Right, ‘Sniffy’ asked about Kevin Quarry! Had a word with Cliff Wigley (a long time Ballidon quarry o/d now in his mid eighties) today and he said that Kevin was the original owners name, he didn’t know if it was his christian or surname though. He also told me that originally they burned lime there, but a few ‘ghost loads’ left the quarry and didn’t go to the proper destination and the owner got into trouble financially. A well known haulier from the Peak District with a large fleet (I’m not naming them!) was involved and the haulier helped to bail the quarry owner out, however it ended up with Herbert Plumbly (who ran Ballidon Quarry) taking it on but he wouldn’t allow any of the hauliers vehicles to load there again. According to Cliff he can’t remember any trucks being signwritten as ‘Kevin’ trucks and thinks it was mostly o/d’s who hauled from there until Thomas Tilling (who actually owned both quarries) formed TILCON around 1970 and then they had their own fleet. When I started at Tilcon in 1975 there were thirteen Foden eight leggers based at Kevin, mostly S50 half cabs but one S39 (URA 123K) and a couple of S80’s, and when I finished in 2002 there were still a few former Tilcon vehicles running from there. I believe that latterly they did a lot of coloured tarmac from there, some went to London for surfacing around the Mall area.
Pete.