We received a couple of e-mails today from Chris Rowse, who`s grandfather worked at ARC Judkins.
Hopefully some of you blokes with great memories will be able to help Chris with his task. Here are his messages……
From: chris rowse [mailto:chris.rowse@hotmail.co.uk]
Sent: 20 September 2010 10:55
To: memories@blackwoodhodgeblog.co.uk
Subject: Judkins, Nuneaton
Dear Editors, I came across your site whilst researching info on Euclid/Terex trucks and Judkins quarry at Nuneaton. I'm hoping that through your column I may be able to get in touch with some of BH's former employees or other readers of the BH memories site who might have any reminices, info or photo's etc of the quarry in the 1970's.
My late grandfather, Bill, worked at Judkins for a number of years in the early 70's. He was the quarry's utility man (i.e. dogsbody!) and basically filled in wherever needed to cover for holidays, sickness etc. As such he operated various machinery around the quarry, including the five Terex trucks the quarry had at that time (four R-25's and an R-45) which were supplied by Blackwood Hodge. At the time I was only 10-14 yrs old, but he used to take me to work with him on occasional saturdays, when I would ride up & down all day in the "Eucs", either with him or one of the other guys (somehow I don't think this would be allowed today!!).
I don't remember very much about the trucks, other than the R-25's were numbered 1-4 and were fitted with standard bodies. No.1, I think, must have been a slightly earlier model than the other three as it had the long external steering shaft from the cab down to the front bumper, but other than that they were all similar & I think they all had Cummins engines. The R-45 I think had an air-start V-16 Detroit motor & Allison semi-auto transmission (gear selection was through a staggered 'gate' shift). None of them had a second seat, so it was a case of using an old cushion and try & get as comfortable as you could!
At that time the quarry was using an RB-71 and a Broyt (can't remember which model, maybe an X-4??) for loading, although I seem to remember the Broyt spending quite a bit of time out of action for various repairs, when a Michigan 175B was used to fill in until it was fixed.
Being young at the time, I didn't take any photo's at all, but I would be very keen to hear from any readers of the column who may have any photo's they'd be happy to share, or more info on the quarry from around this time.
Kind regards, Chris Rowse.
And after a reply from us with a couple of questions, Chris responded…..
Dear Editors,
Yes, that's fine – please do post the message on the website.
I think you're right about the R-45 being supplied by HML; as far as I remember, it was always in ARC corporate colours (dirty brown) – any idea when it was delivered to the quarry?? It was only the R-25's that had the "Supplied by Blackwood Hodge" stickers on the side of the body & they were all Terex green. Judkins sold the quarry to ARC, as far as I know, around 1970-'71, so I think perhaps the R-25's would have been purchased by Judkins, from BH, and the R-45, as you say, by ARC from HML.
We do have a late Albert Finch in the family, although I'm pretty sure that it's not the Albert Finch who was QM at Judkins. As far as I know, the only relatives of mine to work there apart from my Grandad were Wilf Booton (Transport Manager) & his son Howard. Perhaps the other quarry you remember beginning with 'B' is Boons, which I believe Judkins bought out.
I can remember the names of a few of the guys who used to operate the machinery in the quarry and it'll be interesting to see what turns up. I do fully understand your point that many of these guys are now in the evening of their lives, indeed some are sadly no longer with us and that it might be a bit late in the day to get much of a response. Anyway, fingers crossed…………
Thanks again, Chris
Leave a Reply