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There is much more about the Pentons story I would have
liked to have included in this article.
This is really a great story of how hard work and
flair can build a successful company.
Early in the second world war, Roy and his brother were
among those evacuee children from Wallasey, near Liverpool, who found
themselves on Baschurch Station waiting for some kind soul to take them home.
Mrs. Maude Fox was that kind lady. Even although she
and her husband, Jim, had no children of their own, they took the two Pentons
and their friend back to the World`s End, a row of cottages in the middle of a field
between Baschurch and Ruyton XI Towns.
It is not recorded what three city lads thought of living in a field
with no electricity or running water. On
one occasion the boys arrived back at the cottage excitedly carrying a dead
swan `for dinner`. Poor Mrs. Fox was
convinced the king would find out and slap her in the Tower of London.
In due course, the boys` mother and then their father
came to live in the area and the family never returned to Merseyside.
Roy grew up and married Beatrice Gregory and began a
lifetime of hard graft. They started by
hoeing beet to pay for keeping their caravan on Platt Mill Farm, and several
other labouring jobs. They had a growing
family, Barbara, Steve, Andrew and Gary so it seemed like a good time to start
what became the highly successful Fish and Chip van, known all round the area. The business was so successful that Roy was
able to buy the barns at The Cross in the village and build a big new house
called Cross View.
In 1973, as his three boys, Stephen, Andrew and Gary
grew up, Roy bought a lorry and started carting cheese for Express Dairies in
Ruyton.
The business was first based at the barns at Cross
View but, when the company bought their first artics in 1976, there were
objections at that end of the village and an enforcement order was approved in
1978 after neighbours complained of “loss of amenities”. Roy was banned from washing, servicing or
fuelling his three tractor units at his home, although the vehicles were
actually parked at Ruyton Dairy, who provided work for Roy`s company. Interestingly, he had been told by Oswestry
Borough Council just a month before that it was alright to carry on with the
arrangement as the vehicles were only at Cross View for short periods and were
parked at the Dairy.
Roy had bought `The Firs` at Shotatton as it had
plenty of room for his vehicles, but planning had been turned down at that site
as it was in a `white area` i.e., residential.
There was support for Pentons from George Braddick, a local parish
councillor and from several Oswestry Borough Councillors.
Roy won this village spat by buying the Leaman
Garage from Rich Foulkes where no-one could object to family cars or
articulated lorries being washed, serviced, fuelled and parked right in the
middle of the village, and where no-one could object to the comings and goings
of large lorries!
In 1988, Pentons had bought the garage at Babbinswood,
near Whittington, and were not only doing maintenance on their vehicles at the
garage in Ruyton but now had a business hiring out cars, vans and tractor units.
Their addresses for Pentons Hire, were both Leaman Garage, Ruyton XI Towns and
Babbinswood, Whittington.
In the late 1980s, the business developed rapidly,
largely through its association with food manufacturing companies in the
area. Throughout the early 1990s the
family business continued to expand and then, in 1993, Express Dairy in School
Road, Ruyton XI Towns closed and the opportunity arose to acquire the site, on
both sides of the road, including chilled and ambient storage of dairy
products.
Pentons Haulage was on the way to something even bigger.
The company negotiated for 92 houses to be built by
Jennings Homes Ltd. on the river side of School Road, including affordable
houses along the roadside. The rest of
the Doctor`s Meadow was leased to Shropshire Council for a football pitch and
play area, with adult exercise equipment and two benches donated by the Charter
Group after the 2008 Charter Celebrations.
A footbridge leads from the play area to a newly planted community
wood. Pentons offered the old Dairy
canteen to the Parish Council for a village hall on a 99 year lease however, the
terms of the offer were not suitable.
In 1991, the company acquired their main site at
Maes-y-Clawdd Industrial Estate in Oswestry and moved their base from Ruyton XI
Towns.
Pentons Haulage has continued to expand and now operates
76 artics & employs 190 people. They
are under contract to APB near Ellesmere delivering meat products all over the
country. Meat you might buy from Aldi or
Sainsburys comes from ABP in a Pentons Wagon.
They deliver daily anything from one pallet to 54 pallets to markets all
over the country.
From their website:-
Roy and his family were great supporters of the Ruyton
Carnival in the 1980s, and there was always a train of Pentons Wagons
supporting some of the wonderful and imaginative creations for the
entertainment of the village.
When Herby Guest took the license of the Bridge Inn,
Roy was a regular in the Top Bar, after all, he and Herby had been good mates
since they had lived next door to each other at World`s End.
As the company and funds grew, two more houses for the
family replaced the barns at the Cross and a super duper big new Georgian style
house was built for Roy and Beat in Olden Lane, just behind the original house.
In 2019, Gary Penton organized the 6th
Tractor Pull at The Marches Farm in the village, raising many thousands of
pounds for Hope House and the Severn Hospice where his parents in law had been
cared for. The boy`s sister Barbara also
died of cancer and was cared for by the Severn Hospice at Home.
Those original Pentons
lorries used for work with Express Dairies can now be seen at local events, in
the vintage lorry section.
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| Demolition of Penton`s sheds at the Cross 1985 |
Penton`s Houses |
Penton`s early wagons at the Shropshire Steam Fair |
