Vintage
Lorry Funerals Leyland Beaver is 67 years old and although the maintenance is
much simpler than modern truck one job on the old lady tends to lead to another
one. Changing a front tyre before a Salisbury
funeral turned into a nightmare when one of the wheel studs turned with the
nut. ATS Euromaster put the nuts, which they had already removed, back onto the
studs whilst David Hall phoned John Satchell, his mechanic, who told David to
get a replacement stud. John runs John Satchell Motors, employs 5 mechanics and
is responsible for the maintenance of over 500 vehicles and trailers in North
Wiltshire. However, he always manages to find time to check over the lorry
before a funeral, often arriving at David’s home not before 1930 hours having
been on the go since 0500 hours! John always appreciates the light snack that
David’s wife prepares for him. David was given a trophy at the CTP Bournemouth
to Bath Run for having one of the best kept lorries, however, David didn’t
believe that he had earned it and gave it to John Satchell to keep it for the
year in recognition of all he had done.
Vintage
Lorry Funerals support network includes Mark Pyatt, who along with his four
Brothers, restores vintage Leyland Lorries at weekends and Mark provides
replacement parts for the Leyland Beaver in a service which David
affectionately calls Pyatts Parts. A package arrived within two days with two
wheel studs and nuts, not the single wheel stud and nut which David had requested.
A plan was put in place so that after the Salisbury
funeral the 1950 Leyland Beaver would travel to Westbury, the home of John
Satchell’s 5 bay workshops. The funeral in Salisbury went well and the Family
were delighted with the replica Flat-Bed Lorry that David had built to
prominently display the ‘POPS’ Floral Tribute.
David
arrived at Westbury around 1600 hours and John Satchell guided David as he
positioned the Leyland Beaver over a pit. John and a young mechanic immediately
went to work on the wheel and with much physical exertion they eventually
removed the wheel and drum that evening. John telephoned David on the Tuesday
to say that both replacement wheel studs had to be used and he had organised
ATS Euromaster to change the tyre in his workshop. David suggested to John that
the wheel problem was caused by Eastern European tensions, because the original
tyre was from Romania which
didn’t want to be replaced by the new tyre which was from Czechoslovakia.
The problems
caused by pot-holes on the old A-Roads has resulted in cracks in the wooden
framework of the 1950 Cab and whilst the Leyland Beaver was at Westbury David
arranged for Atech Coachworks, who undertook the original restoration of the
lorry, to make a repair job. However, whilst the Leyland Beaver was in West
Wilts Trading Estate, David took a phone call from Camp Hopson Funeral
Directors in Newbury regarding a Taxi Drivers Funeral on Monday November 3rd.
It had been explained that the lorry was off the road, however, having been
assured that the funeral would be minimalistic and involve just a Coffin Spray,
David, not wanting to disappoint a Family, took on the job.
David
telephoned Kevin Lucas at Atech and explained his predicament which would
require the work to be completed in two days. Mike Hunt, Kevin’s business
partner met David on the Thursday morning and drew out how the steel bracket
would resolve the problems and Gregorz Malek worked very late on Thursday night
to make and fit the brackets.
At around
noon on Thursday David was given the Florists contact details and he was
surprised to learn that there was no Coffin Spray, as had been suggested by the
Funeral Director, but ‘SIDS TAXI’, two 3 ft x 2 ft Designer Boards , a 23 inch
x 15 inch ‘Cat’ , a 15 inch ‘Heart’ and a ‘Pillow’. In addition the Family had
asked that the Deceased’s Taxi Sign should be carried on the lorry, not the
metal sign which is fixed to the boot but the plastic ‘Top Hat’ which is fixed
to the roof of the Taxi.
With the
lorry being away in Westbury David evaluated the best way to secure the flowers
in an eye catching way. He visualised that if the ‘SIDS TAXI’ could be split
into two 4 lettered words, then if the ‘SIDS’ was secured above the ‘TAXI’ and
then the ‘Top Hat’ taxi sign fixed above ‘SIDS’ then David would have the main
items to create a replica of a rear of a Taxi Theme. What is more, the basic
elements were already in place on the lorry from the Salisbury funeral,
however, a complete dismantling would need to take place to get the ‘SIDS’ in
the same plane as ‘TAXI’ if he was to replicate the rear window of a hatchback
Taxi.
David’s main
concern at this point was how to secure the ‘Top Hat’ sign and Angela at CABCO,
for whom the Deceased had worked, was brilliant in providing measurements and
describing the function of the powerful magnets within the sign. Joan Watton,
Funeral Director, Camp Hopson kindly sent a picture of the underside of the
sign and David realised that the best way to secure the sign was by sitting it
on two metal strips that David had previously used a number of times to secure
a ‘Cross’ on top of a coffin.
When David
arrived home with the Leyland Beaver at 1600 hours on Friday he knew he had the
equivalent of three days work complete in only two days. David, with the sound
of Van Morrison’s Here Comes the Night ringing in his ears, worked until 2200
hours on the Friday night, completing the first fix of the front display. David
normally spends Saturday morning reviewing the paper, whilst listening to
Sounds of the 60’s on the radio. However, on this Saturday morning Brian
Matthews show was recorded and the weekend papers were never looked at. Having
started in his garage at 0815 hours and within the first 30 minutes finding
stained wood of exactly the right length to connect ‘SIDS’ and ‘TAXI’, David
knew that things would work out how he had planned and the length of metal
strips were exactly right for the ‘Top Hat’ sign magnets to latch onto.
The rear
display had to incorporate two 3 ft x 2 ft Designer Boards, a ‘Cat’ a ‘Heart’
and a ‘Pillow’ and what is more the ‘Cat’ and ‘Heart’ had to be secured with a
quick release mechanism as these Floral Tributes were to be placed on top of
the Coffin at the Church and the Cemetery. David devised a pyramidal structure
with the Designer Boards loaded back to back, with the ‘Pillow’ facing
rearwards and the ‘Cat’ and ‘Heart’ facing the head end of the Coffin. By using
wooden boards a similar shape to a Floral Tribute David can make the flowers
appear to float apparently unsupported. The triangular shaped board that was
used to support the ‘Cat’ had previously held a similar Floral Tribute in
Hungerford, a ‘Car’ in Bristol and replicated a
‘Wingtip’ in Gosport. By 2100 hours on
Saturday the first fix of the rear display was in place and this meant the
Sunday could be spent on the second fix of both displays in which David equips
his Floral Tribute Fasteners with a colour to match the flowers as closely as
possible.
On the
Monday morning David got up at 0500 hours and was away by 0545 hours. After
collecting his paper in Calne Post Office he arrived at Camp Hopson’s
Newbury facility at 0815 hours and John Firth and Joan Watton watched David
reverse into their immaculate building. The first hour was spent washing the
lorry, removing the dirt which had accumulated on the chassis, caused by the
previous night’s rain. Paul Stag then took David and Joan on a dry run to
enable David to make a judgement on the best manner to approach St. John the Evangelist
Church. Paul made David
aware that people used the Church car park as a free facility for shopping or
working in the locality and it was obviously a huge concern as it was a factor
outside anyone’s control. So rather than drive into the car park like a hearse
would, David elected to reverse into the car park from the main road. David
paced out the distance to the parked cars, he also shifted a wheelie bin and he
confirmed that he could complete the manoeuvre provided the situation didn’t
deteriorate.
David Left
Camp Hopson with Joan alongside him in the cab and she informed him that over
40 taxis would follow his lorry to the church. She had advised the Police about
the potential impact on traffic flows, however, they declined to get involved
in a way that they often do at Traveller funerals or those for Hell Angels.
At CABCO
Taxis the 1950 Leyland Beaver stopped for the Deceased’s colleagues to show
their respects. David spoke to the Head Taxi Driver and expressed his concerns
about keeping 40 cars together without a Police presence. However, the man
said, ‘Don’t worry we’ll sort it ourselves.’ As the vintage lorry moved off
from CABCO two taxis broke off from the cortege and went ahead to block traffic
at any junction that may inhibit the progress of the cortege. In this way all
the Taxis remained in line behind the lorry to the Church, however, David
admonished a Policeman driving a Police Car who was attempting to come between
the lorry and the first taxi.
Normally a
Funeral Director recruits some extra part-time gentlemen to help at a Church
and often these men can appear to be reluctant to participate when David
requests any help. However, this wasn’t the case for Camp Hopson
staff. As David approached the Church, Paul Stag, driving the hearse in front,
pulled right across the road bringing the traffic to a halt leaving space for
the vintage lorry to reverse off the road into the car park. David could see
that Gerrard had created a total exclusion zone close to the entrance and
managed cars wanting to get beyond the exclusion zone with the same enthusiasm
as East German Guards stopping people getting into West
Berlin. The Leyland Beaver moved slowly into the entrance watched
by Terry and as the lorry pushed through the undergrowth at the edge of the
drive it was evident that someone had left their car sticking out from the
line. The only way through was to virtually touch the car with the rear wheel
of the lorry before David applied full lock on the Steering Wheel as quickly as
possible. Luckily Terry was on the same wavelength and didn’t try to stop David
getting so close to the car, which a younger less experienced person would have
done.
A number of
mourners congratulated David on his reversing skills and David found out that
the car which was parked jutting out from the line was parked by the Vicar
conducting the service no less! David took pictures of the flower displays
whilst the service was taking place.
As the
vintage lorry approached the grave in Shaw Cemetery
it became clear that someone had parked their car on the path leading to the
grave blocking the only route for the coffin to reach the grave. David said to
Joan, ‘Some joker has parked his car just where you need to be, and I know that
car, it was the one that I wiped the dirt off the front corner at the Church’.
Joan looked up and saw that vicar, robes flowing in the breeze, pacing up and
down, oblivious to the problem he was about to cause.
For the
first time ever the Family were the last out from the cemetery and each member
came to David to shake his hand to say thank you for all that he had done.
