SUPERB SENTINEL
David Hilditch has had an avid fascination with vehicles all of his life, and has been the proud owner of OF 5783, his 1929 Sentinel DG4 tar waggon No. 8122 since 2002. It is a unique vehicle and reputedly has the honour of being the last working steam vehicle in the UK, carrying on until 1984.
Having a Birmingham registration, the Sentinel was supplied new to William Nock on 18 December 1929, who were trading as Erdington Haulage Ltd from Holly Lane Brickworks in the city’s suburb of Erdington. It was originally a flatbed body, being used to deliver bricks throughout the Midlands, and seemingly was fitted with pneumatic tyres in 1933.
The DG4 looks to have passed into the ownership of Ernest B Ward of Bowden’s Garage, Orchard Street, Stockton Heath in Cheshire; he was certainly a dealer, but did a bit of haulage as well. Later the family were Sentinel Diesel dealers as a big part of ‘North Cheshire Motors’, later still they assembled Sentinel leftovers as ‘Transport Vehicles Warrington.’ Dates for this period are unclear, as this was during the early years of WWII, but the next owner is recorded. This seems to have been Dee Cestrian & Laycock Ltd, who were Mineral Water Manufacturers in Chester. It was with
