My earliest memory was of my dad putting me on a cows back in our shippon one night after he had finished milking. It was 1957 I was 3 years old. It was a blue roaned cow and she was always tied in her stall on the right hand side wall, she looked enormous from where I was standing but my dad picked me up and put me on her back, she never flinched, I think it was his way of me getting use to the cows and other animals we had on the farm. In 1960 my mum and dad moved to farm at Lower Withington, where they rented the whole hundred acres. On that farm it was under a tenancy that my dad paid rent for per year. We milked in a back-to-back shippon with feed areas close by. We grew corn and kale for the winter months. 2 years had gone by and the landlord of the farm decided to put in a milking parlour which gave my mum and dad a bit more scope.
In 1958 my brother was born and he goes on to work the farm with my dad.
In 1960 we all moved back to Sandiway where I was born, dad had worked hard with mum and saved money but still needed a bank loan to buy a farm between Sandiway and Weaverham . It was 75 acres and a grassland farm, still a shippon milking 40 cows and a dairy close by. In 1968/69 when we had survived the foot and mouth epidemic dad had decided to buy a milking bale and put it behind the shippon and hook up to the dairy for the transport of the milk, I was 11 years I would get up early before school and help dad to milk and feed those 70 cows. On weekends dad and I would milk together morning and night, it has always been a 7 days a week job even on Christmas morning. In 1969 I left school I did not have any exam certificates and as dad said to the school job officer that came one summer to see what I was going to do when I left school. "There`s only one place my lad is going to work for", and I heard him say, at home, when truly I had in my own mind that I was going to join the navy, I soon realised that the navy option was burnt from my memory. So on the 1 st August 1969 I started work for my dad, OK working for your dad maybe be great but as it turned out we were always arguing, I was going to Reaseheath Agriculture College at the time and I would becoming home telling dad of the new fangled ways of milking cows that I had been taught at college, which didn`t go down too well either considering dad I had been milking cows since he was 14 years old himself and was a self minded person. The arguments would go on week in week out till both of us had decided enough was enough and I left to work on another farm at Pickmere Nr Northwich. I suppose it was the best for both of us but I could see that dad was disheartened, I was young and foolish at the time and my head as any young man will never say was full of anything but the job and their family. After 12 months of working on another farm having a girlfriend and motorbike to take care of, I realised that the money I was earning was just not enough so I packed in farming and went to work in Middlewich for British Crepe. I was working in the dye house I found it to be hard work and very hot, fine in winter and quite warm but in summer even with the doors open it was red hot and after 1 year of working there I moved and found a job driving for Hales Of Frodsham on 10.00 tonne gross Bedford wagon. It was a job that catered for the fruit and vegetable markets and we would go out in the mornings carrying our loads of veg to shops that we delivered around the Frodsham to Northwich areas, I would even drive on Christmas morning in the early days but after a few years that stopped and then I could open my presents like anyone else could on Christmas morning. I worked on that job for approx 10 years I even had my licence upgraded from a car licence driving 7.5 tonne vehicles to the 10 tonne wagons sort of 12 tonnes de-rated to 10 tonnes and no power steering, not like today. Having now got the driving disease within my blood and dreaming that one day I would become that big trucker driver myself, I spied upon a job that had been advertised in my local paper to work for Daleford Estates at Sandiway. It was driving 16 tonne Leyland sand tipper wagons and I went for an interview with the owners Mr & Mrs B. Guest who I later found out had three sons and also knew my father and mother from their younger days, I also learnt that Mr Guest use to call my dad `mucker` but for some unknown reason I will not go in to that. The interview seemed to go fine but for one problem and that was my licence was not a class three only a licence for driving ten tonne vehicles, I thought that`s the job up the spout, and Mr Guest said he would be in touch if he thought any more about it. A few days later I had a telephone call regarding the sand job, Mr Guest explained that he would take me on as a driver and put me in for my class 3 licence on the understanding that I would work for him alone for the next two years, I suppose he worked it out that he would get his money back one way or another. So a week later I started driving for Dalefords with a Professional driver beside me teaching me the ropes of big drivers wagons so I thought, and a couple of weeks went by and I went to Crewe to take my test on HGV class 3 wagons and guess what I passed first time. After approx 5 years being at Dalefords Mr Guest came again to see me and asked would I like to upgrade to a HGV class two licence and a couple of weeks later I passed the test and got my class two, I stayed at Dalefords for quite along time, in fact you could say those were the happiest days of my driving years. We would deliver building and concreting sand all over the Cheshire and Northwest areas and I must admit I drove with some really nice blokes young and old a like. Those were the good old days. While driving round delivering sand to those areas I would have to stop to have my break it was then I would start working out how I would go on trying my hand at being an owner driver, it took approx 12 months from the dinner break, I first went on a course for my CPC certificate which I passed that was taken at Whally near Blackburn, then I went to See my bank manager to try for a loan which I got, then in October 1987 I bid my favourite boss a good farewell which I suppose he understood at the time, anyway a few years later Dalefords was sold to CEMEX the concreting firm, and Mr & Mrs Guest are now retired and they certainly deserve that. My first wagon I bought as an owner driver was a Leyland Mastiff 6 wheeler alloy body tipper 1982 on an X reg plate it was in army green colour so I painted it in a lighter green so you could see it coming in the dark. It had a 8 cylinder V8 Perkins engine in her at 180 hp and a 9 speed Eaton gearbox with over drive as they say, what a box best one yet, it had double springs on the back which after working out of Buxton they didn`t last long either they had to be renewed on several occasions, it wasn`t the wagon nor the driver`s fault, it was the hard rough quarries I was working out of at the time, so a couple of years later I traded in my Mastiff for a 1985 F7 Volvo tipper with 245 hp engine and 9 speed box, I though I had become king over night driving the smooth tipper all round the Manchester areas, I kept that wagon for four years but as life has to go on I thought I would upgrade her and this time try for something a little newer, I spied upon a Foden 6 wheeler 3300 series tipper with 265 Cummins engine and another 9 speed box with alloy body that came from Pelican Engineering Company at Leeds, you know the one I am talking about they use to call it a plastic shed, because it was all fibreglass cab. I called it great as it had rubber suspension on the back and hardly anything to go wrong as I thought, but after having it for 3 months, yes you guessed it the blasted engine blew up and I was faced with a money loosing hole, so I hunted round for an engine, couldn't`t find anything that would do, so I got in touch with Cummins main Headquarters and played holly hell with them, I suppose they understood what I was going through no wagon no engine nothing, so after I blew my top at them they telephoned me to say that if I took my truck into Sandbach Fodens old service garage they would order me a brand new Cummins 265 engine and fit it as long as I would put in a new clutch. What do think I did. Yes you guessed it, got the old girl round to Sandbach and within two weeks I was back on the road again with an almost new vehicle. and may I say it didn`t cost me anything apart from paying £400 pounds for the clutch. That`s Cummins service at it`s best well done! I kept that wagon three years. She did me well and paid my loan off too. The next 6 wheel tipper I bought was Foden with a Caterpillar 300 bhp engine on a L reg plate. She came from Airdrie, dam good wagon in purple with Scottish thistle painted on her sides, best wagon so I thought, I kept her 4 years, have you noticed now that I am becoming a Foden man it gets in the blood you know. Next was a Brand New Foden 6 wheeler with 385 Cat engine and 12 speed ZF gearbox with alloy body and alloy wheels and electric front to back sheet, good wagon she was kept her 3 years and swapped her for a New Foden 6 wheeler with 450 bhp Cat engine and 12 speed ZF box. This one could go up Kelsall Hill in top gear just dropping half a gear at the top in next to nothing time fully loaded carrying 16.600 tonne. She was the best Cat powered truck I have ever had and I suppose ever will have. In 2005/06 Foden`s decided to retire and then that gave me a dilemma on where were I to get my next truck from and which one was I to buy I didn`t want to go down the Volvo or Scania road as I was so use to having Foden in my blood and understood how to get the benefits from Fodens. I was looking for new again and another two year warranty, but which one. My local Foden representative a Mr Gosnay from the Stoke area had gone from Fodens and got a job as a area manager with Hino at Chester. He was the person who I always bought my trucks from so he came one day and brought a new 8 wheeler Hino with an alloy body for me to try, guess what in my mind it was a Foden in sheep's clothing and after having her for a day or two I ordered a New 8 wheeler Hino tipper with 410 bhp engine and 16 speed ZF gearbox with electric from to back Harsh blue sheet and alloy wheels all round you know the type of truck all singing, all dancing, at cheap money may I say, doesn`t break the bank and carries a good payload of 20.800 tonnes to boot, does between 6 and 8 to the gallon and has quite a good sleeping area for that odd night away. What more could I ask for. She is the one in my photos, the one that will be bringing your load one day. And guess what, after being on my own these last twenty odd years my dad is still my dad and my best friend, so you see what comes around goes around.