G400 (L7487 Joanne Hazel) and Scania R440 (H6342 Laura Anne) Stobart was born in
Cumberland (now
Cumbria) on 18April 1929 to devout
Methodist parents, John and Adelaide. The family farmed a
small holding, with eight cows, at
Hesket Newmarket, south of
Carlisle. His mother died when he was 12 and Stobart left the nearby Howbeck village school at the age of 14. After leaving school, Stobart helped his father on the farm and took occasional horse-and-cart work with
Cumberland County Council. and
William (born 1961). In 1960, Stobart bought his first lorry (a
Guy Invincible four-wheeler truck) second-hand from the local garage, and had it re-painted in his choice of colours: post office red and Brunswick green. He took over the collection of
basic slag (a waste product of steelworks used as fertiliser) when local company
Harrison Ivinson went out of business, and purchased two
Ford Thames Trader trucks which were also painted in his favourite colours with his logo on the doors. A contract with
ICI for storage of basic slag in 1963 enabled expansion of the business, and it became a limited company:
Eddie Stobart Limited in November 1970 with a share value of £10,000 (). In 1978, with a downturn in the economy, Stobart had eight vehicles on the road along with a vehicle leased to Pickervance. Stobart continued to run the company before his son Edward took over running the transport side in 1976. Stobart died on 25 November 2024, at the age of 95. ==References==