Wigan Album

Mk 2 Atkinson radiator grille cover, the mk1 Atki had the full radiator showing.

Rev David, Do you still have any old buses nowadays ? Ray.

No, Ray - we ran them under mini-bus licences, but they tightened up the regulations in the late 1980s, at the same time as we lost our garage premises. So we sold up and used the money towards building a canal boat for people with disabilities.

My apologies - I'd forgotten that I posted an earlier pic of this back in 2016, which Ozy commented upon then.
I've just down a quick Google on the badges, and some are worth a bit of money nowadays. Seems a bit strange for stuff scrapyard men were happy to let me take off wagons and buses for free.

Your radiator grille would most likely have come off one of Alf Sutton’s scrappers David .
I used to drag them from St Helens with Bill Ratcliffe’s wrecker , take the rear wheels and most of the front wheelnuts off at the Low Bank road yard before dragging them down to the Edge Green site for John McKenna to chop up .
The wheels had to be taken back to Sutton’s .

Any Gardner engines would be loaded onto a trailer and I’d deliver those to a fella by the name of Paul Sykes who had a place just outside Barnsley .
Paul Sykes would have been your man for bus parts . He had a yard full of buses back in the late 60s and 70s .
John McKenna would most likely have been the chap that sold you the Atki grille . If you’d asked me , you could have had it for nowt .

Unfortunately , if it was post 1979 , I would have been gone by then , as I was driving the low loader for Trevor Sutcliffe from Stopford st. in Ince during the Falklands conflict , and I think that was either 81 or 82 .

Ozy - I can reassure you, I paid nowt for the grille! The dog collar was a marvellous cadging tool.... I should write a history of all the stuff I was able to cadge for worthy causes under its protection.
Paul Sykes was one of the Barnsley scrappers we dealt with. Many of the engines ended up in junks in Hong Kong - though I don't think I ever scrapped anything which had an engine with any life in it!

It was nice to see Low Bank mentioned ozy, takes me back to 70s I walked past Trevalan yard twice daily to school and back, I seen some big awesome machines in there, also remember the lady driver Joyce who lived at spindle hillock at the time, good memories Thank you.

Joyce Horsfield , she was traffic clerk at Trevalan for a spell Dave after working in the traffic office for Allinson Freightlines at Newton-le-Willows previously .

I remember her as a young girl when she lived on Cansfield Grove and had a pen down the Skitters .
She married a big lad from Goose Green named Cyril and they bought a farmhouse in Grange valley in Haydock .

She acquired her class 1 HGV licence by coming out with us drivers when we drove for Pritchett Bros. in Liverpool rd. then she started up in haulage on her own account in the early 80s with an F88 Volvo and a 40 foot fridge trailer , while Cyril worked as yard foreman at Mabey & Johnson’s in Garswood .

The last time I saw her was at the traffic lights at J23 of the M6 , but that was 20 odd years ago at least and I’ve no idea where she is now … … I could do with making one or two enquiries.

Joyce was sound .

Rev do you have any old dog collars that you don't want.

Thanks for that info ozy, I remember Cyril Carroll well although last time I seen him was at a funeral at our ladies at brockstedes and he was on sticks,his father had a cottage farm at highbrooks when I was a lad.

That’s the lad Dave ; I’d forgotten his surname was Carroll . Thanks for jogging my memory .

Yes Joyce is my friend .She helped me pass my hgv over 30yrs ago .