Harold Wood & Sons Ltd
Harold Wood & Sons was considered to be the largest tanker operator in Europe and the third largest in the world, according to the Managing Director, Barry Wild, in the late 1960s. By then, the company had around 600 vehicles in its fleet, although this was not obvious to the casual observer, as many were operated on contract in customers’ liveries.
Harold Wood started with an apprenticeship with machine tools, had a munitions badge rather than serving in the forces in World War I, then worked as a fitter. He was reported, in the AEC Gazette in 1964, to have said in 1920: “Go into road haulage? Not me. When I started, I had nowt, and it was much against my will that I went into the road haulage business.” However, he built up his business from a single vehicle in 1922.
Two years previously, persuaded by his mother to enter a short and unsuccessful partnership, his first haulage job was 3½ tons of bagged alkali from Northwich to Birstall. The rate for the 55 miles was 60s (£3) per ton and the vehicle a chain-driven Enfield-Allday with solid tyres. Only two years after that first trip his capital of £200 had gone, despite a wage of only 35s a week, coupled with the unlimited hours permitted by a pre-licensing era.
However, on October 18, 1922, he tried again. With borrowed money he bought an ex-RAF Leyland and set about canvassing new traffic, particularly liquid in drums, a significant decision.
A year later, Harold Wood purchased his first bulk tanker, an early milestone in the company’s progress. It was a separate D-shaped tank of 1,350-gal. capacity, the flat section lying on the floor of a platform lorry. The first delivery was a load of benzole from Henry Ellisons (later Yorkshire Tar Distillers), of Cleckheaton, to Lancaster, where it was discharged into an open trough—and the vehicle had a straight exhaust and paraffin lamps!
A second vehicle was purchased in 1925, this time with fixed tank. Early loads included petroleum from Hull and Killingholme for the smaller consumers then in existence. Even the Total Eclipse of 1927 unexpectedly provided traffic, a load of petrol in cans being delivered on June 29 to the vantage point of that year at Giggleswick.
The business was started in Cleckheaton, but soon moved to Heckmondwike. By the end of 1930, Harold Wood was operating four Leyland tankers of 1,500 gallons capacity,
