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The nephew is Fred. He used the outbuildings after Uncle Ernest retired from farming and now owns the property.

I was one of the Thurgarton clan; the last one to actually own property in the village. Technicality really as my sis and I inherited our parents' house which was opposite the Red Lion and we sold it on. I have relatives in Bleasby and Fiskerton but only the latter has the surname. I think you mentioned in a previous conversation some years ago that you knew Fred. Priory Lane, at the top of the hill, was entirely populated by my family in the early 1960's. We originally hailed from Suffolk in the mid 19th century, where my ancestors were farm labourers. At a guess, the advent of th

Visited Newark last Thursday; well, parked overnight at the lorry park. It being a dry evening, I decided to have a walk round for old time's sake. First port of call was the King's Arms. about 30 years ago when I last lived at Thurgarton, this was the go-to pub if you liked real ale; always a good selection. I was very disappointed to find that it's gone back to being a fairly ordinary boozer; friendly enough but no cask beer available, though in fairness this was down to a fault with the Doom Bar cask which should have been on. I continued my walk; pleasantly surpris

Evening all, been a while. Much as it pains me to say it, the best pork pie I've ever tasted in me life is Tesco's "Ultimate" one, which I'm pretty sure is a Dickens and Morris product. Chunks of proper pork, tasty jelly, and a nice spicy flavour. All for less than four quid.

Thanks....I'd completely forgotten about the Melton route.

Only just seen this Albert.... forgive me for saying but surely if the Compound's going to Lincoln and the Jubilee to London, one of them is facing the wrong way?

For some reason I cannot imagine an advert like that being made these days. As for those buses; I remember when they first came out, incredibly noisy, gearchanges jerked standing passengers of their feet, and they rattled worse than the old Atlanteans after few months because they were so shoddily built.

The trick is to put it on your back and walk along like a turtle, whilst bent double. Takes a bit of practice to get the balance right though; I learned that one at Randalls. You need someone to guide you too cos you can't see owt but yer feet! Can't imagine anyone letting you do that nowadays!

My old man worked for Hoveringham Gravels; when they were building the M62 the lorries used to run ballast up there and backload coal for Staythorpe, so they had greedy boards fitted. If the drivers were too late back they couldn't tip at the power station so they'd park up in Hoveringham yard and go back in the morning. Dad got wind of this and decided a bit of free coal might be just the thing. One evening he "stayed on to finish a job" and once the coast was clear, bagged up some of the slack and took it home. No big lumps of course because it was blown in at the power station;

Nice pic; and it certainly does belong here, thanks for sharing it. I though it was a Leyland at first but a closer look reveals it to be a Dodge 300; they shared the same LAD cab.

I knew Pete well, as you know he was a regular for Thurgarton Cricket Club. Great character and a tragic loss to the community.

Kevin was a bit of a lad wasn't he? Mind you, the pay rates might have been rubbish but they were always better than Staffline, and Mayday always kept me in work. Used to do a lot for BRS, Carrington Street , Langley Mill and even Melton Mowbray; Randalls, Fords, Parceline, Clearway and a load of others.

Castle Meadow Road. used to do a bit for them when I was with Mayday; bloke called Keith McEnallen was the manager.

That, I think, is a Unipower Hannibal. More about them here; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Power_Drives

Update; the Hoveringham wrecker has been sold and is now back in Nottinghamshire, where it will be restored to its former glory.

Some of you will probably not be aware that roping and sheeting has effectively been outlawed by DVSA. The excuse being that ropes cannot be load tested and are therefore unsuitable as a method of restraint. I agree about the roads being littered with ratchet straps; and as a motorcyclist I'm also seriously concerned about it.

Jack Stirland was alleged to be fanatical about his lorries going out of the yard spotless.

I probably met him; half of Hoveringham's workforce used to come round to me dad's house for either bedding plants or cut chrysanthemums.

I forgot i'd posted this. For those of you with access to Facebook, check this out. https://www.facebook.com/hoveringhamgravels/videos/1507928249268224/ The wrecker still exists, and is for sale. In poor, but running condition, will need a total restoration. I wanted it, have the room but not the finances or skills to undertake it.

Great bikes, i've had my current one ten years and had another from 1995 to 2000. Unfortunately the permitted file size on here won't let me post any of my pics.

The local pronounciation of Folkingham (Lincs) has been known to raise an eyebrow amongst unwary outsiders!

They were still doing a little bit of that in 1987 when I started working there. There were no depots at the resorts by then but we still took a few cases; growing car ownership and package holidays killed that job off. Rainbows of Southwell were one of the biggest carriers in the area; even in my day, after they became part of the Nightfreight group, there were daily runs to Norwich, Kings Lynn and Hull, and up t'other end we went as far as Glossop, and down to Hinckley. The fleet was predominantly Bedfords (they had a franchise for some years) though I was told by some of the old

I think there's more to it than that Albert. Look at pics of back in the day, and all the cuttings were kept as tidy as a front lawn, because as you well know if they weren't you soon got bank fires. Nowadays the foliage almost touches the carriages, so leaves on the line are inevitable really.

Knew 'em all Chalky, but they were at Langley Mill when I worked for Bill. Bob has passed on, but as far as I know Derek is still alive. Mick Roth was living with Johnny Knowles' ex, the red-headed girl; was her name Lynn?

They had depots all over the UK.... did overnight parcel delivery long before TNT and the like. They were bought out by United Carriers and closed down in the late 1980's. Found this video from the early 1960's; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvd5Y_maKQc&feature=youtu.be The "cross-docking" system was still pretty much the same when i worked for Rainbows in the late 1980's. Barcodes and mechanisation swept that all away.