Vulcan Dropside Lorry
Thanks to Ray, who scanned and sent over this picture, showing a vintage British lorry parked close to a traditional public house.
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Commercial vehicle photograph:
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Rays says ... "Thought you might like this old pic of a Vulcan Lorry from about 1923, taken, I believe, in Deal Kent. It says "W. Jones Sandwich" on the front. Just why my grandparents took this picture I do not know! "
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In the background is an old gasworks, with "Cook by Gas" emblazoned on the tower. There are in fact two lorries parked up, but only the one can clearly be made out. It looks like a Vulcan, possibly still on solid tyres, which if this is the case, possibly dates the lorry to pre-1920. Perhaps an expert on Vulcans can shed light on this?
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In the shadow of the gasworks is a public house, called The Jolly Gardener, purveyors of Thompson and Sons ales? A closer look at the Vulcan shows a puddle of fluid underneath the front of the lorry, so perhaps it had boiled up, or sprung a leak outside the pub? There seems to be quite a gathering of people on the grass to the left of the photo, I wonder if something was going on, hence the photographer taking a quick snap? guess we'll never know.
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A search online for this particular pub, in Deal, Kent, brings up a planning application in 2003 to build 3 townhouses on the site of a disused pub called The Jolly Gardener, at 37 Golf Rd, Deal, so perhaps, if this photo was taken in Deal, the pub no longer exists? Saying that, another application for the same public house, this time no. 31 Golf Rd and in September 2006, details a plan to build a first floor rear extension, so does this place still exist? or was it levelled to provide space for more boring new houses? either way, I bet the Vulcan lorry isn't still around!
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Vulcan Motor & Engineering Company
The Vulcan works was originally located further north - Southport, Lancashire to be exact, and was founded in 1904 when the first Vulcan motor-car was put on sale. They manufactured a number of vehicles, although financial woes in the 1920s and 1930s led to the Brockhouse trailer company buying them up, their interest being in the buildings and land rather than lorry manufacture. Tilling Stevens bought the rights to the Vulcan in 1931, and moved production down to Maidstone in Kent. The name finally disappeared in the early 1950s when T-S were themselves absorbed into the mighty Rootes Group empire.
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