The Brock Transport Cafe
A few months ago through a friend of mine, David Gates, I was introduced to Terry Swarbrick who with his wife Jean run
a guest house on the old A6 road at Bilsborrow, about 6 miles North of Preston. The guest house is now called the Glen Darvel
but most of my older visitors will know it better as the Brock Cafe. In the days before sleeper cabs were invented long distance
lorry drivers would stay in Transport digs, there was a network of houses and cafes the length and breadth of the United Kingdom
that catered for the needs of drivers engaged in long distant haulage. There were a good few along the stretch of road from
Bilsborrow to Garstang, The Brock, Dirty Dick's and the Mayfield spring to mind. Prior to the opening of the M6 the A6 was
the main road from the west side of the country through to Scotland. The Brock originally became a cafe / transport digs during
the 2nd World War when the War Department was moving essential supplies they commandered the house and parking area
for drivers to use as a resting place. After the war with few cars about or the money to buy them people turned to bicycles to
get out of the towns and cities to visit the countryside. As a result of this a network of cycle cafes sprung up throughout the
country, later with the demise of cycling and with more lorries and cars on the road the ones along side main trunk roads became
transport cafes. So the Bilsborrow Transport Cafe came to be, Terry tells me this soon got shortened to The Brock. In the years
after the war it was owned and run by Andrew Collinson, after him it was taken over in 1960 by Ernie and Joe Nicholson and finally
Terry and Jean Swarbrick who took it over in 1987 and still own it to this day, although the cafe part has closed down they still
run it as a guest house "THE GLEN DARVEL" telephone number 01995 640446. In the dining room the walls are covered
with pictures of lorries and their drivers who have stayed there in the past. Terry kindly lent me an album of photographs taken
sometime around the late 80's which I have scanned and reproduce below with Terry's kind permission. If you see yourself or
your lorry and would like a copy I will be happy to print one and send it onto you. See contact me page for details.
I will try and add a few more pictures everyday till they are all up on the site. I wonder when I look at these photgraphs how the
hell did ERF get swallowed up by a German company, MAN. 80 % of the lorries in Terry's pictures are ERF
Abbey Hill Car transporter reg No F264 FTD Thomas Moss Fruit & Veg Merchant from Preston
Scottish Road Services Hunter Browning DAF from Scotland reg no F377 LGA
BDH DAF 1900 reg no F676LGA George Smart of Alford, Aberdeenshire reg no LSO 177W
Hi Line Caravans of Blackpool reg no D545 MNF Scottish Road Services DAF reg no F773 ASW
Two of Abels pantechnicons A Bedford and DAF parked up for the night Brian Armistead filling up at the Brock before heading off to a tractor pull
John Smillie drivers were frequent visitors at The Brock Transport Cafe, The building in the back ground is now Terry's garage and workshop.
Smillies again ERF reg number F359FHS William Kirk Transport of Macclesfield ERF reg number E815 JEH
Fine brace of ERF's again both John Smillie's It looks like they have the trailers swopped round, i.e the tanker should be on B857 YGB and the flat on F359 FHS
Looks like F359 FHS was a frequent visitor United Coop ERF re number D455 DVT
One man and his dog Entwisles ERF Bulk tipper reg OSE 212W BOC Transhield ERF reg number K775 PLK
Forth & Tay Marine Hire Division's ERF E10 reg number F553 VSC Three of Scottish & Newcastle ERF's A113 CSX, A133 CSX,& A135 CSX
Lever Industrial ERF reg H379 CNE fleet no 3379 trailer 1705 J.A.Hutchinson & Sons ERF reg number C608 OEW
Jim Grummitt ERF F375 RNR MalcLindsey Scania B304 HNN Alcan Glasgow ERF reg number G279VGA
