THE O'DONOVAN STORY 

Nice to see a man so proud of his father and keeping the heritage alive , good West Cork stock.

Stunning content. We run AEC' s in the 70s and 80's. Throughly enjoyed. Thank you.

What a fantastic collection, full credit to the O Donovan’s to the effort they have made to keeping these lorries alive, each with its own story and meaning.

Great to see mr o Donovan was right Daniel he had tippers when you were in nappies nice to see a fellow Irish man leading the way keep up the good work mr o Donovan 🇮🇪👍🤣

I have a TON of respect for Mr. o’donavon for keeping these classics alive!

Love watching Michael on Ashville with his banter with Daniel. Great video guys - tremendous knowledge and enthusiasm from you all. Michael is very passionate about his family heritage and preserving the great work of his late father. Good work on the video Will 😀

My absolute delight to see this. My old grandad started in 1936 with lorries after having horse and carts. My dad was driving one at 15. He only had a small company but the livery was important. I really enjoyed this. Thank you.

A beautiful fleet of trucks. Tip of the hat to the O'Donovan family for restoring the trucks as a tribute to Dad & his hard work. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks to the O'Donovan's for the open house. It was a great show with wonderful history. From a mucker from across the big pond, Augusta Maine USA.

The Irish community were the hardest workers and they definitely looked after their equipment. It’s good to see somebody looking after the old trucks. Back in those days roads were well maintained by Irish workers. Great guys and a great video.

That is one hell of a collection of old work horses . One of the best compilations of wagons i have seen .

Aaah, the Thames Trader, my first ride, a tipper just like this one, but a no glass, flattened roof, open air, pull start version, back in 1970 when I was 22. To get this job, I bumped up my age to 23 and then the firm bumped it up again for the insurance company to 25 and everone was happy. My drive to work was a Jag Mk2, bought for 25 quid and in a about the same condition. The Trader was the company dog, given to new boys and confined to the yard at Portslade Gas Works, It didn't take me long to reduce this heap to scrap and I was let loose on the road with an AEC Mercury, (fibre cab). That first day with the Trader, is imprinted on my memory and I managed to get through it, without anybody noticing I'd never driven a lorry before. ..

The old man Mr O'Donovan would be proud of his son for carrying his legacy on, just as the son is proud of the dad. Bless him🙏🙏

Not only is Mr. O’Donavan’s knowledge of truck mechanics outstanding but he also ran a great business ! Great video.🚚

Nice to see old British trucks still surviving and being cared for by a family firm with a real love for keeping them running. Respect.

All there restorations are fantastic, a credit to the father, so glad there are people who keep our commercial history alive.

Great to watch, especially as I'm from Tottenham

As an ex-pat Irishman in the UK, this brings a tear to my eye. So nice to see Michael so proud of his dad and his Irish heritage.

What a great insight to a very historical company! A beautiful selection of old wagons that would of sadly been lost and in the scrap yard if it wasn't for people like Mr O'Donovan. And the banter he has with Daniel at Ashville is comedy gold 👌👏

That was a lovely video his late father would be well proud Of his son and grandson

Great guy. Meet him and his friends in hotel after classic truck show at gayden a few weeks ago Say hello from scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🤣🚚🚚🚚 John and paul rice

Being a Cork man….. O Donovan haulage is well known in the county and country AND internationally!!! I remember years ago we used to go through their local town and pass off their yard….. before the bypass that is😁 Therefore these boys have trucking in their veins!!! So Never knew about this video on them so love it 💪🏻💪🏻🔴⚪️👏🏻👏🏻😍😍

Hi Kurt Very nice Video Thanks to Mr O'Donovan for letting us look at there fantastic fleet of trucks and the history behind it Thanks again

Absolutely beautiful fleet. That was a nice lil history lesson and much appreciated to the O'Donovan family for their contribution to English way of life. Too bad kids today rarely appreciate what's been done to make their lives a lil more convenient. Cheers

Great video, well done the O'Donovan family.

MEMORYS ARE MADE OF THIS THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS.

What a well cultured man that Michael O'Donovan . He made a point to restore those old rigs of his dad's hey day amazing .

I found this video by accident wow I really enjoyed seeing the history of his fleet of trucks over years shout out to Ashville 😮

What a collection of trucks what a credit of all your familys hard work..you have some knowledge of your trucks all the different engines and gearboxes and everything about them..your dad will be very proud of his boys..well done again..

Wow! What a trip down memory lane. Fantastic to see all these old trucks in such great shape, well done Michael for doing what you do. Being an old trucker, lv’e had the pleasure of driving most of what we saw here, my two favourites were the AEC, which l drove for GKN Steel Stock out of Colnbrook. And the Scammell, which l drove for Hall Aggregates out of their Chertsey quarry. Two great trucks. Such a joy to watch and listen. All the best………Paul.

Great video takes me back to the lorries my dad drove for the ncb. My favourite was the scamell crusader which pulled a low loader. I can remember even when i started driving in the 90s all the different gear boxes that were on the go. All you do now is press a button. Respect to Michael O`Donovan for having such an amazing collection.

I'm glad YT recommend this one to me. Neat trucks & neat family history.

What a fantastic video,great to see such a collection of trucks restored by the O’Donovan family and how they prospered from humble beginnings and hard work.

What a lovely fleet of classic lorries, the guy 8 wheel tipper looks like it started life with Blue Circle Cement. I remember seeing O'Donovan's tippers at work in London as a kid in the early to mid 1970s, Scammell and Albion tippers. So many companies in London had Scammell tippers back then, a few from memory were Squibb and Davies, Syd Bishop, Cantillon, Clifford Devlin, Lowery, W.Long, Embassy Demolition, Brocks Haulage, TMC, Havering, Ladkarn haulage, Mc Ardle, Hoveringham Gravels, St-Albans, Greenham, ARC and a whole lot more.

Great to see these old trucks preserved and to learn a little history of both the O’ Donovan’s and the lorry’s themselves

Great to see all your old lorrys, thanks for sharing I remember driving in South London once I was following a demolition low loader the company name was Syd Bishop and it was signwritten "watch it come down" cut a long story short he clipped a lamp post, you could say I watched it come down! I Worked for Cuprinol 1978 - 86 we had 2x Big J4 2x Big J6 and 2x Big J8 one J8 had a 180 Gardner and a 6 speed box, the other J8 had a 220 Rolls Royce eagle diesel coupled with a 10 speed Fuller box, the J4's had AEC motors with 6 speed box and 2 speed axle, the J6's AEC engine with 6 speed box, later on we had 6 wheeler Leyland Super Buffalo's, Bisons with TL 11 engines with Fuller boxes, we then moved on to Scammell S26's with Rolls Royce 265 Eagle diesel engines my first sleeper cab.

What a great story and company some great lorries there, well done LM. 👏👌

A trip down memory lane - drove versions of most of these in the 70’s as artics - happy days !!

Michael is a GENTLEMAN. I worked fir him for 10 years i think i started with him 1987 or 1988 when he was in was it Green Lanes Harringay we moved to Ferry Lane then moved to Tottenham 17 His Mother was a lovely kind lady with a big heart as was Jakie ..... happy times i had there ...... Lets hope Michael lives for many years to come .... Did Not Know He Had Restored So Many Vehicles .... I remember driving Scamells And P reg Deuitz . Happy days

great video, what Joe O Donovan left in Ireland and what he achieved is a story I would love to hear.

Brilliant video Mucker ,hard work does pay God Bless the O Donovans

Great video , real men with proper trucks an amazing piece of history

God be with days when you could work hard and succeed at what you loved doing. Imagine trying to start up today. Great video many of the Irish lads did well in england

i remember pulling piston liners on routeman trucks in blue circle in Cookstown cement plant back in the early eighties when I was serving my time

That was a great video lovely to see and hear about the progression of the O'Donovan fleet the memories of those trucks on the road with real drivers at the wheel its great to recall as l learned to drive on a Guy Invincible. Thanks to everyone. From 🇮🇪

If truck history was an olympic sport, you would all win gold.....i would put money on it. Brilliant video👍👍👍👍.

I don't know what's more exciting, the Albion with an Ergonomic cab or the Routeman. I'm overwhelmed.

Great video and a great company.

cracking video mucker, served my apprenticeship at a coachbuilders in the early 80's , building tippers/flatbeds, box vans and lutons, plenty of ford d series, bedford tk's tl's ,and volvo f86's , real jack of all trades old school apprenticeship, we never used any drawings ,boss just gave us height, length and width, roller shutter or back doors etc etc , we had to mentally visual the end product, , then mentally work backwards to a starting point, great times

Brilliant footage, what an amazing collection of vehicles. Well done to the family for preserving them.

Awesome vid. Great to see the Cork colours in the fleet. What a story!!

That was a fantastic video, and what a lovely genuine and loving family. All the best from Henry Central UK

Brilliant to see all those trucks being preserved,, and takes me back to being a very young passenger around the west of Ireland in various ergomatic cabbed AEC's,, brilliant trucks

Fantastic history and a real credit to you all….. lost this day in age sadly!! Lovely the way you’ve remembered your dad with the 143 ❤

Brilliant collection of history there well done to them for preserving it and thanks for sharing it with us 👍🏻

What a great collection of old British trucks

This was such a good watch. My Dad was a lorry driver and drove many of these in his time. He and I enjoy all of your videos but this one was particularly interesting. Thanks so much.

That was a really good video, Thank you and thanks to the O’Donovan family for their time and efforts and was really interesting to see the different tricks and to hear the history and the story’s from the beginnings of the company ! Great way to spend half an hour and much better than the goggle box ! 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Brilliant collection, nice to see them all. “It’s in the blood” 👌.

One of the best vids yet. At nearly seventy I remember nearly all of those wagons building our towns and cities. Great you will get a go at the 951 too. Dozers and scrapers are my porn so looking forwards to seeing the cat burst into life. Well done, great viewing.

What an amazing collection to see, thank you for filming it Mucker. A fantastic passion the family have for these trucks!

Brilliant video,remember ODonavans trucks all over london in the 80s,think they parked them behind the crown in Cricklewood

Absolutely brilliant! Thanks for showing us. 👍

Stunning collection! D series brings back memories, neighbour had a metal grill mk1. That and my grandfather's FGs would have been the first trucks I travelled in.

Nice one your Lordship. Great to learn of the O'Donavan story through their trucks and machines, really interesting.

Awesome video thanks for your time and consideration mucker and thanks to Mr o Donovan 👍🚛👍🚛👍🚛🚜

Great video Muck,I could listen to those O'Donovan boys talk all day about their plant!!

Excellent story Lord Muck, great to see an Irish connection for me personally.

Brilliant!! I’m not one for lorry’s and trucks but found myself glued to watching this. The dedication those boys have for those lorry’s is just fantastic. Like they say, it’s in the blood. Just brilliant, can’t wait for the will it start with the cat!! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

A Fantastic Video and very enjoyable too, Michael is a great bloke and i used to own that fully restored Scammell tipper, He has a great collection now with many tasty classics in his fleet and they all have character these old lorries and im a little like Michael and ' live and breathe them '

Seeing that collection coming down the road would be something else. Those lorries are probably better finished than when they rolled off the production line all those years ago

Outstanding video mucker, what a beautiful collection of vehicles that were the backbone of Britain, full credit to all those involved in the restoration and up keep of the magnificent beasts.👍👍

Good evening me lord, You have made my day it brought back many memories there was about 5 trucks I have driven in that bunch thank you. You take care of yourself and stay safe and well.🛻🛻🛻👍⭐️

Amazing to hear the history. I worked at Brogborough, Stewartby, Calvert, Newton Longville for Shanks many years ago. Learnt so much from the likes of Mick O’Neill, Mcgovern and others.

Absolutely incredible heritage collection. Thanks for sharing! 👌

Brilliant video thank you 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Absolute cracking video that. One proud family keeping the past alive. If I lived round the corner I’d offer to help with the Scammell’s just for the love of it. ( ex Hgv fitter) Keep up the good work

What a wonderful collection of trucks, and an interesting discussion about the history. Many thanks for sharing the experience. 👍

Hi from Ireland, nice to see this brought a tear to me eye, well nearly, we're not all bad🥃

Great show, many thanks for sharing with us the O'Donovan's history and heritage fleet.

I've had many a chat with Mick. I used to be the driver for Diamond Build, literally around the corner from their Tottenham yard. I probably tipped there 3 times a week for a couple of years before I moved away to the West Country. If you're reading this, glad to see you looking so well mate!

Scammell Routeman and Trunker with the "Cheese Grater" cabs. What a lovely collection. Thanks. Ergomatics were Motor Panels cabs, rusted very well sadly. Remember seeing the Leyland gas turbine trucks at the Earls Court Commercial Motor show. Several prototypes went to petrol companies as tanker artics. The English Ford 'D' series was so much like the American Ford 'C' series.

I love this, the history. This country needs more hard working men like the O'Donovans. Graft gets reward. Same with Daniel at Ashville.

I remember seeing one of those trucks at Sagenham when on a visit with the young farmers. It was a pre delivery model and the guy showing us around changed the subject quickly. Then the feedstuff firm I worked for a couple of years later had them as delvery trucks.

Fascinating! Great respect. Love your banter with Daniel

very jealous, getting to look at all that lovely machinery in the flesh ..Mr o,Donovan a true gentleman from what I have seen on ashville and your channel great vlog lads thank you .

It's been two long since I seen your vids. Love the content keep up the great work. It's great to see those trucks getting used again its rare you see them around. I love vintage vehicles that get restored and driven like they were fresh from factory.

A lot of trucking history there. Should open a museum

That old film hell drivers came to mind as soon as i saw the old 4 wheelers..Awsome vid mucker.

Lovely classics,very nice

My grandad drove 6d trader he said it was a good site lorry ! Good to see the trader lovely lorry !

Crikey some fleet of lovely trucks there!! Great to see the company and truck history and the pride they have for it💪 And that Cat dozer, offcourse it'll start, its got a birdsnest the Lord Muck omen of luck🤣 Cheers, Mike

First lorry I ever had a ride in was a Thames Trader tipper, back in 1963. I missed the bus home from school so I decided to walk the five miles home and this lorry driver stopped and offered me a lift, so I took him up on the offer, never before had I ever heard such a racket as that tipper made in the cab and I dont think that I have ever been in another vehicle that was as loud.

That was very interesting to watch and a credit to the hard work they have done to keep the trucks going

Lovely collection of Lorries, an absolute credit to his Dad. Nice to see the flag on the side of Ryan's truck 👌

what a beautiful fleet of vintage lorries, and very interesting commentary also, I d love to see them in person

This is just great lads! Really interesting. Thank for posting. God bless.

Great video again. Good to see a mix of old trucks restored.

What a great vid. Fantastic collection and Michael and Ryan for doing that and looking after and renovating the vehicles, what a commitment. Would like to see more of "DJOD" in future vids.