Hello Bonkey;
Found this pic mate
Cheers Marc.
Brilliant shot that Marc,certainly never seen it before. 
Keep up the good work fella. 
Kelv.
Hi Was on hire to Kings at Beattock in 1977 for a couple of weeks when one of their machines was US. Had a young lad there who was completely deaf drove an old terex dumptruck with crash box and you never heard him grind a gear.
Kings had quarries near Duns and Earlston I also worked at a quarry on the A7 near Stow but cannot remember it’s name.
Regards Ronnie
Middleton was the one at Fountainhall, Craighouse, Earlston (Still running…just). The one at Duns was mothballed a few year ago by Cemex.
Have a friend who drove for them out of Earlston depot has promised me photo’s but have never materilised as yet.
Brian
bedgar047:
Middleton was the one at Fountainhall, Craighouse, Earlston (Still running…just). The one at Duns was mothballed a few year ago by Cemex.
Have a friend who drove for them out of Earlston depot has promised me photo’s but have never materilised as yet.
Brian
Would you mind chasing your friend up for the pics please Brian ?
Wouldn’t mind seeing them mate. 
Cheers, Kelv.
Will try, as he one off very few who are still knocking about age has taken its toll on a lot of the old Kings men.
They used to have about 20 / 30 wagons at Earlston. I can remember them well
Thanks mate, much appreciated.
What were the wagons you remember then ? TKs, Fodens or Reivers ?
I’ve seen two more pics of Fodens, a six wheeler S39 and an eight legger S36 but certainly no Leylands.
Thought I’d bump this thread back up by virtue of receiving a nice set of pics from a lad in Scotland.
He took them in 1975 when the road where he lived was being resurfaced.
The pics are copyright to him and he has his own site at : public.fotki.com/mrmunkle/
Anyway, if any member has any pics to add to this thread, be my guest.
erfguy:
The Kings quarry at Beatock was Coatsgate later owned by Tarmac who mothballed it sometime in the 90s.
Eddie.
Was that the one opposite the cafe on the A74
That’s the one the cafe was known as Coatsgate cafe.
I have noticed in the forums pictures of various Kings vehicles,they all seem to be registered in the east of Scotland ie Tayside,Fife & the Lothians suggesting Kings were pehaps an east of Scotland based outfit.
I seem to remember in the Tayside area another Tarmac outfit surfacing the roads called BRIGGS. The colour scheme being the same as Kings & most of the trucks were REIVERS with the Bathgate G cab tho for some reason they were badged ALBION rather than Leyland. I think there may also been a connection to Wm Briggs of Camperdown Refinery on East Dock St Dundee (now NYNAS) who were big producers of bitumen at the time & as far as I know they still do now on the site.
cheers guys
RIVITS
Hmmm, methinks I’ll have to open the net wider to try and find khaki Briggs tippers from now on !
Here’s a pic from the front of the October 71 CM, looks like it comes from the same snaps as your first Bonkey, I liked the look of those short dumper trailer outfits so modelled a Tarmac Leyland Buffalo from a duo I had seen years ago when I worked for the AEC distributor in Newcastle only those were Mercury’s and I think in ARC colours, I remember it took a couple of goes to get them to go backwards in a straight line! Franky.
Just noticed the first pic reg is SSF 859H and the one I sent SSF 859K! must have been the second of the two Bedfords and not the front one. Franky.
erfguy:
That’s the one the cafe was known as Coatsgate cafe.
The one with the revolving doors and a moonscape parking area. 
I have just come across this string of conversations. I have extensive knowledge of the Kings fleet from steam to the 1970’s, and I have numerous photographs. Not every vehicle, too many! Photos include numerous Bedfords, Dennis, Ford, Foden, Scammell, Mack, BMC, Albion, Leyland, Commer, AEC. Mainly in Kings brown and yellow livery, but some Tarmac style.
I also can detail all depots, quarries, company take overs, etc.
It is my intention to collate all this for future publication. I would welcome any photographs and/or history that anyone may have. Thanks
kingshistory:
I have just come across this string of conversations. I have extensive knowledge of the Kings fleet from steam to the 1970’s, and I have numerous photographs. Not every vehicle, too many! Photos include numerous Bedfords, Dennis, Ford, Foden, Scammell, Mack, BMC, Albion, Leyland, Commer, AEC. Mainly in Kings brown and yellow livery, but some Tarmac style.
I also can detail all depots, quarries, company take overs, etc.
It is my intention to collate all this for future publication. I would welcome any photographs and/or history that anyone may have. Thanks
Very interesting mate. Is there any chance you can upload any of the pics please as I’d love to see more of a little heard of fleet of lorries. (Well, little heard of down in England)
How many pics do you have in the Tarmac khaki colour scheme ?
Thanks for your reply. I have approx 10 pics of Kings vehicles in Tarmac livery. KM artics with Neville dump trailers and Neville Omnitrailers, Km Artic Driver Training Vehicle, Bedford TM lowloader, CF vans. As I said the majority of my library show vehcles in the original brown and yellow colours. By the 1960’s the company ran about 150 tippers, 8 low loaders, and a large fleet of quarry trucks, road surfacing plant, engineering dept vans, etc. The road transport operated from depots at Middleton (Ayrshire), Edinburgh, Rutherglen (Glasgow), Earlston (Roxburgh). These served numerous quarries and asphalt plants throughout Scotland, but excluding the Highlands. In 1965 the company was aquired by Derbyshire Stone Ltd, and this was followed by a merger with Tarmac. Consequently vehicles operated by Wm Briggs (Dundee), Callander of Forfar, Amalgamated Asphalt (Amasco), and Limmer and Trinidad became part of Tarmac Scotland. During this time many vehicles were transferred inter company. A number of smaller quarry operators were taken over, any vehicles were transferred to the nearest Kings depot.
I will forward pics to you, but I have to ask your patience. At present I have photocopies, the originals are in safe keeping with my cousin. I will be collecting them when we meet in July/August.
Incidentally, the Foden 8 wheel tipper illustrated feeding the paving machine (see earlier message) is an ex Callander of Forfar vehicle. Callander’s ran a large fleet of general haulage and tippers, they were Foden Agents in addition to their quarrying activities.
Thames trader:
Hi Was on hire to Kings at Beattock in 1977 for a couple of weeks when one of their machines was US. Had a young lad there who was completely deaf drove an old terex dumptruck with crash box and you never heard him grind a gear.
Kings had quarries near Duns and Earlston I also worked at a quarry on the A7 near Stow but cannot remember it’s name.
Regards Ronnie
Ronnie,the one near Earlston was called Craighouse Quarry.I lived near it for a couple of months back in the fifties.
I also lived in various places round about the one you worked in which if Im right is nearer Fountainhall than Stow and I cant remember the name of it either but my dad worked in it for years.
Remembered Hazelbank.
It was owned by Midlothian County Council when my dad worked there.
Mark.
Edit: Sorry Bedgar I`ve just noticed you had posted Craighouse.But Middleton quarry was at Middleton not Fountainhall.
Hello Bonkey, I was the foreman mechanic with Kings, Coatesgate Quarry, Beattock and also Barnhill sand and gravel quarry, Beattock, in the late 60,s and early 70,s, at that time they ran a fleet of KM Bedfords and TK,s as internal stocking trucks. They had 2 Aveling Barford dump trucks to carry the whinstone from the quarry face to the crushers. In fact the m reg truck featured in an earlier posting was taken at Coatesgate Quarry.
In relation to the deaf and dumb man, he drove one of the dumptrucks and a previous member said did not crash a gear, his name was Gordon McGregor, his father was Bob McGregor the shot firer at the quarry, unfortunately Gordon became another casualty of the H and S executive, saying the man was not fit for the job after doing it for 25 years without mishap. I will look in my old photos to try and find some for you. In my day all Kings vehicles were brown and yellow