Classic Refuse Trucks GLOVER WEBB & LIVERSIDGE

Glover, Webb & Liversidge

By BRIAN CARPENTER and ERIC VOYTKO

This 1955 advertisement shows how the London firm of Glover, Webb & Liversidge proudly traced its history back to 1720, when it was formed as carriage builders and wheelwrights. Archibald Liversidge, one of whose successors founded the company was a major figure of 19th Century science. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and an early professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Sydney.

Glover, Webb & Liversidge remained as body builders with the coming of the internal combustion engine. In 1932, the company introduced the moving floor refuse collection vehicle. This was fitted with a rubber belt floor that was hand operated. This type of vehicle was especially favoured by some of the central London Boroughs.

The company's premises were on the Old Kent Road in London S.E. 1. During the Second World War these premises were extensively damaged in air raids and had to be re-built on the cessation of hostilities. The Company continued as coachbuilders.

Glover, Webb & Liversidge offices in the Old Kent Road prior to the Second World War

The Royal Irish Coach renovated by Glovers in 1959

A moving floor semi-trailer used by St. Marylebone in the mid-1950's

Typical moving floor bodies of the 1950's on Karrier trucks

A Transport Propeller from 1937, believed to have been built by Glover, Webb & Liversidge
"Propeller" may actually have been a screw-auger as used in later years by GWL

THE LOADMASTER HYDRAULIC REAR LOADER

One of Glover, Webb & Liversidge's first post-war patents, was for the Loadmaster, a rear loading packer loosely based on the operating principle of the American Gar Wood Load-Packer. Unlike the Gar Wood, which was loaded through a door in the packing ram panel, the Loadmaster was loaded over top of the panel into the hopper.

Also like the Gar Wood, a secondary load retaining plate was employed. Again, the retainer was substantially different than the American design. Glover's retainer panel was fixed, with a set of prongs forming the lower portion. The prongs retracted upwardly as the ram pushed the load into the body, then extended again to hold the compacted load in the body as the swinging ram returned to the end of the tailgate.

Twin packing rams, mounted horizontally inside the upper rear section of the body, also functioned to open the packer/retainer plate assembly up and out of the way when the body was tipped during unloading. This arrangement greatly simplified the design and reduced weight, since the packing mechanism was integral with the main body.

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