A grimy Leyland Beaver of Dixon Bool unloads steel rod at a factory in Birmingham sometime in the 1960s when Britain still was a serious trading nation and made things rather than just consuming them.

Lorry driving in those days was a man’s job, few lorries had heaters, let alone radios or sleeper cabs and many loads were merely manhandled on and off and the vehicles were expected to last at the very least ten years before having a second life with a smaller haulier until run into the ground. But it was a life of comparative freedom for the driver who was very much on his own once out on the road, no sat-nav, no tachograph, no mobile phone and much less traffic generally and a real camaraderie among his fellow sufferers.