Cooper S

I live not far from Langley and Iver and it's pretty amazing to imagine the trucks driving at any speed at all down some of the lanes around this area. It's also almost possible to believe that the new road between Iver and Langley that cuts across the route used in the opening sequence was built as a result of the local council seeing the movie !

A couple of extra details about the roads used - the ford is on Hawkswood Lane behind Pinewood Studios, and the trucks can also be seen turning onto Wood Lane from Bellswood Lane in some shots.

It also looks to me as if miniatures of the trucks are used in the chase sequence when Red tries to force Tom over the edge.

trapper diesel

I see people have asked various questions about The Hell Drivers, well Terry is correct in what he says regarding WW Drinkwater and the locations. The lorries which were used in the Hell Drivers were WW Drinkwater and they were Dodges and they were dark green and black in colour, I wouldnt say that every lorry which appeared in the film belonged to WW Drinkwater but three of them were definate. What I can tell you is the story of where these lorries ended their day
and that was at a Shoot at Harville Road Harefield. These old Hell Driver Dodges used to run across the shoot at Harefield as well as other shoots before this, and used to put the top covering over the top of the rubbish at the end of the day, so the drag line would load the lorries up in the day and take it over where you were working, tip it up in a heap and then the bull dozer would cover up what was left on the site at the end of the day. They were eventually sold to a man called Reg Jordan and the agreement was that WW Drinkwater had the engines, gearboxes and the rear axles back off of them and then Reg who hired a bit of the shoot from ww Drink Water then cut them up. He used to cut a lot of stuff up for Drink Waters lorries e.t.c. Bill Alan who drove the bull dozer at Harefield pushed the lorries across the site to Reg's part of the shoot and they were then cut up. One of these lorries were sold to a Mr Keith Stut who converted it to a break down lorry, he came from around the Hampton area. A man called Taffy also used to drive the bull dozer and was one of the best bull dozer drivers I have ever known.
Ron Williams and a man called Percy used to drive the dragline. They used to bring the drag line crane on a Scammel Highwayman Low Loader 4 in line knock out trailer to where ever it was needed.

This is where I first met Black Johnny Galloway and he seem to take to me like I was his son and I took to him like he was my father and he was the best friend I ever had and we had some great times and great memories right up til the time he passed away 2 years ago. Johnny also drove the old FG Foden 8 wheeler push outs and he used to push the rubbish out like a caterpillar. These old Fodens had the super low gearboxes in them with two first gears, one was a crawler and the same for the reverse gears, some of Drink Waters had a twelve speed in them. You could not tell Black Johnny anything about these!!! Johnny also used to take a man called Snowy Drinkwaters pigeons every time they had to be raced and the car they used I think was a Humber Super Snipe or a Humber Hawk and Elsie Drinkwater was also a great friend of Johnnys. If I remember rightly she used to be with Snowy at Duddon Hill Neasden but I am not too sure. He was a great jockey (driver). He also worked for Tony Mc Govern from Neasden for 28 years driving right up til the time he retired. Johnny had great respect for Tony Mc Govern and vice versa. Johnny also had phots of these lorries from the Hell Drivers, there was also a man called Mr Hudson who used to have a cini film of The Hell Drivers.

WW Drinkwater used to also have pits at Brockley Hill, Hounslow, North Circular Road, which was called Twyford, Rush Green, one in Springwell Lane Harefield, and Harville Road Harefield.


The real true Hell Drivers in my opinion, were a firm called Merrimans Filtering Media which were based at Hillingdon Middlesex years ago and used to take ash out of Fulham power station to Colnbrook, Moore Lane, Staines Middlesex. Thats where the idea for this film was taken from, and the fleet numbers which were on the Merrimans lorries were located on the tower boards on the top right hand corner for police reasons and then in the original film they put these numbers on the front of the lorries. Merrimans was studied a lot before the making of the Hell Driver film and the owner of Merrimans Mrs Mylon was asked if it could be filmed on her place in Moore Lane Staines or use shots of this location but at the time she refused due to the publicity of Merrimans which at that time had enough publicity on its own. For anyone reading this and knew Merrimans would know what I mean. The opening scene of the Hell Drivers where the lorry turns left was filmed at Moore Lane, Colnbrook and half way along Moore Lane Colnbrook just by Merrimans plant was a cafe and behind the cafe was an MGF car specialist, this is where a lot of people took photos of Merrimans Lorries. Some of the lorries she ran were 12 and 14 yard 7 ton S Type Bedfords with 300 petrols in them 4.9 litres twin tanks one on each side and they went like jets !!!! And I mean jets.

I will just list a few names of some of the Merrimans drivers which in my opinion were the true Hell Drivers!!
Len Pedder, Sammy Bowden, Derek Thomas, Tony Right, George Crawley, George Lawrence, Bob Webb, Bill Webb, Deborough, Ginger Humphries, Godferey, Bob Higgins, Water Osbourne, Bobby Nicholls, Alfie Braun, Stan Ponroy, Martin Law. These are just a few of the drivers and they were what you call true jockeys and I could write a book on some of the stories and the experiences of all these men.

These old drivers have all driven for tipper firms in their time, there are drivers listed above from: WW Drinkwater, Henry Streeter, Wilmont, Janes, TW Howard, Bates, WW, Pointer, Ann River, Bowyer, Green Garage, to name but a few.

Moor Larkin

Was he also known as Red?........

Top Post. That's great stuff.

kelp

Wow, trapper.Great story matey. Thanks.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU MAY GET IT!

homeguard

I too was born (1947) and raised in Feltham, Middlesex. My father was a sand and ballast tipper driver, working for Isleworth Sand and Ballast. His company fleet comprised 4 very worn OB Bedfords. As a child I spent many hours in the school holidays riding with the old man. A special treat, when coming back empty from sites in London, was riding in the empty tipper body leaning on the headboard - aged 9 or 10! Health and Safety? More often than not, though, it was a load of ballast in, and a return load of rubbish. The return load was always thrown on by dad with a shovel. Not a 'girlie' shovel, but a No.10 Coke Shovel. This was also used by him to hand load sand! But I digress.
There were hundreds of owner drivers in the middle 1950s supplying the never-ending demand for sand and ballast at that time, and quite a few small companies. There were large pits at Hounslow, Stanmore, and Staines, etc. Some were 'dry', like Hounslow on the heath. These were backfilled with the rubbish brought out from London as 'back-loads'. These would be tipped into the hole created by excavating the aggregate. Under the Heath I know there is at least one Chevrolet tipper (ex-military) which slid into the hole while delivering its load, and was buried where it fell. Not worth pulling out, but very exciting for an 8 year old to watch.

Most of the others were 'wet' pits. The aggregate was excavated, sometimes into barges, then sucked up with the water into a series of hoppers with graded screens. The screens allowed the components in the aggregate to be separated into different sizes, sand, and ballasts of varying dimensions. 'Hogging' was the sand and ballast mix, sometimes delivered to the hoppers as it was dug out, but usually washed to remove the silt which contaminated and weakened concrete. The hoppers shown in Hell Drivers are loading shingle, small ballast which would be used for concrete manufacture for paths or house footings. The larger stones in ballast could be a pain as they often jammed in the clam-shell doors, holding them open long enough to allow the smaller shingle to continue to pour out. The load levelling with a shovel was mandatory right at the end of the 1950s, and annoyed the drivers as they had to get out and up on the load. A quicker way was to pile it into a pyramid in the rear third of the tipper, then drive fairly fast forward and brake.

Sand was worse, not only for the drivers, but also the loaders. They spent a fair amount of time in the hopper, 'encouraging' the sand to flow through the apperture at the bottom. To do this you sometimes had to get in with the sand and 'poke' it. For this job you used a pole. The foreman at Stanmore went in to the hoppers with a shovel on one occasion, and the sand inside collapsed suddenly running through the loading door taking him with it. He ended up in the back of the lorry, half buried with sand and with the shovel stuck in his forearm.

Health and Safety? But again I digress.

By the end of the 1950s, most of the small owner drivers had given up. The Ministry of Transport had cracked down on the vehicles being used. Lorries had to have at least some rubber on their tyre treads, and road worthiness had become a statutory obligation. 'Cowboy' operations were now pushing up their margins by leaning on the drivers, and 'peace-rates', number of loads determining wages, became the only 'fiddle' open to them.

Larger companies began to consider their reputation in this market, and construction companies, with an eye on future projects and the necessity of appearing politically acceptable in their practice, started using only these larger operators. With the exception of the very large fleet owned by Greenham Sand and Ballast, Hawletts, the company in Hell Drivers, would have represented a good sized company. Who they were in real life depends I think on the lorries being used. Cross S&B used yellow Bedford trucks with "Here comes Cross" on the front and "There goes, etc" on the back. They were 'S' types at this time. Greenhams and Isleworth, along with many others used the recently introduced Thames Trader. The only company I seem to remember using this type of Dodge was a company called Harry Lavender, and their vehicles were dark blue.

My best wishes to all you Hell Driver fans out there. I believe Mrs.Baker is still alive, perhaps she can help with background on what has become an iconic British film.

Regards, HG

Moor Larkin

......
Brilliant!

As is the rest of your Post. It makes Hell Drivers seem more real than it is sometimes given credit for nowadays.

Automotivehistorian

I am aching to get a pictorial of 50s Tippers used on a variety of contracts in our magazine. Would that appeal? I have 15 say to pick and interestingly access to several Kew 'parrot-beak' Dodge photos, plus Thames Trader, Bedford, Thames ET6, and Leyland Comet.

tellingbone

Is this the same type of truck? I don't have my copy of the film at hand to compare.

Automotivehistorian

The two trucks are rare, now, [Ford] Thames ET6 with the 4D diesel engine.
Old Thames 4D Lorry photo (21 of 90 photos Audlem 2006)
The one on the right was registered in London CC in late 1955. The Dodge equivalent had a 'parrot beak' on the engine cover sides.

The Thames ET6, Dodge Brothers (Britain) Limited, Kew, Surrey, 'Kew Dodge', Guy Motors Ltd of Wolverhampton, and Leyland Motors Comet all shared a very smilar front end and I gather that they were built by Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd of Dagenham, whuch by 1954 had been bought out by Ford next door, though they continued to supply and other companies to comply with existing contracts.

Automotivehistorian

I am hoping that images from COMMERCIAL MOTOR of real-life tippers will be in ROADSCENE magazine out next month. I have a few of genuine Kew Dodges with in some cases Perkins P6 diesel engines.

Automotivehistorian

The service car was a Standard Vanguard pick-up, ABH 700, late 1956 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE registration! The Dodge 123 tippers all have 1955 Middlsex CC registrations from 1955 although UMG 853 would be a 1949-50 Middlesex one if that is correct.

Boom Man

The truck colours were definitely Bottle Green.I know that because I was working at Pinewood at the time the movie was being shot...............Happy Days.

Boom Man

Here's some more info for all you' Helldrivers' fans . A new Special edition DVD issued by
'network' productions.
A 2 disc issue with lots of additional info about the shoot plus an illustrated booklet
check it out on Hell Drivers: Special Edition: Network DVD.

Moor Larkin

Finally! A definitive answer. Thanks Boomer!

arsenal4274

I think the quarry scene and the surrounding area were they do some of the driving was filmed at Blue Circle Cement works, (No longer operational but the site is still there) in Shoreham by Sea about 5 miles west of Brighton,I say this because i work with a chap who says when he was at school he was an extra in the film ,his appearance was at the disco.