flats and dropsides didn’t seem to bother the authorities… is spelt the end of self-employment for dad and although he struggled on for a bit, his prewar contacts had largely disappeared. So the old Ford was sold for a few quid to a local garage which converted it into a breakdown truck and ran it for a few more. e ‘A’ licence fetched a lot more than the motor.

Dad temporarily worked as a caretaker at Henley School, but then went driving for the famous Tudor Dairies Ice Cream company. He first drove an insulated Austin 3-way van, then later 3- and 5-ton Ford ames and Traders. e Ross Group eventually took it over and

dad continued working for this company until he was 65, driving Leyland Beavers delivering to depots in Grimsby, Liverpool and Newton Abbot.

He didn’t fancy retiring so he carried on with a yearly medical until he was 70. He still wanted to work but had had enough of the long-distance stuff, so Ross provided a small pick-up for local errands and with odd-jobbing around the yard he carried on until he was 74.

When he finally finished, he took up cookery and bowling!

Failing eyesight put an end to his 60-odd years behind the wheel in his mid-eighties.

During this time he only had one accident. is was during a wartime blackout, driving with just one masked headlight. He was only a mile or so from home when he felt a bump.

He stopped and walked back a bit but could find nothing, so drove home, put the lorry in the shed, shut the doors and switched the light on, only to see a body draped over the front nearside wing. He called the doctor and local bobby who pronounced the man completely unharmed but blind drunk!

One final story. e Woodbines finally got to him just short of his 91st birthday and he was cremated at Oakley Wood between Wellesbourne and Warwick.

On the way we were badly held up by roadworks on the A46. Creeping towards us on the contraflow was a big Foden artic. On approaching the hearse, the young driver took off his baseball cap. He couldn’t possibly have known he was paying respects to one of the early Knights of the Road or that his gesture was the same as I had seen my dad do so many times on my travels with him.

Dave Haynes Penzance Cornwall A deserving winner of this month’s prize – Ed.

Winner of a reVeLL MoDeL KiT

To qualify for one of Ed’s fabulous prizes, send him a letter today June 2015 11

Your say Movingpaper In Heritage Commercials, February issue, you ask for memories on the Archive Album, and I do know about the Reed lorries caught in the snow. This took place on the A20 at the bottom of the Wrotham Hill incline opposite the now demolished Spring Tavern public house.

This was a yearly occurrence. When it snowed the drivers that made it this far had done extremely well to get to that point considering they came from the Aylesford depot. This lorry had superb sheeting and roping on what looks like wallpaper reels.

The Imperial Paper Mills lorry came from Gravesend and the driver was Jim Cogger.

There were 25 vehicles in total, three eightwheelers and the rest were all AEC six-wheelers.

Each lorry had its own driver, and my father drove an AEC eight-wheeler reg number RKR 917, No. 17.

The fleet was always kept immaculate, with its dark blue colour scheme and gold leaf signwriting. This lorry looks like it could be delivering to the Daily Express in Shoe Lane off Fleet Street. The reels have rope slings on them; this is so they can be off-loaded by overhead cranes jutting out from the buildings.

Some reels would go down cellars and some would be lifted up one or two floors outside the building and then pulled in by hand. While this was going on there would be pedestrians walking underneath. It’s obvious that there was no health and safety then. Sometimes you would back on to an unloading bank and roll them off.

The most unusual way of unloading was at the Daily Telegraph that was also off Shoe Lane.

We used to have to drive in underneath the building on to a big turntable, then the drivers would all have to push the vehicle round so you could back on to the unloading bank and then drive out. There would always be queues of vehicles waiting to unload at all the daily newspapers.

The Bowaters vehicle was unloading at Odhams Press, Long Acre, London, near the old Covent Garden Market, not Fleet Street. All the reels have rope strings on them to be lifted up two floors and then pulled in by workers above over the footpath.

Sometimes the drivers would help themselves to an apple or banana as they passed. As the Covent Garden lorries were going round and round trying to get into the market – it was an extremely tight squeeze.

Paper Mill lorries from all parts of the country were always well looked after and in a class of their own. Back then some of the Scottish ones would even have varnished floorboards as well.

The Imperial Paper Mill was taken over by Reeds Paper; the Mill is now demolished and has been made into a business park.

These were the happy days. No rushing and tearing about to get unloaded, everybody helping one another and every day you would have a laugh and joke. Where did it all go wrong?

Leonard Valsler LV Transport Ltd, Via email

12 Heritagecommercials.com

Is it the same one?

I am writing with regard to the FWD pictured on page 27 of the March issue. I enclose two photos that I took in 2009 at Dingles, near Lion, in Devon. e FWD it had on display also has hooks down the side, but has a split windscreen and a different shape to the cab front and top, and the grille letters are also in a different position.

Could it be the same vehicle recabbed? e registration seems to be FP 8104. at’s

my friend Paul Day standing at the back. He was looking for a truck to drive and fancied the FWD. By the way, this was my first time back in Lion since 1966 when I drove a BMC, reg number VYS 761, for SCWS Dundee. I loaded Ambrosia for Dundee. Happy days!

Brian Finnie, Carnoustie, Angus

Rotinoff

RemembeRed

On the front cover of April’s HC the registration plate on the front of Graham Booth’s Rotinoff caught my eye, but I did not realise why until I read the article inside.

On page 19 I spotted it still in Tony Jordan’s livery and I remembered seeing it at Quorn Station on the Great Central Railway. I’m quite sure I had also seen it at the Donington Classic Commercial Show. e attached picture is of two heavy haulers – well alright one of them is heavy when it needs lpa (light pedal assistance) up steep hills.

I think this was back in September 2011 when I snapped my 1953 Bown

Autocycle in front of what was then Tony’s Atlantic. As good and impressive as it looked then I do think it looks great in Graham Booth’s new maroon and red livery.

My classic vehicle efforts seem rather small when I come across restorations like this and those featured in HC, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the likes of Graham and Tony for presenting vehicles for the fans to appreciate. Maybe I’ll get a chance for another photo in the new colours one day.

Paul Bodsworth Anstey, Leicester

Lorryidentified I am a very long time reader of Heritage Commercials and also a retired firefighter. I have a great interest in both lorries and fire appliances of the 1930s and 1940s.

In the feature All the Fun of the Fair, Part 2, page 74, in the April 2015 edition of your magazine, there is a picture of ‘An unusual bodied Leyland six-wheeler GYR 243’. This vehicle was constructed in a National Fire Service (NFS) Regional Workshop in the immediate postwar period (the NFS was in being from 1941 until 1948).

It is shown in the book Wheels of Fire by Alan House, fresh out of the workshop, beautifully coach-lined with NFS logos on the side. An identical vehicle, GYO 845, is shown in Volume 3 of The Blitz Then and Now. They are both listed as Leyland Retrievers.

By the look of their registrations, which appear to be from Home Office allocations, they were purpose-built vehicles and not commandeered prewar trucks.

It is probable that they were built as Major Crash Tenders and not ordinary fire appliances and it is likely that they were the ‘Grandfathers’ of the six-wheel drive Crash Tenders of the Fifties and Sixties.

The NFS Regional Workshops, of which there were several across the whole country, were staffed by skilled mechanics and coachbuilders.

Most of these were also trained firefighters and were available to crew first-line fire appliances based at their workshops if necessary.

In the immediate postwar years many conversions were carried out on the Home Office-issued wartime appliances to make them more suited to a peace-time fire service.

Most notable of these was the development of the Water Tender, which could carry a crew of five or six plus an integral 400-gallon water tank and a moderate sized pump. Most modern-day front line fire appliances are direct descendants of these early converted vehicles.

Murray Beale Via email

BuyingBedfords

I read the interesting article by Parry Davis on the Bedford TK and would like to correct a few errors.

The first engines to use the ‘end to end’ flow system were the 220 and 330 diesels (I don’t think any 300s had this system). The engines can be recognised by a bulge at the back of the block and head where the water passage sealed by two ‘O’ rings is.

The 381 was not announced until 1967 – it was a small-bore version of the 466. The 381 was known as the 60 series and had the number 60 cast into the left rear of the block. The 466 announced at the same time was known as the 70 series and the number 70 was cast into the left rear of the block.

A derated version of the 466 replaced the 381 after a couple of years.

Later 466 engines had a modified block, and these engines can be identified by the number 466 cast into the left rear of the block.

The 466 series was replaced by the 500 series in 1976 which in turn was upgraded in 1980 by the Blue Series 500. The Blue Series had a stronger block and a larger (and heavier) cylinder head, with three water passages between the block and head. The Blue Series was available in turbo and normally aspirated forms with power outputs from 140 to 206bhp.

On the subject of gearboxes, the larger Bedford engines did not have a bell housing as such but had a flywheel housing which bolted on to the rear of the engine and incorporated the rear engine mountings.

The flywheel and clutch went into this housing and a cover, incorporating the clutch fork support or cross shaft, was then bolted on and the gearbox mounted on to this cover, usually with four bolts. The gearbox could be removed leaving the flywheel housing and cover in place. Hope the above is of interest.

Joe Burns Via email June 2015 13

Your say GoingCommando The brochure in the March 2015 From our Archive section brought back some memories of the late 1980s when I owned a Dodge Commando.

Myself and a partner were involved in transporting and installing mainly large pieces of computer equipment, which at that time would easily fill rooms, not just your lap. Inevitably working for ourselves we took anything on that came our way. One such job was a small office relocation from west London to Glasgow. All loaded up we wound our way up to Glasgow without incident and delivered the load on a Friday evening.

Now being a Friday night we thought that if we got our fingers out

we could be home early Saturday morning and have a good weekend.

We started heading south and stopped for coffee at one of the first services heading south on the M6.

On returning to the Dodge and turning the key, nothing. Great. Tried again. Nothing. Tilted the cab, hit the starter motor, nothing. Now neither of us were the greatest mechanics but after an hour of checking the obvious we were stumped. Of course we didn’t have truck breakdown cover and trying to call a local dealership at midnight on a Friday night was never going to work.

I then remembered that I was a member of the AA. The deal I had was

that I and not the car was the member.

Well worth a try. After all it’s a 12v system and we were 99% positive it was electrical. I made the call, from a call box – oh the inconvenience – and was told they would be there within the hour.

Sure enough 45 minutes later the yellow van pulled up. Out he jumped and I was ready to try and persuade him that he could fix it, thinking he had never seen anything bigger than his van. “What’s the problem?” he said.

I took a few minutes to explain what had happened and what we had checked. “No problem,” he said heading for the passenger footwell.

He tinkered around for a few minutes and said “try that”. I turned the key and away it went.

Dumbfounded, I ask what he had

done. It turns out that by some miracle we got the only AA man that used to work at the Dodge factory and that somewhere under the passenger footwell were a couple of fuses not mentioned in the handbook.

What were the chances that on a wet Friday night at midnight we could get an AA man who knew the electric system on a Dodge Commando?

After buying him coffee we were on our way and home by Saturday morning.

Other memories of that Dodge were of lots of leaks from the Perkins engine and heavy steering, but they will keep.

Tony Williams Via email

Commer Comparison

I read with great interest Bob Tuck’s in-depth article on the Jempson Commer N3 in Heritage Commercials magazine May 2015.

Back on August 18, 1937, I can recall the slightly larger N5 Commer EVK 757 coming to Powell Products in Low Fell, Gateshead, where my father – also called Jim – was transport manager.

Powell’s had a mixed fleet then of seven vehicles and even though I was only 12 years old at the time, I can recall my father kept a close record of the Commer’s operation and compared it with an Albion 127 – CN 8669 – which came new to the Powell fleet in April 1938.

Both these vehicles were rated to carry 5ton payloads and both had petrol engines. e Commer had a six-cylinder one while the Albion only had the four potter. I can recall travelling as a driver’s mate with the Commer in about 1940 on a trip to Glasgow (with something like 35 drops to do) and I know the Commer could rattle on to 40-44mph.

In contrast the Albion would only do 3738mph. e Commer was a bit heavy on fuel and would only do 9-10mpg. So to prevent

the need for filling up while away, an extra fuel tank was fitted on the roof of the Commer’s cab and it would gravity feed the normal tank when that was empty.

On long distance work, the Albion was better and gave 12mpg and that came fitted with twin fuel tanks. e Commer was certainly cheaper than the Albion (£300+ for the N5 compared to £500+ for the similar 127) and this was the big selling point when the local dealer – Minories Garage – tried to sell Powell’s more of these Commers.

However, my father’s records showed that the Commer had given us all sorts of trouble in service (particularly with the brakes) and in the long run it was more cost effective to run Albions.

It didn’t help Commer’s cause that I recall an earlier brand new Commer coming straight from the Luton factory with a gearbox fault which meant it had to be replaced with a new gearbox before a body was put on it. Because of this comparative trial, Powell’s went on to standardise on

Albions at its Low Fell works.

I’ve attached a couple of photographs showing some of the Powell vehicles and drivers from that time. e one with the Albion and Commer also include staff members Arty Lawrence and Fred omas.

I recall Fred was one of the five Powell drivers who were conscripted for military service at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 but he never returned from Dunkirk. I think the Military also tried to conscript the Powell vehicles but as they were used in food distribution, this wasn’t allowed. e second photograph shows my father Jim on the le wearing a cap with the Powell vehicles being loaded with distinctive boxes of Christmas puddings.

I hope you find these photographs and information of interest. I always enjoy your magazine. Keep up the good work.

Jim Wilkinson (aged 90) Low Fell, Gateshead

June 2015 15

Classic Restoration

Words: Bob Tuck Photography: Bob Tuck/As stated

Friends

REUNITED

Part of the restoration team. Left to right – Nick Swanston, Roger Annis, his daughter Sarah Annis (she was the general helper whenever in yard), and brothers Alan and Brian Dundon.

At first glance it looks like many other Scammells, but this is one very special vehicle.

When Roger Annis decided to invest in a classic Scammell box tractor, the decision came with one important proviso. Although there are many Scammells in preservation, Roger resolved he’d only be interested in one if it had been owned and operated by his father – the late Frank Annis. In subsequently restoring LLL 920D, Roger – and his team of helpers – were to bring back to life one of the two 8-cylinder Gardner powered Scammell 65tonners that his father had specially built in the Annis workshops. Bob Tuck gets to drive this Annis powerhouse and discovers the reuniting of Annis man and machine was quite an emotional time.

June 2015 17

Classic Restoration LLL 920D, the working years.

Photos Roger Annis Collection.

Frank Annis with his son Roger. Photo courtesy Roger Annis.

W

e’ve said it before but it’s obvious that we need to say it again – you enter the preservation world at your peril. Taking on a restoration doesn’t come cheap in time or money. Of course, if you have the flexibility of a suitable budget to pay someone else to do the work then that’s great.

But the main thing you have to guard against is the emotions the situation might trigger.

Of course any old motor is just a blend of bits of wood, metal, rubber, plastic perhaps and some oil and grease to smooth the movement – what’s so engaging about that? Looked at coldly, there’s no harm in breathing new life into old metal; lots of people do it on lots of occasions – in fact it should be encouraged.

However, when the vehicle in question is one that you know – as it had become a special part of your family’s business – then things take on a different light. Add the fact that you worked this ‘special’ as a driver’s mate in the testing field of heavy haulage (and even then you realised this was quite ‘a good old girl’) then the lump of metal takes on a whole, almost personal, identity of its own.

We explain this warning at length as an introduction to the current case in point – Roger Annis. To look at, he’ll probably strike you as a big strapping guy who can take anything in his stride. As a descendant of the famous Annis heavy haulage family, Roger was born and bred in an industry that is testing to the extreme.

Roger’s own working life – the last 43 years of it has been driving low-loaders for the Swanston family – has also been one of virtually nonstop hard work. But start talking about the life and times of LLL 920D and don’t be surprised that the man himself might find himself too choked for words. We exaggerate not.

PUMP LANE

Frank Annis first set up business in Shepherd’s Bush as a scrap metal dealer but it wasn’t long before he got into transport. is expansion prompted the move to land in Pump Lane, Hayes, Middlesex, where he was to create one of the most well-known heavy haulage businesses of the era. e Annis history could fill a book or three and we promise we’ll come back to it in a later

18 Heritagecommercials.com

A typical sort of load for this tractor in its working days. The trailer is also an Annis special and while having Dyson running gear it has the bed from a Pacific tank transporter.

These photos were taken by Ken Rutterford who worked for GPO Telephones in the 1960s and had to follow big loads to ensure safe passage. This was a Sunday job (double time for Ken!) and in the box was a bubble chamber from Harwell.

The Scammell with one of the many ship propellers hauled by Annis all over the UK. These were made by Stone Manganese of Anchor & Hope Lane, Charlton.

issue. e images alone of his take on how jobs should be done are part of heavy haulage folklore; but there are one or two pertinent details relevant to this story that need to be explained now.

First one is that Frank Annis was a dedicated Gardner engine fan – he refused to have anything else in his yard: “I’m sure he was rushed into getting a new Scammell tractor once for a hurry-up job,” recalls his son Roger, “and the only one available had the Leyland 680 engine. He bought the motor but

within three months that new Leyland engine was taken out and it was replaced with a Gardner. He loved them.”

If you were involved in the demanding world of heavy haulage during the 1950s and 1960s, you oen had to build up your own trailers, cradles, tackle etc. to get the variety of jobs done.

It wasn’t financially viable to buy new gear all the time, but on his staff Frank had a great guy called Bert Cooper: “He was an absolute magician of an engineer,” recalls Roger.