Canley Car Deliveries

My father worked for Canley Car Deliveries whose storage depot was at Burton Green. Around the 1959 time my father brought the drivers down in a van with bench seats either side to pick up cars from Standard's factory storage area (it always seemed packed). On the opposite corner of Tile Hill Lane/Fletchamstead Highway junction was the Standard Cinema.

I remember Canley Car Deliveries, from when I used to go with my dad who drove for BRS Car Delivery, the only CCD driver I can remember was Don Hoyle (spelling), do you have any photos?

Hi, I've been a member for a while and love the forum following most topics with keen interest as I was born, raised and worked in the city for long time. I am particularly interested in Coventry hauliers and the motor trade in general as my late father, Kevin Verdon worked at many of the company's mentioned in various posts some of which are as follows:- Latham's Haulage, Midland Red, Godiva Coaches, Motor Services, Furnace & Parker, Canley Car Delivery, BRS, Coventry Glass, Blue Boar later to become Beech Autos, Applins Transport, Pearle Waste, Charringtons, Cartransport, Coventry City Engineers. He finished his working life as a chauffeur to the Lord Mayor! Both me and my brother initially followed in dad's footsteps working in the garage trade but latterly in other industries. Unfortunately and like many we were all guilty of not taking many photos as we progressed through our working lives but I do have a few and initially attach one of dad when driving for the Midland Red in the mid-fifties. The PSV experts amongst you may well be able to identify the coach model for me? I also have a scanned copy from a recent Practical Classics magazine showing Coventry built cars being delivered to Cardiff docks in 1958, by Trade Plates and by Transporters. In the picture are two Canley Car Deliveries S type Bedfords and what looks to be a brand new Furnace & Parker Commer QX TS3 rig, all with Carriemore Mk 1 trailers. It's a great photo capturing a heyday in Coventry's car production being exported! It's perhaps too large to post here (help if you can) but if anyone would like it then just contact me and I can email it. Hope this is of interest.

Hi Norm, you're right, dad worked part time for me at Mil-Ver after he retired, doing local driving and generally helping out. Thanks for the info on the coach. Hope you are keeping well, John (covkid)

Posted on behalf of covkid

Many thanks for uploading this for me pixrobin - Its a fantastic photo. Hope others enjoy!

Yes covkid it is a cracking photo. The TRs with their wood 'plank' bumpers and no roll on/off in those days, each car craned on board separately. The truck nearest the camera has the look of a Commer about it..Thanks.

For those who worked at Canley Car Deliveries I have met up with John Laurie who worked at Canley Cars from mid fifties when it started in Duggins Lane.

I am collecting information about Triumph car dealers and was pleased to find this thread and photo. I would be pleased to any more images of Triumph delivery trucks you may have. I have written several posts about Triumph car dealers: Vitessesteve - blog

Are we sure about the date of these transporters? I rather think they were in the late sixties. As far as I am aware, drivers picked up the cars from the vast Canley storage park, fitted trade plates, drove them to the docks, took off the trade plates and made their own way home. The storage area also held a lot of foreigners, by that I mean cars with the wrong engines or the wrong brakes etc. - these were sold to the workers at 17% off. If anyone's interested I can tell you how they were fitted wrong, as I worked for five years in the track control room at Canley. Mods note: This post has been copied into the "Standard, Triumph" thread for further discussion regarding the car factory, leaving this thread on-topic

The transporter registration is from 1962 (VC). The cars are Spitfire 4 built betwen 1962 and 1967, but look like the what is now known as Mk1 built between 1962 and 1964.

Hi pixrobin, here is a picture of the van your dad must have picked up the ferry men in. Van is in the background with my dads car on the left. Pic is of my two brothers and me at Burton Green, I'm in the middle, with the three guard dogs that were there at the time. Pic approx 1959/60

Did the Canley depot (the one in Canley Rd) become their main depot, or sole depot? We weren't aware of any other depots in the sixties. They introduced a massive 3-tier car transporter, which was as high as a double decker bus, and reputed to be the first one in the country then (about 1968). Canley Road, originally Canley Lane, is not a wide road, but in the sixties was a main bus route, and one day a transporter and a bus had a scrape - from the banter of the drivers, it was a relatively minor accident. Unlike another Coventry bus which, one Sunday morning, demolished the front of a house at the bottom of Hearsall Lane; the house was actually in Spon End, and it seems the bus failed to get round the bend (now traffic lights) when turning right towards town.

Hi Slim, Canley Cars first started trading as a company on 21 November 1945. Very small at the time it operated from a lock up garage in Kirby Rd Earlsdon. Expanding it moved to the old hostels in Duggins Lane in the early 50's, then to Burton Green, and again to behind C and E Motors (now Homebase). You can still see the original gates to Canley Cars in Canley Rd opposite the gun shop. In 1964 the company was sold on by its original owners. The pics are of my brothers and me, I'm in the middle, at Burton Green and of Canley Cars first transporter at Duggins Lane