BEER
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
and Livestock WHAT with the atom bomb, the dollar gap and other things, life certainly is not all beer and skittles for most of us. Neither, in a different sense, is it for George A. Wheatley, landlord of the White Horse Inn, Hasnelbury Plucknett, a village in the lovely Somerset countryside.
If you visit this typically English "local" you will indeed find beer in plenty (not to mention Somerset cider) and you can play skittles to your heart's content. But you will find something else as well, for besides being "George the landlord," Mr. Wheatley runs a successful livestock-haulage business. Behind this unusual dual role there lies a story of enterprize.
After 20 years in the Merchant Navy, Mr. Wheatley went into the hotel business at Iwerne Minster, Blandford, afterwards moving to Southampton, where all was well until he was bombed out in October, 1940. George transferred himself, his family, and what was left of his home, to the "White Horse."
Realizing, after a while, that the inn alone would scarcely provide a living, he looked around for something else to supplement his income and purchased the local livestockhaulage business and began to operate it.
Speaking of those early days, Mr. Wheatley said: "I didn't know much about it, but as there was a war on and I felt that I should be doing something besides inn-keeping, I got down. to the job with an old and dilapidated Bedford lorry. I was all adrift when farmers rang up and wanted cattle taken to market, scarcely knowing the difference between bulls, cows, heifers, yearlings, in-calvers and barreners—not to mention pigs, boars, sows, gilts and all the others.
A Nightmare
"The first six months were really a nightmare. I was learning my business and paying dearly for it."
At the end of this period he was over £100 down, with the old Bedford in a far worse state than when he took over. The climax .came one day when the steering system collapsed and he was lucky to have avoided a serious -accident. The vehicle was loaded with eight cows,
aS so it would have been an expensive mishap.
The only thing to do was to apply for a permit to purchase a new vehicle. The inspector arrived to see whether this were really necessary and caused considerable dismay when, after a thorough examination, he decided that the old Bedford was not fit to be on the road.
After some three months' delay an Austin 5-tonner arrived, but in the meantime Mr. Wheatley was obliged to get other hauliers to carry out his work for him. Although they had as much work of their own as they could handle, they were most helpful.
The arrival of the new Austin really marked the beginning of to-day's successful business. This vehicle carried more livestock than the old one, amounting to seven cows and calves tied up side by side or nine loose cows, and had a double deck which would carry 50 sheep or 60 lambs.
In January, 1944, he purchased another business with a 1942 Austin 5-tonner on an A licence, which was on contract to Westland Aircraft, Ltd., Yeovil, carrying aircraft .parts 'between Chard, Martock and Yeovil. This undertaking was carried on until November, 1945, when the vehicle was put on to the livestock haulage, being eventually replaced by
• a Dodge 5-tonner in February,,1947. To-day, the vehiclesoperated are the Austin and the Dodge 5-tonners,
the bodies being built by Messrs. Tiverton Coach and Body Builders. These are fitted with sliding ramps and can be readily stripped down for use as drop-sided lorries.
Each vehicle does approximately 25,000 miles per annum, mainly within a 60-mile radius, regularly attending markets at Yeovil, Taunton, Crewkerne, Ilchester, Axminster, Chard, Ilminster, Sherborne, Sturminster and Bridport. Occasional trips are also made to Bristol, Guildford, Tavistock, Exeter, Reading and Salisbury.
In 12 months, the vehicles have carried 2,493 cows, 1,220 calves, 184 bulls, 2,341 sheep, 1,057 pigs, 101 horses, 94 tons of hay and straw, 75 tons, of roots, 64 tons of apples, 92 tons of corn, 156 ions of miscellaneous goods, 343 tons of furniture, and 40 pieces of farm machinery.
At present, Mr. Wheatley has 132 regular customers, mainly farmers.
Furniture removals, principally for farm workers, are often undertaken. In this connection, Mr. Wheatley related -an amusing war-time story.
Mistaken hientity "I was instructed to go to a village about five miles from here to empty and remove a cottage of furniture," he said. "We did this, collecting the key from next door, but you can. imagine my dismay when on arrival at our destination we were told we had emptied the wrong cottage. everything hadhadto be returned and . put back just as we had found it. Fortunately, the owners were away in London, but the most amazing thing of all 'isthat we have never heard anything further about it."