Moving Britain since the first motorway.
Harold Marsden bought his first wagon the year the Preston Bypass opened. Sixty-eight years and three generations later, we run 240 vehicles out of eight depots — and it's still the family name over the door.
Eight depots · Glasgow · Carlisle · Leeds · Manchester · Liverpool · Birmingham · Bristol · London
Eight depots. One network.
Glasgow to Bristol, overnight. Our trunking runs the same corridors the business grew up on.
Full loads, part loads, and the awkward ones.
Five services out of eight depots, on our own fleet. We don't broker your freight out to a stranger and hope for the best.
General Haulage
Curtainsiders and flatbeds up to 44 tonnes, full and part loads, anywhere in mainland Britain. Same-day and next-day.
Palletised Distribution
One pallet or a hundred. Overnight trunking between all eight depots, with a tracked delivery window.
Contract Warehousing
320,000 sq ft across Leeds, Trafford Park and Thurrock. Racked, bonded and temperature-controlled bays.
Abnormal Loads
Low-loaders, route surveys and escorting arranged in-house. Plant, steel and modular units up to 80 tonnes.
Temperature Controlled
Dual-compartment fridge trailers, +25°C to −25°C, with continuous logging for chilled and frozen work.
Dedicated Contracts
Liveried vehicles and named drivers working solely for you, from a depot chosen to suit your run.
The company grew as the roads did.
Marsden Freight has never been able to separate its own story from the story of Britain's motorways. Every expansion in this list followed a road opening.
One wagon, one yard
Harold Marsden buys a second-hand Leyland Comet and works out of a rented yard behind the Marsden railway sidings. That December the Preston Bypass opens as Britain's first stretch of motorway.
South on the new road
The M1 opens and Harold runs wool south to the Midlands overnight — a trip that had taken the best part of two days on the A6.
Over the tops
The M62 crosses the Pennines a few miles from the yard. Marsden becomes a Liverpool–Hull trunking operation almost overnight, and the fleet reaches fourteen vehicles.
Second generation
Alan Marsden takes over. The first depot outside Yorkshire opens at Trafford Park, chosen for one reason: it sits ten minutes from the M6.
Warehousing
A 120,000 sq ft shed goes up alongside the Leeds depot, and Marsden stops being purely a haulier. Storage now sits behind roughly a third of the group's work.
Third generation, and FORS
Kate Marsden joins as operations director and drives the fleet to FORS accreditation, reaching Gold in 2016 — held every year since.
240 vehicles, eight depots
Still family-owned, still headquartered three hundred yards from the original yard, and still running the same corridors Harold opened up in 1959.
"We've never won work by being the cheapest. We've won it by turning up."Alan Marsden, Chairman
Eight depots, no subcontractors.
Every depot on the map above is ours, staffed by our own traffic desk. Nothing gets handed to a broker.
Marsden
The original yard. Group traffic, compliance and the workshop.
Leeds
140,000 sq ft racked storage and the eastern trunking hub.
Trafford Park
Opened 1984. Ten minutes from the M6, serving the whole North West.
Liverpool
Container and quayside work through the Freeport.
Carlisle
The changeover point for Scottish trunks, staffed overnight.
Birmingham
Central pallet hub — most next-day work routes through here.
Bristol
Serving the M4 and M5 corridors and South Wales.
Thurrock
60,000 sq ft bonded warehousing beside the Dartford crossing.
Tell us what needs moving.
The traffic desk is staffed 6am to 8pm weekdays, and there's someone on call at every depot overnight. If it's urgent, ring — you'll get a person.
- Traffic desk
- 01484 000 000
- traffic@marsdenfreight.co.uk
- Head office
- Bank Bottom Yard, Marsden,
Huddersfield, HD7 6AB - Hours
- Mon–Fri 6am–8pm
Sat 7am–1pm · overnight on call