EARLIER this year we brought you tales of life on the vehicles at the former Alliance Boxworks in Warrington.

Here at Yester Years we were inundated with stories about the Norman Street firm before it closed in the 1970s.

Eric Muckley, from Stockton Heath, worked there from 1954 to 1964 and has accumulated a a remarkable collection of rare photographs of boxworks vehicles from 1931 to 1964.

He took many of the pictures himself and also drove many of the vehicles during his decade-long career.

He still looks back on his time there as the happiest of his working life.

He fondly drove a 1949 Dennis Pax 3ton van and a VED 520 1959 Morris, among others

Many of the trucks used at the boxworks were specially made for the firm, one particularly rare example being a Leyland Tiger, which used a bus chassis.

Mr Muckley explained how drivers would be responsible for maintaining their vans as well as driving them with routes including to the other bases in Glasgow, to paper mills near Stockport and as far as mills in Radcliffe and Partington.

Drivers would also need to asses their load before starting their daily rounds.

He said: “We did not do overnight routes at the boxworks but this was my first job.

“I joined in 1954 and stayed until 1964. We had to be careful with many of the loads to make sure we could get under the arches.”

n Any surviving drivers interested in getting in touch with Eric should write to us via Yester Years, Newsdesk, Warrington Guardian, Unit 4, Centre Park, Warrington, WA1 1PP or email us via newsdesk@guardiangrp.co.uk.