"Jack’s departure led to one interesting job outside the normal run of things. Billy came to me one day and said he wanted me to go to Accrington the following day and pick up a UDEC bottle washer at Whitewell Dairies and take it to Sandy Jones at Bow Street near Aberystwyth.

On the day appointed I turned up at Whitewell Dairies at 08:00 and up rolled Bradley’s crane. The washer was supposed to be eight tons and the crane regularly loaded heavier containers than this however, when he got hooked on and tried to lift it the crane wouldn’t have it. I should have smelt a rat then but rang Billy who arranged for Chris Miller’s to send a bigger crane from Preston  the following day and off I went home. Next morning we tried again but it was no go, the overloads on the crane cut out and we were back to square one. I had a word with the driver and he said if we put a fiver under one of the front jacks this might cure it! I got the message, gave him a fiver and he opened up the lids of the overload breakers on the floor and held them in with his foot while he lifted. As soon as he had it high enough I backed under the load and we lowered it on to the flat. I had loaded it with the delivery end at the front as this was the heaviest part but when the wagon took the weight the front rose in the air about a foot. It was obvious that all the weight was in the back. I asked the driver to lift it while we spun it round but he said we’d have to wait for the overload coils to cool off so we went for a cup of tea. When I came back twenty minutes later he had gone! I now had a bit of a problem. I decided that all I could do was keep quiet and get on with it. I roped the washer down at the front, parked up and went for a meal and a visit to the local picture palace.  I reckoned if I was going to drive this thing to Wales I’d be better off in the dark with less traffic and fewer police about. What a journey!  One thing I will say is that it was light on the steering but on the way I broke both back springs. I arrived at Bow Street in the early morning light and backed up to the concrete base where the washer was to stand, it was roughly the same height as the wagon flat. Sandy borrowed a crawler off the forestry commission and they simply dragged it off on to the standing and TWY heaved a sigh of relief and straightened her back. Just out of curiosity I opened the manhole at the back end of the washer and found it was full of scale and broken glass. I reckon it must have weighed at least 11 tons! I rang Billy and asked him to get two new back springs delivered and drove home very slowly. Before I went I asked Sandy how he was going to move it into its final position. He said he wouldn’t bother, he’d leave it where it was and build another bay on the end of the dairy! I liked that attitude. I didn’t realise at the time but this was the start of my career in general haulage, I was to get a lot of work like this."

PS. Sorry about the bold type, the formatting from my page to the topic did it and I couldn't alter it.


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk