The caption below the photograph states: "E.R.F. Diesel 4LW C.F.C. 930C New Nov 8th 1965 No.6"
Not sure what all this means. As the picture clearly shows, AC&Co bought a brand-new diesel van from ERF the famous Foden diesel supplier. And this happened only 4 years, or slightly less, before the firm was sold to Cantays in 1969. This suggests to me that confidence and profitability was high in 1965, and that other factors must have intervened to cause this enormous step by a firm that had been profitably trading for 108 years. True, my father, FGBA was aged 60 in 1965 and had only 5 years to go to retirement, though his father, WGRA, was in 1965, aged 87 and still not retired, so nominal retirement dates certainly did not mean anything necessarily. Possibly though, Dad may have wished to retire at age 65.
This van epitomises Archer Cowley & Co for me. The boss's son. But who never joined the business, but who now feels that it was a rather splendid thing. The warehouse and the vans had an indefinable something solid and trustworthy and reliable and dependable. I believe that Dad went a long way toward establishing that enviable status simply by the way he lived and worked.And it shone through.