Mr Raymond Holmes worked as a Lorry Driver for the Marston Valley Brick Company in Bedfordshire for 36 years. He had learnt to drive in the Army in 1944 and joined the company shortly after the war. The Marston Valley Brick Company had about 300 lorries; most of them were quite small four wheelers that carried about 2500 bricks. They also had a few eight wheelers that carried between 6500-7200 bricks. The smaller vehicles were used for short trips whereas the big lorries were used for longer journeys.

The working hours and conditions were very tough. Often an 11 hour day delivering bricks on vehicles that were only allowed to go at 20 miles per hour. On longer journeys, to places such as Southampton, they would receive an allowance of just 10s 6d for an overnight stopover. But they were expected back at the depot in Bedfordshire no later than 11am the following morning, with just enough time to load up, then grab a bite to eat before embarking on another delivery.

There were two shifts and the first started at 6 o'clock. The brick company employed a coach firm called Horseshoe Coaches, from Kempston. There were quite a lot of coaches; a bit rough and ready in appearance. These were workmen's buses and you had to buy a ticket. They would take you to work and picked you up again at night when you finished work at half-past-6 (pm). There were many different stops on the way to load and offload the workers.

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