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Blackpool seafront MV's


Smithy

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Just wondering if any of you can remember the old MV's that used to take the motor boat's out to the sea along the Blackpool seafront.

I think they had their full cab's removed(I may be mistaken) and have always wondered what they were. I also think that some of them are still going strong.

Hopefully some of you will have some information and/or photo's of these unusual vehicles.

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They weren't just used for launching the boats, wooden bodies were built on them and they carried the passengers into the sea to board the boats.

As kids we spent many hours on the beach and in the water helping, just to get a ride on the vehicles. Happy memories.:-D

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Guest catweazle (Banned Member)

Got some pics but not on blackpool beach.Dukws were still operating in 2007 taking people out to boats on eastbourne beach.probably H&S killed it off now,post tomorrow.Skegness when i was a kid had dukws long ride to Gibralter point.

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My mates grandad owned the trucks and bren gun carriers on Blackpool beach, think the trucks were morrises .

Remember seeing a field near where i live with bren gun carrier wheels in as a kid .The trucks just rotted away .In the early eighties there was the odd chassis left sat on the prom not far from the tower , too far gone tho really ........

Think someone on here might have one of the bren gun carriers ,

My dad was a kid here in the late forties and use to help "drive" a jeep for an oyster seller, i say "drive " because he was just a kid and was actually steering because the guy was always drunk!!!

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Cheers Degsy. Anybody have any more information and perhaps some pictures of these???

 

Not quite at Blackpool but across the bay at Southport this photo was taken a couple of years ago. The contraption is used for fishing.

Any ideas what is underneath the body?????

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I live in Southport and our beach (and area) has quite a history with ex military vehicles. The shrimpers are now enclosed in a sercure area, but I'll try and get some detailed pictures.

 

We also used a modified Bedford QL as a beach bus.

 

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And the best picture I have ever found... With the two DUKWs.

 

dukwainsdale.jpg

 

Some more of the DUKWs we had here in Southport...

 

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And some history..

The American D.U.K.W. did, as has been mentioned, appear on our beaches about 1948. brought here by a scrap metal merchant as a possible business idea. In 1949 an ex-Navy officer Joseph Rankin purchased some 20 vehicles from the then Thompson and Doxey export Ltd.He used them as pleasure vehicles on the beach for several years.They were not always mechanically reliable.Joe had a standby recovery vehicle incase of problems. Under the pier he had a mint condition D.U.K.W.to recover the recovery D.U.K.W. Joe used his D.U.K.W.s as shrimping vehicles with some success.He was asked in 1951 by the then Southport Corporation to pioneer the use of the D.U.K.W. as a sea rescue vehicle.In conjunction with the beach Rangers well over 600 people were rescued on our beaches from then until their retirement in the 1990s.

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=35977&stc=1

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Not quite at Blackpool but across the bay at Southport this photo was taken a couple of years ago. The contraption is used for fishing.

Any ideas what is underneath the body?????

 

I believe that these shrimpers utilised the Morris chassis

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I'd forgotten the DUKWs at Elizabeth Castle. I've no idea what hapned to them, over the years they had pointy fronts added. First MV's I travelled in.

 

I was waiting for you to mention them Tony . The tide came back in while we were looking round the castle on our honeymoon & we had to get a lift back to dry land on one. Not a pleasant ride as I recall - the tide was not in by much & the wheels kept touching & throwing the old girl around . Would have preferred a nice little sail :-D .

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Other MV's around the coast.....

 

The Monks at the Caldey Island Monastry off the South Wales coast at Tenby, used to use a DUKW to get passengers and supplies to the island. Seem to think they replaced it with a Stalwart, but found it unsuitable, perhaps someone knows more on that.

 

CW's mystery amphib........a bit like one that was based on the Bedford MK 4x4, I saw one at the military equipment trade show once, and think there was one working at St.Helier, Jersey when I went, certainly not a DUKW in sight then.

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I was waiting for you to mention them Tony . The tide came back in while we were looking round the castle on our honeymoon & we had to get a lift back to dry land on one. Not a pleasant ride as I recall - the tide was not in by much & the wheels kept touching & throwing the old girl around . Would have preferred a nice little sail :-D .

 

I've got a snap of me with my uncle Harry on one in 1970. A treasure memory.

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