DOWN MEMORY LANE
Regular readers of Heritage Commercials will be familiar with Geoff, who used to be an occasional contributor. Now in his eighties, he is still involved with the Morris-Commercial Club and is in the process of restoring a Morris FV.
“I’ve always been interested in lorries since I was a boy,” he explained. “My mother used to say that when I was in my pram, I used to lift myself up if I heard the noise of a bus or commercial vehicle. In the 1930s we lived close to an army barracks in Manchester. As I grew older I noticed the car park steadily filling up with lorries as the Second World War approached.”
When war broke out, Geoff was sent to live with an aunt on the Fylde coast, and the family settled in Blackpool at the end of hostilities.
“My father was involved with transport, so it runs in the family,” he said. “He worked for a brewery company in Blackpool, and his job was to look after their fleet of lorries. Most of the vehicles wore a Morris badge, and he got on well with Williams Brothers the local dealer.
“Morris lorries were a familiar sight back in those days and were used for a variety of different jobs. My friend’s father drove a Morris C-Type, and we would travel around the area collecting milk churns. I also visited my father’s workplace to see the lorries in action. I was still very interested in commercial vehicles during my teenage years, and when I finally left school took an apprenticeship with Williams Brothers.”
Geoff recalls there was very little industry in a seaside town like Blackpool, and most of the commercial
