Where’s ‘my’ crane gone?

I have passed this magnificent machine many times whilst visiting Bentwaters Parks, thinking to myself, ‘one day, I’ll find out who owns her, see whether they’ll part with her and let me restore her.’

So I go on my holidays for 11 days and much to my disappointment I return to see my crane gone!

Let’s hope someone, somewhere has decided that it is time to get her back on the road…

A wise man once said to me…’don’t put off til tomorrow what you can do today’. In other words, if you want to know who owns the crane just ask…

So on that note…where’s the owner 🙂

New arrivals for the workshop

Exciting delivery today and we welcome our brand new custom built hot water tank for cleaning the engine components. We also have our new benches for the welding and trim areas.

Work begins on our new Trim Shop

Work begins on our new trim shops built within our Pettistree, Woodbridge workshops.

Donna Ross is due to join the Bridge team very soon and brings with her years of experience in this specialist field. Donne will head up the new trim shop where we will now be able to carry out all forms of trim and upholstery alterations, all in-house using our brand new and state-of-the-art equipment.

The trim shop is due to open on Tuesday 2nd July. If you have any trim and upholstery questions or concerns pick up the phone and we’ll be more than happy to assist.

Out on our travels

This week, the sun was shining so our good friend Hilary popped by with his wonderful 1955 Austin Healey 100M.

And whilst out on our travels to Bentwaters Park we were greeted at the entrance by this incredible TE7870, one of two historic buses available to hire by local firm Buckland Buses.

Buckland Coaches is a small local operator of coaches and buses in East Suffolk. A fleet of 53- and 57-seat coaches is operated on private hire and school contract work.

In addition, a number of historic buses and coaches are used. The oldest dates from 1929 and it is one of the oldest buses in the UK still licensed for carrying passengers.

The business was formed by Tony Buckland in 1989 in Staffordshire, moving to Suffolk in 1991. In the 1960’s he had worked for the former Eastern Counties Omnibus Co. before joining the Metropolitan Traffic Area Office in London with responsibility for bus and coach Road Service Licences. After a period with the Driving Test Booking Service and the Road Research Laboratory, in 1970 he joined what is now the Britannia Building Society as computer manager. In 1988 he resigned as Head of Administration and began restoration of the first vintage bus in the collection.

Suffolk County Council operated historic bus services in the early 1990’s and on summer Sundays the vintage bus was used on tourist routes. The business then expanded to include conventional vehicles. Home-to-School contracts began in 1996.

In addition to Home-to-School work, the business meets the transport needs of many schools in the Woodbridge and Ipswich areas and occasional vintage bus services in connection with events in Felixstowe and Woodbridge. The historic vehicles are used extensively during the summer months.

CarCrazedFool in Le Mans with Aston Martin Cambridge

(Craig) I was recently sitting in a coffee shop in the North Terminal of Gatwick airport ready to head out for some sunshine in Cape Verde.

I was glued to my phone as I excitedly followed the journey of the CarCrazedFool on his Instagram Feed heading out to Le Mans to collect his latest addition, the Aston Martin DBS59 from Aston Martin Cambridge.

With just one month to go until we open our doors to this year’s Bridge Classic Cars Classic & Sports Car & Bike Show and we hear that we may have one truly stunning DBS59 proudly on display.

Progress on our showroom

Work has begun on the kitchen and chill out area within our new showroom.

Being an ‘appointment only’ facility means we are removing the traditional office style environment and opting for a more relaxing approach. Although we have an upstairs, our kitchen and seating area will all be situated on the ground floor with a fully open plan feel.

Whilst viewing our collection you can sit back on our new/old Chesterfield sofa whilst enjoying a nice coffee all within arms reach.

We are now starting to populate the showroom with our fantastic collection of cars all available to buy. In the coming weeks/months we’ll also treat our sofa to a new set of seat covers.