NOSTALGA ROAD : Every so often I re post images that have a certain appeal, Post WW2 farming expanded greatly and crops needed to be moved from farm to markets.
The Bedford truck range was ideally placed, to provide strong cheap lorries, the most famous was the TK, as a kiddy I went just once in the early hours from ST IVES to the “Borough” market in London with a load of carrots, the haulage company was Walter Game, I have never forgotten the noise, smell, colour (in the 1960s it had to bagged up at the farm and hand loaded and stacked, sheeted down; all hard manual labour, on to the back then unloaded again).
Back then many homes used coal for cooking and heating, the coal merchant was vital, again the coal would come by rail into coal drops, from which it had to be bagged up into CWT sacks, very dirty and back breaking, as had to be humped up the wagon, ad then humped off, going door to door then carefully tipped into the coal hole, the men were grimy all day long, never out of their skin, the CWS CO-OP were one of the largest out of hundreds of merchants
The CF and TK was a popular choice as the carrying capacity could be increased with extra rear spring bars, I can remember one of the last Leeds inner city firms lasting into the 1980s and beyond in the Yorkshire Dales, a little TK doing the weekly rounds.
The reason for all this, you may wonder ?
Over the years I have often been involved in supplying vehicles for the TV and film industry, it has always been a pity they appear smart and brand new but this coming month will see the release of “Small things like these“ the lead actor being Cillian Murphy. He plays a coal merchant, driving a well -worn TK set in Ireland, it is not based on a true story, it as a questioning film as to just how this was allowed to happen?
I am not spoiling the story, but it is beautify shot, dirty and how it was, for once a classic truck is the star (see the trailer)