THE Oxford haulage firm of H Tuckwell & Sons owed its existence to the thrift of its founder.

Harry Tuckwell worked as an errand boy for Elliston & Cavell, the city department store, after leaving school in the late 1880s, but saved his wages and bought a hardcart so that he could run his own errands.

As his savings grew, he invested in a horse and cart, then another horse and cart, and Tuckwell’s was born.

Dr Gill Tuckwell, Mr Tuckwell’s grand-daughter, has been reminiscing and recalling childhood memories after reading recent Memory Lane articles about her family.

She writes: “I never met my grandfather as he died in 1943, before I was born. Had I done so, I would probably share similar experiences to those of my older cousins who remember a powerful figure of whom they were scared.

“Harry, seemingly, would shout and wave his stick at children who appeared to be trespassing in Tuckwell’s yard in Chapel Street, apparently unaware that they might be his own grandchildren.

“As it is, I have always found the family anecdotes of Harry’s vision and commitment to setting up a business to be a source of great inspiration. Born in 1873, he clearly had an entrepreneurial flair.

“Initially, the business was involved in haulage and in supplying coal to Oxford houses from the railway yards in the area.

“I have been told that Harry was a well-known personality in Oxford, sporting a bow tie and fresh carnation in his buttonhole every day.

“Harry and his wife Edith lived in Bullingdon Road, and their four sons also started working in the growing business.

“I remember my father, the youngest son, George Edward, describing the cold early morning starts to stoke up the steam engines.

“Meanwhile, my mother, who went to East Oxford School, which overlooked the Chapel Street yard, had been known to throw the burnt offerings of her cookery class to the chickens!”

The hard work of Harry and his sons paid off as Tuckwell’s became an incorporated company in 1922.

Dr Tuckwell, who lives in Solihull, West Midlands, has her own memories of the family firm from the 1950s.

“I remember the split office doors at Chapel Street, which had once been the stables, and my amazement that the yard had its own petrol pump. There was still coal then and my sister had been known to describe our father, who was running the business at that time, as a coalman.

“As children, we sometimes played in the yard and I remember, possibly at the age of eight, trying to lift a bag of ballast for a customer and being astonished by the weight of it.

“I also remember going with my father to collect rent from tenants in houses in Marlborough Road. Records show that the land off Marlborough Road was acquired by Harry Tuckwell from the Duke of Marlborough in 1925.

“My recollection is of a row of houses let at a peppercorn rent, which was collected and duly recorded on the proverbial back of a cigarette packet!

“Another memory as a child was the excitement of family picnics on Sundays at the gravel pit at Frilford. This was after the business had expanded and started working its own quarries.

“I can also recall my childish self-righteousness if a lorry driver was discovered taking an unauthorised tea (or something stronger) break by ‘the gaffer’.

“While Harry lived to the age of 70, his sons did not enjoy good health, my father being the only one to reach the age of 54, and thus the business passed out of Tuckwell family hands.

“In addition to my sister and me, there are still several cousins, including Trevor, who also enjoyed family picnics at the pits but as far as I know, or he knows, has never had fair hair!” – a reference to a Memory Lane correspondent who claimed he had!