ALTHOUGH NOT QUITE SYNONYMOUS WITH THE NAME OF BLACKWOOD HODGE, (THEY DID SOMETIMES BUY THAT OTHER YELLOW PAINTED ITEM !!) THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GEORGE WIMPEY & B.H. WAS LONG AND FRUITFUL, AND THEY BECAME TWO OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CONSTRUCTION RELATED COMPANYS IN THE UK, AND THE WORLDWIDE MUCKSHIFTING BUSINESS.
Not only did Wimpey buy a huge amount of Euclid & Terex equipment over the years, this particular ex-BH employee well remembers organising the loading of part worn 2100×35 tyres (Mickey Lohan on the forklift) onto the back of one of their low-loaders, which then headed off to GW`s remoulding plant (Southall ??), to be returned in as new condition to used by B.H. Hire & H.M.L..
To just scratch the surface of this relationship, we have some notes and fotos from long ago, supplied mostly by Stan Briggs of Wimpey, which came into our hands almost by accident just recently, and which touch on various topics, countries and machinery concerning both companies.
We may have it wrong, in which we case apologise in advance, but we think that the basis of this part of our article, the fotos and text, are on an email to Stan from one of his drivers from Pakistan, known only as "Aziz", but it is likely that this is not the case, but due to publishing deadlines (!!!!) we are putting it out tonight, and will change it as & when advised of the correct author, so in the meantime, just cop a load of these iconic scraper images.
"One topic that was always popular at my old blog host was any post about the glory days of Wimpey Plant. I feel it’s only right to re-visit some of these posts here at our new home.
One of the many former Wimpey employees who got in touch was Colin MacLennan, who worked for Wimpey Plant & Transport from 1979-1986 in various locations around the world including Dubai, Oman, Jordon and The Falklands. Like so many who have written to me, he recalled some great memories of his time with the company and a lot of hard graft in between too!
Colin sent in this amazing photo of a Terex motor scraper being transported across the Oman desert to another location in a very un-conventional manner in 1981.
I first published the photos in this post over a year ago, after they were sent to me by former Wimpey employee Micky Denne, who contacted me after reading one of my Wimpey memories posts. Recently the photos have caused a lot of interest on some classic plant pages on Facebook, where they have appeared, so I figured I would re-visit this great blog.
The assembled fleet of scrapers in these great archive photos, are seen on the site of the A13/M25 Tilbury-Southend road construction job in 1980. At the time, this was the largest fleet of Wimpey owned motor scrapers at work anywhere in the UK.
At the height of the job, Wimpey had 18 Terex TS24 scrapers in action, which were all twin engine machines featuring a pair of V8-71 General Motors two stroke engines, which were, as we all know, incredibly noisy when working.
Micky said, “We lost a few engines during the contract, as most of these machines had come direct from other projects, without going back into the workshops at Lancaster Road for a full service and a bit of TLC, as they usually would have done. At the time we really didn’t realize that this was in fact the biggest fleet of scrapers Wimpey had ever used on one job, which made it pretty impressive to be involved with”
Of particular interest to me in the photo above, is the scraper sporting the number plate AYY 354T. By pure coincidence, my first regular mount on Wimpey Plant (Department 23 Southampton) was a brand new JCB 3CIII, which bore the registration number AYY 350T!
Sadly Micky, and many of his work mates, figured it was the beginning of the end for the famous George Wimpey (Plant) Department 1. Whilst the team were working near Tilbury Docks, Wimpey were actively bringing back Terex R50 dumptrucks by the dozen from South West Ireland, and also by land from the large mining projects in South Wales.
With no major projects in the pipeline at the time Wimpey Plant had to hire land in the West of London to park up the redundant kit, and in most cases it was in this location, that many of the machines remained in storage until they were sold off.
Micky worked for Wimpey Plant for 20 years, both at home and overseas, and like many employees, myself included, deeply saddened at the company’s demise."
Then we have what we know is a contribution from Stan himself, images of Wimpey contracts out in Africa, a couple of which we have shown before, but what the hell, its still hi-lite green stuff !!
This definitely is Stan`s memo to us last year…..
Some of the photos Stan reckons were taken buy our own Fred Pole, happily to be amongst us again next weekend at the Reunion.
Most of the images are from Chambishi, which according to our Times Atlas of The World, is in the Zambian Copper Belt near to Ndola, as follows….
and then, back to the UK, 1976, M4…….the best twin ever built, well certainly the noisiest, and why not !!
Finally, we have a couple of images much closer to home.
While very recently scanning a box of photos belonging to Keith Matthews, amongst them were the following, and initially we did not work out the location, so see if you work it out before you read the notes below……
…..well, sorted it ??
The first is taken looking up Hunsbury Hill Avenue, although if it is 1969 which we think, then it might well have been "Euclid Avenue" !!
No "Palace of Varieties" in site, no Ring Road, no Briar Hill Estate, just a long climb to Rothersthorpe Lane, and good clean fields in between.
Those were the days !!
This carpark was just above the Company houses, and probably became the Top Office carpark after it was built
The other shot, and they have moved the scrapers around 90 degrees, shows the tops of the Chassis Shop etc, down in the yard, with Berry Wood on the far horizon.
Before we finish, if your computers can blow up the images by double clicking on them, then take a look at the drivers on the uphill shot.
We reckon, from right to left looking at them, three of them are Malcolm Rust, Cecil George, and David Coleman.
Do you agree, if not advise, and also let us know if anyone recognises the 4th & 5th drivers, so that they too can have their fleeting moment of fame.
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