FINAL ISSUE.

Visitors to the SD Centenary Celebration at the Broadway Hotel in September 2022.

From the Editor Brian Carpenter.

It was with a very heavy heart that I wrote “Final Issue” above. 2023 has proved to be a very difficult year for me brought on, I believe by a Covid booster jab in October 2022. It feels almost unbelievable that so far the doctors I’ve been seeing have been unable to discover why week by week I’ve grown weaker and weaker. One suggestion is that it’s simply that I’ve had too many birthdays! So I felt I had to decide to release myself from the commitment to produce a Newsletter every quarter as I’ve done for over twenty years now.

BUT IN NO WAY DOES THIS MEAN AN END TO THE SD ENTHUSIASTS’ CLUB. JUST SOME ADJUSTMENTS.

Running the Club and publishing the Newsletter has been a delight that has greatly enhanced my life. The many contacts I’ve made have become similar to friends although there are a lot of members I’ve never met. I’m grateful for all those who have shared memories etc. and who share my own enthusiasm for Shelvoke & Drewry who gave me such a good grounding in the workings of the engineering industry.

Tentatively for the future I intend to publish whenever I’m good and ready:-

Newsletters Extra consisting of an article on one particular topic.

A News Bulletin whenever sufficient news has arrived.

Maintaining the main website.

Maintaining the Facebook Group. Here I think it would be good to be able to distinguish between those who were at one time SD employees, those who worked in the Waste Industry, and those whose main interest is the SPV Fire Appliances. I’d welcome any views on this.

It has been fascinating to discover that the Company is still highly regarded, especially by those it employed. With the passing of each era much will have changed, but there seems to be a common thread of good employee relations (not necessarily with the management) a sense of humour, a sense of pride at being involved in the production of high quality special purpose vehicles and fork lift trucks.