Harold Wood Sons Ltd Bulk Liquid Transporters

Does anyone know where Roy Biglin is, he was a driver at Heckmondwike from1967 untill early 1980s.

next? These comment's' used to follow on.

Hello Michael, my name is David Pinder, my mother Janet Pinder worked as the canteen manageress at HW in the 60's, I remember she had two members of staff called Joan Evans (marvellous mince pie!) and Doris. I remember a guy called Jeff Widdup who was a mechanic who used to take pleasure in putting me on top of the lockers in the canteen, I was only 8 at the time! HW was in operation up until around 1981 when the tanker fleet was taken over and relocated (can't remember by who), the workshops and offices were split into smaller units and rented out, eventually they were demolished around 1993. I lived on Wermold Street and played on the land to the left of HW (it was called "the bottom garden) and also worked at HW washing up for my mum at the tender age of 9 for which I received a wage (in a brown envelope) from HW of sixpence. I hoped this has filled a little gap for you.
Kind regards: David

Thank you very much for your message David because this is just the sort of thing I am looking for, it fills in some of the gaps. I bet I knew your Mum whilst at Woods because in the afternoon when mugs of tea came round the office complex where I worked on the Sales Ledger side the tea was served from a trolly by a lady and on that trolly were all sorts of wonderful goodies which they had cooked or baked or whatever. Wonderful days. To try and put a date on all this I do remember that working its way up to the No. 1 spot in the charts at the time was "Baby Love" by the Supreems (Dianna Ross lead singer) as it was forever being played on the juke box in the pub at the top of Wormald Street which we too often frequented at the time. Thanks again.

Hi Michael,

Way back in the late 50's i had a mate, Don by name, who worked for Shellmex BP red green vehichles, big Bedford and Leyland artics. Opposite the depot was some waste ground, backing up to the railway marshalling yard. On this waste land, up to 15 eight-wheeled tankers used to park; AEC eight-wheelers with one or two Atkinson eight-wheelers. These were dark blue tankers, Harold Wood of Heckmondwyke and Cleckheaton. I suspect these vehichles were on contract to Berry Wiggins at King's North. It seems possible these vehicles were subjected to vandalism and/or theft, as it was possible to find police foot patrols on duty.

Hope the above may be of use to you.

Regards Mick

Michael, Harold Woods was taken over and became part of the nationalised road services sometime in the late 1960s, I think. British Road Services was rechristened the 'National Freight Corporation' in 1969. This was a mammoth undertaking, and many different firms were absorbed into it, including Pickfords Removals, BRS Parcels, and so on.
Sometime in the mid 1970s the NFC was reorganised and Woods was joined with Pickfords Tankers division, based in Stroud, and Caledonian Bulk Transport, based in Immingham, in a new holding company within the NFC, called Tankfreight. The new HQ for all three businesses was moved to Harrogate, in about 1975, although all three companies operated separately for years after this.
Woods had two basic parts to the business, what they called spot hire [somebody rings up and orders a tanker of specific capacity, to do a particular job] and contract hire - a company like ICI or BP agrees that a vehicle will be run by Woods but work exclusively for the company. There was a depot near every ICI site and Woods also worked for most of the oil companies around at that time, so had depots dotted all over the country.
I started work in the traffic office at Heckmondwike in 1977. At the time it was situated in a block of portacabins just inside the main gate [to the right as you looked in] but after a few months we moved to the 1st floor of the main block. I moved around to various jobs in the main building, then transferred in 1979 to the head office in Harrogate, where I worked until 1981.
As a part of the privatisation programme of the 1980s, the National Freight Company became the National Freight Company in 1980, and then the National Freight Consortium in 1982, when it was subject of a management buy-out.
It was decided that the NFC was too big, so bits were then sold off, and in 2000 it merged with another firm and the new business was called Exel Plc.
Harold Woods name disappeared in about 1985, I think, and the deport was sold off some time shortly afteer this.

I had a friend worked at Harold Woods as a mechanic (apprentice) his name was Jeff Turton, live near dewsbury moor junior school.

My ex father in law, Geoff Hammond, was National Funds Manager for NFC for many years.
I did my HGV class 1 training with Harold Woods, back in 1980. They became part of Tankfreight (NFC) for a few years before closure.

Hi I worked for Harold Wood / Tankfreight Wormald St Heckmondwike I left in Jan 1991 and the yard closed I end of March 1991 The old offices & canteen / steam bays were pulled down in app 1986 if I remember correctly. RoyBiglin was still driving for Tankfreight when I left ! The yard was sold to a carpet company and the workshops as far as I know are still standing but re clad at the top of the yard .

He was still employed by Tankfreight when I left in 1991

Didn’t Harold Wood sell out to Norcross prior to Pickfords ? The yard closed in March 1991 I worked there for both Tankfix & Tankfreight under a great boss Malcolm Tallon

My Father, Geoffrey Waller and my uncle, John Sykes, both worked as mechanics for Harold Woods during the 60's and 70's, sadly they have both passed away and I can add no more.