windrush:
Chris Webb:
I never drove a tipper Pete,I did go to two quarries int 60s and 70s,one was Dene near Cromford with a load of tar from Avenue plant Wingerworth when I worked for A E Evans and the other was somewhere off the Ashbourne road,the one where you turn right from Bakewell after Haddon Hall,can’t recall it’s name,it was a piece of machinery from T W Ward,when I was on general haulage out of Sheffield,late 60s.
I remember to this day the blasting explosions as a kid from different quarries,that’s when Eyam Quarries and Darlton were going.
Am I showing my age?
That was Shining Bank quarry Chris, it closed several years ago. Hinchcliffes/North Lonsdale and then RMC and Cemex ran it at different times. Haddon Hall own the land, for one day each year stone was carted for free from the quarry to the Hall. Good hard limestone in there, I ran over a piece one day expecting it to crumble and it blew my front tyre to bits!!
I liked working from there, very easy going lads and not so much H&S stuff as Tarmac had, however there was so much overburden to shift before you reached good stone that it was expensive to get it out. Rates weren’t quite as good as Tarmac/Tilcon (they worked on radial miles whereas Tilcon and Tarmac paid on direct miles) ) but the lad in the weighbridge seemed to like me and sorted me some decent work out when other quarries didn’t want me. I could carry almost two tonne more than their six wheelers as well which helped at times. Often he loaded me before the company trucks to get me a decent day, they didn’t mind as they were salaried anyway and I was on 27% of earnings. Downside was on small loads they only paid 15 tonne minimum haulage whereas Tarmac paid 17, and I did a lot of two tonne loads of tarmac for them, but what I lost in payload I gained on fuel used! Swings and roundabouts, they were happy days!
Pete.
I remember Hinchcliffes from South Elmsall when I were a kid and I think North Lonsdale was part of T W Ward group,like Eldon Hill.
Did you ever come across or hear about Stoke Hall quarry,on the road from Grindleford to Eyam? I believe it’s still open,supplying quality stuff for garden centres etc. It was nearly directly opposite our house in Froggatt,but hidden by trees now.
When you mentioned rates I was due for demob from RAF 1967 and was thinking about going on my own as an owner driver on tipper work. I knew a lad who drove for John Mason who worked out of Darlton Quarries at Stoney and went out with him for a day. He did a load of tarmac to Baslow school and it were 7/6p a ton. The photo is out of a local book about Froggatt,Calver and Curbar and shows a Hinchcliffe Albion going over the old Calver Bridge which has been clattered by summat.It was a regular occurance,I went to the school just past Curbar church from 1947 to 1953 and remember bumps and scrapes on that bridge.Earles Cement were running Briggs bodied Leyland Comets and used to lose the odd bag of cement near the Bridge Inn when they were trapping on a bit.
Incidentally,that triangle of green area at Baslow near the Devonshire Arms and Wheatsheaf pubs has a bench that says “Sit around and wonder why the world on wheels goes rushing by”.Very apt then and still is.
