Our History

The history of this Company is the history of a family. Early one morning in 1896, behind an inn in the Hampshire village of Herriard, Walter James Hunt, recently licensed to haul goods within a 50 mile radius, loaded a heifer onto his cart to carry it to the quiet market town of Basingstoke. Before sunset, he had travelled back and forth three times, a round trip journey of sixteen miles, delivering three heifers in all. By the turn of the century, the carts bearing the name of W.J. Hunt were seen along the roads from Southampton to London transporting hay, coal and livestock. Soon, they were delivering gravel and stone to build the roads of Hampshire.

By the early 1920's, solid tyre lorries had replaced the carts, and as often as not, there was a 'Hunt' inside the cab, for by then, Walter James Hunt's seven sons had joined their father's growing Company.

Walter James Hunt died in 1938, and the license with a reputation for personal service and reliability was entrusted to his wife, Louisa Hunt who, in the days when women seldom ran businesses - and never ran governments - traded under the name of L. Hunt & Sons.

When in 1965, Louisa Hunt died, the license passed to her son, Harry Hunt, who operated the Company with his two elder sons, Gordon and Ivan. With the third generation of Hunts in the Company, there came the introduction of articulated lorries to complement the fleet of four-wheelers. Together, Gordon and Ivan added a Commercial Workshop, and by the time Harry Hunt retired in 1979, his youngest son, Derrick, had joined the Company.

L. Hunt & Sons Limited looks forward confidently to its second century of active trading because it has a name to live up to.