The following notes were compiled by Derek Rayner. Most of the photos come from his collection.

Bentley’s Yorkshire Breweries were very early users of steam wagons as a means of servicing their public houses and for transport in general. This new form of power later became the norm for breweries all over the country and the industry as a whole were very good steam wagon customers for a very long time.

The first recorded steam vehicle to appear at Woodlesford was Thornycroft No 19 of February 1900 and then similar No 17 of March 1900. These were supplied by the Basingstoke, Hampshire, firm and were followed in February 1904 by locally made Yorkshire Patent Steam Wagon Co No 56 which was a 4 ton wagon and for the first time such vehicles came under the requirements of the then newly constituted Motor Taxation laws. This Yorkshire was therefore registered C 465 (C = Yorkshire, West Riding).   The next was a Mann Patent Steam Cart & Wagon Co product, the works number of which is not known but it was registered C 520.   The Yorkshire was Fleet No 1 and the Mann’s became Fleet No 2.   Both steam wagon firms had addresses on Pepper Road, Hunslet, Leeds.

A further Yorkshire followed, No 80 of 1905, a 2-tonner and this was Fleet No 3 (Reg No C 960).   Another Mann’s came along in 1909, the details of which are not known and then a further Mann wagon which was Fleet No 8 (U 3146).   After that two more Mann wagons followed – being U1683 and another, no details of which are known.

A further Mann was purchased in 1915, second hand from the East & West Yorkshire Union Railway whose headquarters were just a few miles away at Rothwell – themselves very early users of steam wagons - and this may have been C 250.

After World War 1, in 1926, two Sentinel Super wagons were bought by BYB from the Shrewsbury manufacturer – these being consecutively numbered 6377 and 6378 (WU 4271 and WU 4272) respectively. This pair were last licenced in the early 1930s and presumably scrapped when stringent taxation laws were introduced on vehicles such as these that were on solid rubber tyres.

The steam wagon shed and yard was across Aberford Road from the brewery, approximately opposite the brewery’s entrance from this road.

The above information has been compiled by Derek Rayner from his own local researches and the records of the Road Locomotive Society.

This advertising card also shows that BYB were pioneers in the use of other forms of road transport. It pictures a paraffin powered wagon manufactured by T.C Aveling and Company Ltd of Birmingham. The card was posted on March 30 1908 to Heber Denty Ltd, Timber Merchants of Hotwells in Bristol.