doug fleet

welcome to the group. i know the airodrome very well.iam not far from you at all. had a walk around there with the then owner not long before it was sold .good luck with the lorry.

hi ian it was a dorchester from new. when it went into showland use they needed to be able to see more from the windscreen so the tiny glass ones were taken out and caravan windows put in . as you can see from the front there is no fairleads for a winch cable as dorchesters were never fitted with a winch. also the fuel tank is sqaure and fitted tio the n/s and the air tank fitted to the f/s. normal matadors are the other way round . if you look at the front wings of mine and a armer one you will see they are the same . the control box is between the front seats on the back bulk head winch has a door on the n/s so the driver went through that and climbed over the engine cover to get to the drivers seat. the leaver you see in the n/s door is for the trailer brakes as fitted by the showman. . if you look at the photos of the back you can just see where the ribs were cut off for the back body. . i would like to know what they looked like inside as i have no idear.i would love to know how many were made and how many are left . as i have never had any replys to anything i have put in any clubs or on here. thanks doug

these were taken the day we picked it up .hope you like them.

hi all thanks for the kind comments . it was brought by the downs family from an amry sale in the 1950s with another one . one was sold off almost as soon as they got it and the other (my one ) was kept. the cut most of the amer off and fitted 2 gardener lighting sets . they then travelled all over essex and kent and futher pulling there gallopers. the family still own the ride and it goes to dorset steam fair every year. they used it till the early 70s when it was replaced with 2 pickford scammell highwaymans . i have had it for about 3 years now . we got it running after it sat for about 35 years . we pushed around the field on a friday night of west bergholt rally in essex . much to our suprise after an hour it fired up and we drove it around the ring on the show days . i will sort out some more photos and put them on for you all. so as it spent most of its life on the fairground we dicided to restore it back to that.

this is my 1943 dorchester matador , it was used to pull a set gallopers around and had 2 generators in the back of it.it was layed up for 35 years before i got it and it took us about an hour to get it running and driveing . its now kept undercover and will be restored to how it was on the fairground hopefully at the end of the year.we have other photos if you want to see them.

will do it tomorrow . it is unrestored and most of the armer plat is missing but if you know what they look like then you will see that it is a dorchester

hiya. very intresting reading the post on the dorchester, can some one tell me how many are left . yes there is one in duxford and one in a museum in dorset, theres one converted to timber tractor in northampton . i read on here theres one in scotland . one in new zealand museum and one in oz. and my one in essex. its unrestored , but runs and drives. has had the top half of the back end cut off , but still has the armer at the bottom . its 1943 and sitts a little taller than my 1944 matador timber tractor . they never had a winch fitted. i will get some help in putting some photos on here if your intrested . doug.

it worked for downs famerly from essex , it had 2 gen sets on the back with a roof over them and pulled there gallopers. they still travel the gallopers and take them to dorset steam fair every year.it runs and drives . i would love to know how many of these are still about .. i wont start it for a year or so as i am finishing my bedford mk .

hi all theres not many of these around , but i have one but its not complete . it does run and drive and sat for 35 years in the back of a showmans yard . i got it for spares but its just to good to break so will restore it as it was on the fairground . will try and put some photos on here for you all.

hi sue just about everything you could need you get from dave crouch of crouch recovery in lester. i brought a cab from him about 2 years ago for my bedford mk . cant lay my hands on his number at the moment . just put crouch recovery in the net and he will come up . he is very help full and a joy to deal with . hope thats some help for you.

thats my green matador and matt fosters red one and the army one is i think pete smiths.

no one has mentioned the armer plated matador. duxford has 1, there one in a museum in dorset some where i know of one in a museum in new zealand, one converted to timber tractor in northnampton and my one that was used on the fair ground up to 37 years ago . still got armer plate along the bottom half but cut down to a flat bed . is there any others out there.

hiya duncun i have had the matador for 10 years now. when i got it it had a bedford mj body on it . i converted it back to timber tractor . yes i found some blue paint on it when we repainted it . i would love to have any copys of any photos that you find of it . she is now based in essex. i brought it off a man called ray colington from bracknel. e mail address is matador5@blueyonder.co.uk.