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T 11 , 1 :11i
Page 64
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TRANSPORT
Eastern Northumberland is a land of flat open spaces and incredibly straight roads. When you drive west towards the Cheviots, however, the country begins to undulate, and large rolling hills appear. As CM crests one such hill, there is the astonishing sight of dozens upon dozens of parked-up combine harvesters In the distance. Moments later we arrive at Battle Bridge. a farm a few miles from the village of Whlttingham.
Fraser Manners of John Manners Transport appears, complete with cap and overalls. He is joined by John, his father Their Scania lowloader stands next to a shed.
We are the biggest combine harvester breaker in the UK," states Manners Jr -There are three hundred and fifty combines here, and they're more important to us than farming."
His father adds: We buy the combines from Insurance companies. They are write-offs; we pick them up from anywhere In the country if the price is right." Judging by the massed columns of combines at the back of the farm. the price of these machines Is spot on. Parts are sold to customers across Britain, and bits and pieces exported as far afield as Malaysia, Chile and Cyprus, The Andover low-loader brings combines
back to base, occasionally hauling skeletons of combines to scrapyards after they have been stripped of any useful parts. Sometimes rt transports larger parts such as axles and engines, too. Couriers then collect the smaller parts for UK delivery and foreign export.
Manners Jr tells us that the extendible Andover is ideally suited to hauling combine harvesters. The combine's wheels go into the dropwell. and this enables us to fit the big headers [the wheat-chopping part of the machine] onto the trailer. You have to have an extendible to do this.
TRANSPORT
This Is actually a three-truck operation. The firm also runs two drawbars—a Scania and a Mercedes-Benz. Manners buys straw from farmers, then bales it, and the drawbars deliver the bales to south-west Scotland, where they are used as animal feed.
Battle Bridge is an agricultural concern in Its own right, The Manners family have 400 sheep and tend 600 acres of arable land. Combine harvesters, straw and livestock all make for a considerable workload for this father-and-son team. Some loads fall under the abnormal load category, so we have to be escorted by the police. We have to fax the relevant police forces forty-eight hours before we travel through their area." Manners Sr believes that only the flashing blue lights of the police command respect. He'd rather see traffic police accompany low-loaders than privately-run escorts: The police have the authority," he says.
Saying that, his son believes that using private firms would offer one benefit. "The police have to rush off to incidents, which means we are stranded on the motorway until they return. So I think that private companies would be good, as long as they did the job properly."
The low-loader is not restricted to ownaccount operations. It is used to carry aluminium boats from an Alnwick factory to various UK ports. Half a dozen boats are shifted in a typical year. it also carries out general hireand-reward duties.