Keith Sanders the Storyman Podcast

Then just as suddenly it was all over and relative peace and quite reigned until the next group of buses from another large part of the midlands would descend on that modern “oasis” and it would all begin again. We admit to finding good reason to quit the scene rapidly. It was truly a mad house every Saturday Morning in those months that folk from the huge midlands towns and cities took their holi...

The bridge has over the years been the subject of many amusing stories, the main one was televised when a gang of locals sold it to some gullible folk in America...it was only a story of course! So, whenever we set off to visit Scarborough, I requested going by Middlesborough.  Even the most mediocre student of geography can tell that Harrogate to Scarborough via Middlesborough does not make good...

It was also much more exciting, not just the ferry trip but getting on to the ferry at New Holland was like taking your car onto the big dipper at the fair. I jest not, it was truly heart stopping especially in frosty or snowy weather. At the Hull end on the north bank of the River Humber everything was conventional and made of metal and strong and short and everything like that! Back on the South...

It was just as we approached the junction, I was seated in the rear with Grandmother Annie Munford when a most unusual and unpleasant smell began to drift around the interior.  Mother smoked like a chimney all her life and we were all used to “Fag smoke”, but this was much different. It did not take long for smoke to begin oozing from behind the roof lining. Then quite rapidly the roof inside bega...

Samuel Ledgard's buses operated from Bradford, the smoky rather more downmarket cousin to Leeds the main business hub of West Yorkshire. Now you see, Ledgard's buses were a bit older and more basic. They had wooden seats for a start. Have you ever travelled on a double deck bus with all wooden seats? Consequently Ledgard's did not charge as much as the West Yorkshire company. A Ledg...

I might ad that in the almost three years that I was engaged in Rabbit farming, I never ever had one sick rabbit.   This I considered a major achievement. Not that I can say the same for myself as just entering the second year of the enterprise I suffered a heart attack. It happened one night quite unexpectedly. Severe pain down left arm and incredible pain in my chest. A huge angry hot orange was...

There have been tales of Lady drivers, driving examinations, first potato powder trips to Lancashire, romantic encounters in Thetford Forest and of course the demise of Wonderbun. This story happened in the middle of all the other events. I was the driver this time and engaged in delivering a load of TMC complaint tyres to their examination centre in North Lancashire. Wonderbun was an Austin FKJ14...

Keith was phoning from a cafe on the M1 at Crick in Northamptonshire. The first thing he had to tell me was he had lost both rear wheels from one side of the lorry. It was fully loaded and he had been going fairly slowly through a restricted part of the motorway where it was single carriageway only. His rear wheels had come off in this section and just spun away across the remainder of the motorwa...

I could see the situation was getting worse, I stopped the dray and instructed all the passengers to get off the vehicle without delay, if not even quicker. I was by now holding Cracker on the reins with extreme difficulty. Once everyone was off the dray I also got down and went to the head of the horse.  I could not ask the groom to look at the horse's head while I stayed in the seat, as the...

Then there is the period in which it was built, during the reign of Great Britain's Queen Victoria. During her period in history, ladies would be wearing wide skirts with crinolines to support their skirt structure. These were popular with Queen Victoria and consequently became a main fashion item. Ladies wearing this kind of skirt could not get into a carriage with normal door and step arran...

This is another tale as published in the Mortons Group of Newspapers in 1999. There were a series of "Diary" type stories showing some of the "scatty" life as it was at Northcote in the late 1990's. This story is about a new volunteer helper who only stayed a couple of hours. That was not the shortest.......read Goliath's story book to hear about the girl helper on wo...

What possible better recommendation could one get, the LD150 had never let her down. Through thick and thin, forest, dykes, and up and down the UK that remarkable machine had put up with everything my 20-stone Aunt could throw at it for eight years or more.  The only thing that had stopped it, in the end, was being driven head-on into a Daimler Limousine. Madge did get on the road again but insist...

The bad weather began almost as I left Aylesbury; thunder clouds rolled in as black as black could be.  The lightning began followed by thunder and torrential rain.  It was the rain that stopped me, continuous, heavy downpours that drummed on the road and even louder on the roof of the pick-up truck.  As the rain fell so hard the roads quickly became flooded and then the dips in the road became de...

Once we had decided to actually go ahead with the project to create a visitor centre based around horses we began to find who our “friends “ really were! Firstly, a planning application had to be submitted for change of use at Northcote.  I had been a local Parish Councillor for about five years by this time. My colleagues were not convinced it was a good idea. All kinds of stupid objections were...

Ron was one of those truly wonderful people that you come across only a few times in your life. He was a volunteer helper at the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre near Spilsby in Lincolnshire for many years and regularly came to the centre two or three times every week. Ron was retired and lived in Boston, about 20 miles south of Great Steeping where the Horse Sanctuary is located. Ron never talked abo...

"Meldrew" is one of a series of stories written for the Mortons Group of Newspapers. Mortons were my last employers back in 1988 when I was "The" photojournalist,  ad salesman and designer and circulation manager for the new "Spilsby News". The newspapers are now owned by the Johnson Press Group who kindly gave their permission for the reproduction of these stories. T...

the scene is the Solent just outside Southampton Water and not far from the Isle of Wight. The year 1958..... "I was hauled off the wheel rapidly with a lot of strong language and sent back down to the forecastle to continue being quizzed….especially on buoys! The lesson I learned was once at the helm, do not take your eyes of the course or “road” no matter how interesting other things are ar...

This is a story from Its a Rum Life Book Three. The action is mainly in Boston UK. "As soon as 5 o' clock arrived the area suddenly teemed with white smocked Porters wearing their classic flat leather hats. The main impression I remember was the smell and ice in all the gullies and drains. The noise level increased rapidly as instant auctions took place for the countless varieties of fis...

The subtitle could be "How Brian our Motor Coach owner /driver had to sit all day in lemonade-soaked trousers!" The story of course involves the 1st Boston Sea Scout Cubs on another Annual outing. This time to the beautiful Norfolk Broads. A small slice from the story goes like this...... "Back to our boat, and by now Philip has taken Geoffrey’s remark so literally that he has begun...

This time the Cubs nearly had to walk home, our bus driver would not let them into his coach! Admittedly, they were a mess. They had only been on a three-hour ramble in the countryside! It was a good job we had plenty of old newspapers to cover the bus floor and seats. Yes, some of the boys were a bit wet and some a bit muddy, one or two were covered in mud from head to foot! How had they possibly...

Such is the case of dictators who rely on their power to terrify and bully by force.  “Inside”, they truly know they are wrong but will never, ever, accept the fact. They become so used to their actions it becomes their way of life. This is normally their undoing eventually, simply because it is “Wrong”. But it can take a little time. Never deviate from the truth, never try to follow their tactics...

All my efforts had been vindicated;  two years or so of acute stress had been worthwhile.  Teamwork had won in the end but overall, my continued faith in finding a suitable solution had worked out. During the prolonged interval, while I was seeking a new mortgage, all kinds of weird and wonderful solutions had been on offer.  None of them were good common sense and all of them very expensive. Arra...

In conclusion, I felt confident that the Inspector of Taxes had good acceptable answers to all his questions and could find no reason to take the matter further.  Indeed, I did not hear anything more from that Government Office. But you can read or listen to other unpleasant incidents where various folk have seen fit to “have a go “ at us in other ways over the years. The worst and longest-lasting...

I announced the couple who were to perform without mentioning that neither of them had ever seen each other before.  Never mind not having the chance to practice the piece together before the performance. I dare not mention that neither the pianist nor the mezzo soprano singer had any sheet music to follow either. They were both confident and enthusiastic and with a glance at each other off they w...

Bags and coats went through a scanner and humans passed through an even larger one. It all seemed fine until it was my turn. I duly took off anything metal and pushed my coat and bag into a box that disappeared. I walked through the scanner and caused an immediate alert.  The noise was deafening and a smart security guard quickly grabbed me and placed me against the nearest wall.  Just like the fi...