SO FAR, ALL THE DIRECTORS REPORTS HAVE BEEN FULL OF B&W OR COLOURED IMAGES, NICE COVERS, AND SOME DECENT MAPS. WELL, WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE ALL THAT, BECAUSE OUR ONLY COPY OF THE 1963 EDITION, IS COMPLETE RUBBISH !!

Rubbish in the way that it is only a photocopy, and not a good one at that, so all the images are fairly useless, grainy items, which you can just about make out, but as it contains the last "Chairman`s Review" by the founder, Bernard Sunley, then it has to be published.

Mr Sunley of course died at the age of 54, on November 20th, the day of the 1964 annual Salon Dance in Northampton, and this Report was completed in June 1964, for the previous year.

So good bad or indifferent, hereby follows the contents of that report, including BS`s last published words to his employees and shareholders.

## BY THE WAY, IF ANYBODY HAS A PROPER COPY OF THIS YEARS REPORT, PLEASE LET US BORROW IT TO SCAN, OR AT LEAST SCAN IT YOURSELVES AND E-MAIL IT TO US ##

FRONTYou were warned !!.we have a theory that there was a shortage of copies printed that year, because if we are reading the initials in the top right hand corner correctly, then they are "RPJ"….could that be Rhys Jones ?? If so, how far up the ladder was he in 1964, and if he didn`t get a "proper copy", then not surprising that we havent !!

This of course is the TTS-14, the tandem unit, the only one of that type to come to UK.1st 1 The great and the good from that year…….

 1ST ….. first shot is of an L-30 and an R-22 in a limestone quarry in Portuguese West Africa…..

2ND ….R-45`s in the Asturian Mountains, Spain………

3RD…..4 x R-27`s and a rarity, a pair of R-18 Eucs (USA built only), in transit to South African Manganese Ltd, in the Northern Cape……….

4TH……Spain again, this time a C6, part of a fleet of 16 Eucs on the Valdecanas Dam, in Caceres province…..

 5TH ….one of a fleet seven TS-14`s in Ghana, on the Tema Motorway, with Parkinson-Howard……

6TH…one of twenty Eucs with Sir Alfred, on the new Chambishi Copper Mine in Northern Rhodesia..

7TH….Cedarapids 300 tph batching plane, Ontario, Canada…..

8TH…. "Beatriz of Bolivia", 200 tons of luxury, powered by Cummins 700hp marine engines, and Cummins auxiliary gen sets, all supplied by BH, but no mention of where……..

9th….IH 250, Montreal, Canada. That`s snow on the ground, around 18 degrees below….

10th

….what a super image this must have been, an underground shot somewhere, with two Hough 120`s loading a low-profile dumptruck….

Review 1

Review 2 ….and lastly, Mr Sunley`s review. From now on, it would be Bill Shapland`s name that would appear on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

2 responses

  1. Habberfield Glenn Avatar
    Habberfield Glenn

    if anyone out there happens to be carrying out reseach relating to Blackwood Hodge do they have any information as to what may have transpired in the life of one John Richard James (ex Bedford Colleg and Coldstream gaurds)who was based at the Berkley Square HQ during 1959/1960 era and whom left for East Africa late 1960 with Blackwood Hodge most likely Northern Rhodesia
    would be grateful for any info. and thank you.

  2. David Jones Avatar
    David Jones

    My father Eddie Jones was Bernard Sunley’s chauffeur. Together with my mother and Tony Rodgers, who also worked at Blackwood Hodge, and his wife Pat, were on route to the Salon that fateful night but were involved in a serious car accident when the mini in which they were travelling was hit by a speeding motorcycle so they never got there. Fortunately no one in the car was seriously injured but the news next day that Mr Sunley had died was a great upset to everyone.
    I also well remember the dances at Ashton club and the kids christmas parties at Northampton town hall.

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