2024 Reunion Photos

Group Photo taken at about 3:30 pm. Unfortunately quite a few had already left so not everyone who attended is here.

Photos from the T45 launch, the first copied from a print at the reunion, and the second showing all the drivers - sent by Ray Ashworth who is seventh from the left on the back row.

2024 Reunion Announced - Thursday 19th September 2024

 Dear Colleagues,

A meeting of T'Committee was convened at the British Commercial Vehicle Museum during the Easter weekend to fix a date for the Reunion and we are pleased to announce that the 2024 Leyland Reunion will be held at the Museum on: 

THURSDAY 19 SEPTEMBER

The museum has been refurbished since our last reunion with some excellent new exhibits and a new cafe area. There is also a new conference room which we are hoping to use as a 'lounge' area to give you somewhere to sit down and chat during the reunion. 

Please be aware that, to cover the museum costs, there will be a discounted entry fee of £6 per head (the normal adult fee is £10).

Kind regards,

T'Committee

2020 REUNION POSTPONED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS

Dear Colleagues,

In view of the growing concern about the coronavirus, we held an emergency meeting of t’committee today to discuss the situation and, with regret, we came to the conclusion that it would be prudent to postpone the 2020 Reunion until a date later in the year.

In reaching this conclusion we took account of the following:

- From a few isolated cases directly linked to people who had spent time in high risk areas in China, Italy etc. the virus is now beginning to spread across the wider UK population.

- Attendees at the reunion will be travelling from a wide range of places – some of which could include pockets of coronavirus infection.

- Attendees at the reunion will tend to be from an age group (and, in some cases, a health category) that is considered to be at higher risk when considering the potential seriousness of any infection.

- Leyland Trucks have already taken steps to restrict visitors to their site and as a result our planned factory visit has been cancelled. The letter we received from Leyland Trucks explains their policy as follows:

‘In light of recent events regarding the coronavirus outbreak, Leyland Trucks is taking precautionary measures and needs to limit the number of visitors to our site. We have already postponed all educational visits and unfortunately need to cancel your visit on 14 May too’

‘The health and safety of our employees and visitors to our site is our number one priority.’

‘There is no suggestion that the outbreak has reached us, or that the risk is higher than anywhere else, we are simply applying these measures as a precaution.’

‘Once the current situation eases, we will once again be able to offer tours and of course would welcome you all to the factory.’

We apologise for (and share) your disappointment but, in view of all the uncertainty, we agree with the approach taken by Leyland Trucks and think that postponing the 2020 Reunion is the sensible option.

We will continue to monitor the situation and will notify you of a new date for the reunion as soon as the situation becomes clearer.

Kind regards,

T’Committee

P.S. Please remember to notify us if you change your email address.

2020 Reunion announced!

Now for some exciting news.....

We are delighted to report that we have now made plans for a 2020 Reunion as follows:

Date:  Thursday 14 May 2020

Location: British Commercial Vehicle Museum, Leyland

We have already agreed arrangements with the museum and we will be sending you more details and regular updates during the coming months. 

Please put the date firmly in your diary.

We look forward to seeing you in May!

Kind regards,

T'Committee

Members of T'Committee:

Robert Bent

Lawrence Doyle

Chris Green

Derek Jones

John Penrose

Norry Wardrope

Email from T'Committee post the 2017 Reunion

Dear Colleagues,

First of all we would like to express our gratitude to all 119 attendees for contributing to yet another very enjoyable and successful reunion.

Thank you also to those of you who have sent us messages to let us know how much you enjoyed the day.

We are delighted with the excellent attendance and by all the appreciative responses.


FACTORY VISIT

The feedback we received from those who went on the factory visit was also extremely positive and we would like to take this opportunity to thank Barry Hodgson and Steve Whelan for all their help and support in providing a very interesting and enjoyable tour.


INCOME & CHARITY DONATIONS

The total income for the 2017 Reunion was £595 (119 x £5)
The cost of hiring the museum for the day was £300
All other expenses were absorbed by members of T'Committee - in this respect we are particularly grateful to John Penrose for generously providing all the name badges.

The final surplus income was therefore £295 which we split between our two nominated charities - £148 to St Catherine's Hospice (Leyland) and £147 the Museum.

John Penrose, Robert Bent and Derek Jones delivered the donation in person to St Catherine's Hospice on 22 May (Note; we added £2 cash to round the donation up to £150)

REUNION BLOG

We noticed that several of you were also taking photos during the reunion. If you are willing to share any of these photos please send them to us so that they can also be added to the Blog website.

We will also continue to use the Leyland Reunion Blog website to share your thoughts and your memories about your time working for the Company.


NEXT REUNION

The feedback from attendees was that we should continue to arrange these reunions every 2-3 years. We will therefore continue to hold periodic meetings of T'Committe (otherwise known as an opportunity for grumpy old men to correct the wrongs of the world over a pub lunch!).

We will also continue contact you from time to time tin an effort to keep our email address list up to date and to get your views on our plans for future reunions (e.g. location, best month, best day of the week, font size for name badges etc.).


THE LEYLAND SOCIETY

Those of you who are passionate about the vehicles built by Leyland may be interested to learn more about The Leyland Society.

Members receive a very comprehensive and varied quarterly magazine (‘Leyland Torque’) and the Society works closely with the Museum to protect and archive relevant photographs, documents and articles.

Full details about membership can be found at their website (  www.leylandsociety.co.uk  )


EMAIL ADDRESSES

When we send out email updates to the full circulation list we often receive 'undelivered mail' auto-responses informing us that certain email addresses are no longer valid - typically because people have changed their internet provider, changed jobs or recently retired.

There are also a number of people who simply did not reply to any of our emails - possibly because some of the email addresses we have on file are now 'dormant' and no longer used on a regular basis.

Therefore, if you wish to continue to receive updates about future reunions, please ensure the we have your current email address and, if possible, please give us your home/personal email address rather than a company address.



Thank you again for all your continued support.

Kind regards,
T'Committee

(Robert Bent, Lawrence Doyle, Derek Jones, John Penrose, Norry Wardrope)

Leyland Reunion
leyland.reunion@aol.co.uk

Group Photos 12 May 2017

Group photo taken at about 3:20pm in the museum, the option of a photo outside in the rain was not appealing!

The morning Assembly Plant tour

Barry Hodgson, Franek Low, Bob Bowley, Rodney Swarbrick, Mick Price, John Ball, Mr NZ, Brian Smith, Edward Parry, Mrs NZ, John Penrose, Mike Pickett, Bryan Cherry, Alan Naylor, , Clive Titley and Laurence Eccles

Email from T'Committee post the 2013 Reunion

Dear Leyland Colleagues,

Thank you for all the feedback we received from you following the 2013 reunion. We have now had a chance to review all your comments and we can report that the general consensus is as follows:

- A 5 year gap between reunions is too long and the next event should be held within 2-3 years

- We should continue to use the informal format adopted for the 2008 and 2013 reunions

- The Commercial Vehicle Museum is a suitable, and appropriate, location for future reunions.

Based on your feedback, we have decided that the next Reunion will be held in May 2016 and the location will again be the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland.

To help with ongoing communication we will continue to use this 'leyland.reunion' email account and Jim Woodward has also kindly offered to maintain the Leyland Reunion 'Blog' which he originally set up following the 2008 event. The 'Blog' can be found at:

http://leyland-reunion.blogspot.co.uk/

Jim has already uploaded some photos of the 2013 event (together with a copy of the Leyland Guardian newspaper article) and we would now be grateful if you would send us copies of your photos so that they can also be put on the Blog. The idea is that the Blog will then become a 'photo album' to remind us of the day and provide an opportunity for those who were unable to attend to share some of our memories.

We will you more information in due course but, in the meantime, please continue to help us to add colleagues to the mailing list and please also keep us informed whenever you change your own email address (e.g. new job, retirement or a change of internet provider).

Best regards,
T'Committee