Video: On the road with Yorkshire’s oldest HGV

His two tonne, 99-year-old pride and joy was an abandoned wreck in a Yorkshire farmyard but 18 months of hard work 
have restored it to its former glory.

The 1913 Thornycroft model ST lorry, thought to be the only example in the country, didn’t have an engine nor much else when he bought it from a farmer friend in Seaton Ross, East Yorkshire.

Now it is fully road legal – although it doesn’t have seatbelts – and can be seen on the country lanes of Yorkshire as Mr Marshall tows his two-berth caravan to vintage vehicle fairs.

It turns heads wherever it goes but the 61-year-old engineer says the restoration project has been one of the toughest he has ever taken on.

“I felt sorry for it when I first saw it; it was just a chassis that had managed to escape the scrapyard.

“All I had was the chassis, axles, cast iron wheels and springs. There was no engine, gearbox of radiator. I was almost at the point of not doing anything with it because it was almost a basket case.

“When I got it home I did wonder what the hell I had done. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.

“There aren’t many people daft enough to take on a project like this. But I get enjoyment from driving it on the road again.”

While he was wondering what to do about the mass of missing parts, luck intervened when a radiator and an engine, both manufactured by Thornycroft, became available thanks to chance encounters with other enthusiasts.

The four-litre petrol engine, which itself is over 70 years old, had been sitting idle in a field in County Durham for the best part of two decades but is now running fine.

As well as carrying out the complex job of putting her back together, Mr Marshall has also carried out extensive research to discover the previous life of the old lorry.

With the help of the National Motor Museum and the Thornycroft enthusiasts he dated the vehicle to 1913, found its chassis number and found out that it was once a workhorse with Hull Corporation.

He got in touch with Hull Council, got a copy of the registration card and put it back on the road using the original paperwork. The end result is as close to the original vehicle as he can possibly achieve, although some enthusiasts may pick up on the fact that the engine is not as old as the chassis.

Mr Marshall doesn’t have time for such people.

“There will be purists who say it’s not an original, which I accept, but that is not a good enough reason to keep it languishing in a shed.

“People say it does not have its original engine but it is a 70-year-old Thornycroft engine. I say to them ‘if you will be so kind to show me an original engine I will put it in’.”

And while some vintage vehicle owners are content to just polish their cars, Mr Marshall enjoys taking the lorry all around Yorkshire, even in the pouring rain.

“I have made sure that it is roadworthy and reliable. It has pulled my caravan to Helmsley. Legally, it should only do 12mph on solid rubber tyres but it will do 20mph. The steering is very light and the engine behaves well; it is fabulous and relentless on hills, with lots of pulling power, it eats the hills.”

Mr Marshall, who lives in Harrogate, enjoys the process of bringing old vehicles back to life.

“This Thornycroft is from an era when things were well made. I don’t like the slip shod world of plastic. I am now over 60 and this vehicle is 99 years old so we get on well together.”

He also enjoys the reaction that the lorry receives when he is out.

“People ask if it is a car or a lorry. I tell them it is a Thornycroft lorry, made in Basingstoke. I think it was used by Hull Corporation as a road sweeper or maybe a water tanker, though I am not sure.

“Because I am a bachelor I have time to do these projects – and I don’t have a television, either. The project is about three quarters finished. I have put on wooden mudguards but it needs metal ones. For me, the fun and enjoyment is getting these vehicles back on the road again, as well as driving it on the road.

“I am very keen on restoration work. It started as a hobby but is more than that now.”

Mr Marshall, who runs his own restoration firm, has taken his old lorry to several shows and is hoping to take it to Hull next year – its 100th birthday. I enjoy taking it to shows; it gets a nice reaction wherever it goes.”