ON FRIDAY 15TH FEBRUARY, AMONGST MANY OTHERS, EIGHT HML & BHH VETERANS GATHERED FOR A FUNERAL IN CUMNOCK, AYRSHIRE. THEY WERE MAC CARR, JOHN CROTTY, JOHN LAMBERT, BOB STARTIN, NIGEL BAILEY, DAVE LAMBOURNE, JIMMY CAHILL, & KEITH BREALEY.
IN WEATHER THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWFUL, THE SUN SHONE, THE SKIRL OF THE PIPES SOUNDED OVER THE HILLSIDE, AND OVER A HUNDRED FRIENDS WERE GATHERED FOR IAN`S LAST SITE VISIT.
THE FUNERAL WAS NOT JUST FOR A COLLEAGUE AS FAR AS THE EIGHT WERE CONCERNED, AND IT WOULD BE SURPRISING IF NOT ALL WHO ATTENDED DID NOT CONSIDER THE MAN OF THAT MOMENT TO BE A FRIEND, A GOOD MAN TO WORK FOR AND ALONGSIDE, A MAN WITH A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOUR, AND A MAN WHO KNEW MORE THAN MOST AMONGST HIS CONTEMPORIES & PEERS ABOUT A TOOLBOX AND THE WAY AROUND HEAVY MACHINERY.
THAT MAN WAS IAN STEWART.
Your Editor first knew Ian, or "Pincher" as he was more likely to be called by his contempories (by the way, does anybody know where that name came from ??), from 1971, when he was a site supervisor for BHH.
He had already worked at the Hodge as a fitter for Euclid Wagon Hirers, JBH, & HML, since around 1961, where he joined his father Jack Stewart on Hunsbury Hill. It was during this period that Kathy Stewart tells us that their family moved 14 times in 2 years to go with the jobs !!
During that time, he had worked for several different plant hire managers, including Ken Kirkpatrick, Jimmy Cahill, and Bob Russell, who eventually left through ill-health (or was it it EPB`s boot) in 1972, when the super efficient, vallium-consuming, chain-smoking Morris Clayton rejoined the company from Southam Truck, the company he had jumped ship for from BHH in 1968.
Ian`s appearance in those days was somewhat different to how people mostly remember him, for instance, just take a shufty at the following DD Wellingborough course photo…..
….if you cant spot him, and it isn`t easy, try second left, just in front of the sparce figure of Bill Cross. By the way, does anybody know anyone else on this image ??
Ian was seen as little as possible in Northampton office, usually restricting his visits to Saturday mornings, unless especially called in for a "public beating", something we all knew about at HML/BHH !! On Saturdays, the office population was much thinner, especially in the upper echelons, and was quiet enough to catch up on site paperwork without running into too much top brass, although it was rare after he returned that Morris didn`t attend Saturdays on a regular basis.
The sites at the time included Glyn Glas & Pencoed, both Lehane, Mackenzie & Shand O.C.C.S.`s, the Glyneath Bypass, and soon to follow Meadowgate O.C.C.S. and the Murphy job at Brenig Dam in north Wales, and Pat Sheehan`s TS-24 hire site at Chesterfield.
Initially, Ian had a shared responsibility for the sites with Roy Smith, but Roy ran out of luck with the powers that be eventually, and was sacked, and Ian took it all on from then.
The lowest point of Ian`s BHH career was the accident at Keilder, where a driver died when the R45 he was driving snapped the chassis. There was only ever talk about the broken truck, and all parts of BH were beaten by everybody outside th Company with that particular stick, but the contributing circumstances to that accident, the condition of the haul road, the overloading and speed of the truck, all factors written down as a matter of public record from the enquiry, didn`t get over exposed, and people only talked about the truck failing, and that hit Ian hard, because if one thing he was most capable of, was putting a safe fleet out to work.
In 1986, Morris Clayton died very suddenly, due in most peoples` opinion to carrying too much of the responsibility during a period of top-end "non-leadership", Ian got the shout, and he became BHH Plant Hire Manager.
Ken Kirkpatrick then returned to HML/BHH in 1987, with the days of the R45 & R50 numbered, and the hire fleet moved heavily into 33 Series trucks, particularly 33-11C/B/D & E varieties, plus of course, the 33-07 & 33-09`s that were already on the strength, imports from Costain at Westfield and Dyggors at Pica being the main fleet uptil then, with the beach job at Billy Rainford`s site on Southport Beach being just one example of their use. Ian even went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to inspect and purchase a fleet of 33-11C`s.
There was also of course the fleet of B10LOT TS24`s that BHH had down working for TML near Dover, ie, the Channel Tunnel.
The mainstay of the opencast work was now in Scotland, and it was on Darnconner with Trio Plant & LAW Mining that Ian finished his BHH career, running right up to the 1990 sell-out.
Interesting conversations at that time were held with M.F-A, and some fat noisy bloke from Bridgewater, whereon we were told to lay everybody off, and bring the trucks off-site !!
When it was pointed out to them that the contracts were fairly watertight, and that Pincher`s mob would be needed to keep them running, some hasty re-thinking had to take place, and this resulted in Ian taking over the 38 strong site workforce, and contracting his newly formed company to whosoever the contracts were still with…….S.T.E.A.M. Plant Services was born.
Suffice to say, as a "boss", he did very well, having been on both sides of the fence, he knew all the wrinkles, and ran the jobs until his retirement.
The rest of his time with us is now laid out for you below with contributions from three former workmates, so it just remains for us to say, Slange Var Pincher, you will be sorely missed !! The Editors.
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