A journey back in time
Words & photographs Alan Barnes
Alan Barnes reports on a restored Bedford TK that’s been owned by the same family for over 40 years.
The last time I had seen Vic Harvey’s old Bedford TK, it was in far from roadworthy condition, having been long retired and occupying the corner of a field where it had been left to enjoy ‘commanding views over the Sussex countryside’.
To the uninitiated, the lorry looked to have been ‘dumped’, but in truth it was only ‘resting’. What a difference a couple of years and a lot of hard work have made, and the superbly restored vehicle was finished just in time to take part in the HCVS London to Brighton Run.
A few days after the run, I took the opportunity to visit Vic to learn the story of the Bedford and the part it has played in the family business “In January 1957, having completed my National Service, I returned home to join my father as a partner in the family farming and agricultural contracting business at Hurstpierpoint, which was in East Sussex. This was before we were peremptorily transferred to West Sussex in the county boundary changes in 1974.
“We had two dairy herds and an arable operation growing cereals and sugar beet on about 350 acres. On the contracting side, we had two Massey Harris combines and a baler and with the usual complement of tractors and machinery, we could undertake pretty much anything that was asked of us.
“A couple of ex-army Canadian Ford V8 lorries had been purchased after the war; but because of their phenomenal thirst for petrol, we had decided to get something more economical, and ended up with a 1950 Ford Thames ET6 three-tonner which had been converted to diesel with a 4D engine.
“This was used primarily to haul sugar beet to the local railway goods yard at Hassocks station where we off-loaded by hand throwing the beet over the side of the wagon with a fork. I reckoned to do a 16-ton railway truck in a day which was four 4-ton loads with the Ford."
Thames Trader
“Overloading was rife in those days but
this was still much safer than using the unbraked four-wheel farm trailers which we had at the time.
“The Ford was followed by a 1960 Thames Trader 7-tonner, which we bought in 1964. This was an ex Hall & Co concrete mixer which we bought as a chassis cab unit for £250. I paid another £45 for a wooden dropside tipping body and hydraulic ram which had come off a Trader and which I found in a dealer’s yard, and the whole lot fitted perfectly.
“The only trouble was the body had been used for salt deliveries and the timber was saturated and would not take paint until we had gone over it with a blowlamp. I knocked up some extension sides for the bulk grain and this was another revenue earning job we could do.
“With its medium wheelbase, the Trader was a bit too short to carry a decent load of bags or bales and with a top speed of around 40mph it was also on the slow side, so after a couple of years we started to look for something more suitable for our needs as well as being affordable.
“An advert in the ‘For Sale’ column of Commercial Motor magazine in December 1966 caught my eye. GTC Commercials at Bow Road in East London were advertising a couple of 1962 Bedford TK long wheelbase dropsides with a carrying capacity of 7½ tons. The price was a reasonable £375 and I arranged to see them.
“One of them had the optional factory-fitted Leyland 0.350 diesel engine and two-speed axle and the body was also in good condition. It had had one owner from new, John Parradine Ltd, a haulage contractor from Great Easton, near Dunmow in Essex, and had been used mainly in market deliveries of agricultural produce. It looked to be a sound buy and if a part exchange deal on the Trader could be arranged, I was definitely interested.
“Mr Chandler, the proprietor, agreed to come down to the farm to view the Trader and offered £200 for it. I offered £350 for the Bedford and the deal was done, we shook hands on it and I parted with a cheque for £150, which I thought was quite a fair deal.
“A couple of days later I took the Trader to London and picked up the TK. As it was Friday mid-afternoon, I decided to avoid the heavy traffic and opted for the scenic route via the Dartford Tunnel.
“I thought that there would be just enough fuel for the journey home; but as I climbed the steep hill on the A25 into Westerham, the Bedford started to falter and I discovered, much to my consternation, that my view of the fuel level had been somewhat optimistic. Luckily, I was able to coast into the parking area in the centre of the town and came to a halt opposite the King's Arms hotel. By now it was dark so I booked into the hotel for the night, had a meal and contemplated my stupidity over a pint.
Many more interesting articles in this month's issue of Heritage Commercials.
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