Foden

Or ”how I visited a truck factory and bought a truck”.

I’m sure everyone who has travelled with children in a car knows the problem of entertaining them. Different things work for different children. Ellie and Nate now use a tablet during trips. This was frowned upon by us as likely to lead to motion sickness. My father-in-law had a game called “arms and legs”. This works for two by looking their side for pub signs and scoring numbers of arms and legs. The “Coach and Horses” is a jackpot as 4 horses scores 16 legs. Doesn’t work on motorways of course.

Alex liked to have Classic FM on the radio. I don’t think he had refined musical taste as he found it soporific and was asleep within a few minutes.

We were travelling regularly from Merseyside to the Midlands when our children were young. We had particular sights on the journey such as the gnome filled garden south of Stone. Particularly of interest was a full sized statue of a lady in a blue dress- sadly all disappeared years ago. We would alert them as we approached-“look out for the blue lady”

Of longer interest for Martin was lorry spotting. To keep it simple we spotted Foden trucks with their distinctive shield logo on the front. Martin could see this coming and easily identify it. I got a package of badges and literature from the factory and used the surplus to decorate my office- actually my part as it was shared.

One day a lady who worked nearby visited me, commented on the décor, and said her father had recently retired from Foden and would be delighted to give us a factory tour. Foden’s factory was in Sandbach not very far away so I was delighted to accept. Incidentally Sandbach was then the truck manufacturing centre of the UK . Not only were Foden there but a relative E R Foden also had a large business trading as ERF. Sadly ERF has disappeared having been taken over by German MAN   Foden is also very different now owned by Paccar of the US. Sadly latter day Foden’s are just rebadged DAF trucks from Holland and Lancashire. The factory finally closed in 2006

We duly took our factory tour. I suppose it was near the end of the 1970’s and Martin would have been 7. Foden had been noted for building a lot of components in house. For example most truck makers were assemblers of bought in components. Foden bought engines but made their unique worm drive rear axle. This was hopelessly uneconomic for a small scale manufacturer and was being discontinued when we visited. It was rather sad to see the massive machine tools lying idle. Although I didn’t know it the company was in crisis as users were no longer willing to buy expensive local trucks.

Foden had a long tradition as a supplier to the military; although we didn’t realise it was military business that was keeping the plant going. They were working on an order for gun tractors when we visited. These massive 6x6 trucks ( wheels as high as me ) were to tow the largest guns then in use at 155mm calibre. As well as towing, the gun tractors carried ready use ammunition.

We finished up in the canteen, and I bought a truck, a model one for Martin.