FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Chapter 1 Early Days

Dad also had a lorry … It was an ‘A’ type Bedford with a split windscreen, a wooden body, and a set of tyres that were worn almost completely bald.

B y the mid-sixties, it would be fair to say that the company was established. We had annual contracts with the Councils in Wallington (now Sutton), and Beckenham (now Bromley), mostly for the reconstruction of footways. Turnover was now double what it had been for the first few years – we were about to move into six figures for the first time in the company’s history. We could justify a proper office of our own; but more importantly we needed more space for the plant. So, in 1965, Dad bought our first offices and yard at 32 Ancaster Road. Of course, most of the plant that we had at that time was hired, generally from Dan Sullivan. But, in addition to the pick-up that he’d bought in 1961, and a couple of rollers, Dad also had a lorry. He’d got the lorry from Alan Hart in lieu of the £35 that Alan still owed

This picture hung for many years in the JCB Boardroom, until it was given to me by George Greenslade. The lorry is an ‘A’ type Bedford: the same kind that Bob Adcock was driving in the early 1960s, although this isn’t a picture of that same lorry.

him from the days when they worked together. It was an ‘A’ type Bedford with a split windscreen, a wooden body, and a set of tyres that were worn almost completely bald. Bob Adcock was put in charge of the lorry since he had very recently passed his driving test. (In those days, there were no special tests for driving lorries, and there were no vehicle M.O.T. tests either.) The lorry lasted well, though it gave Bob one bad fright. He and Matt Fury were coming back from a job at Knight’s Hill. They had a very heavy

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