Ramblings
Lonstone Products Now Handmade By Westminster Stone
A selected range of Lonstone products are now being handmade by Westminster Stone based in Shropshire. Gardenstone ...
Read moreThe beautiful scent of bluebells
The beautiful scent of bluebells. I love this time of year, when Spring is in full flow and the bluebells provide ...
Read moreRHS Garden Rosemoor Spring Flower Festival 2020
Spring is here and I can not think of better way to get yourself in the gardening mood than visiting RHS Garden ...
Read moreSt Michael’s Mount Cornwall
Walking along the seashore from Penzance to Marizon you can see St Michael’s Mount. The tidal island lies ...
Read moreSnow drops bring joy in the Winter
Snow drops bring joy in the Winter. Like most of us, as I walk in the garden during the Winter months, I love ...
Read moreBig Freeze 1963
The actual date was 28th December 1962, a night I will never forget. Snow had been falling most of the day but by ...
Read moreThe Beast from the East
1st March the meteorological first day of spring, also St David’s day. The astronomical first day of Spring ...
Read moreBreathe
In early October 2017 Lizzy and I decided to visit the Kassam stadium cinema in Oxford to see “Goodbye ...
Read moreBewick Swans
Good news for all you winter weather watchers, Bewick swans having flown 2000 miles from the arctic feeding grounds ...
Read moreRAF’s worst peacetime air disaster Hastings TG577
Tragic Hastings air crash 6th July 1965 The afternoon was beautiful and sunny and we were loading aggregate into ...
Read moreChurch Cottage and the Rest
February 1963 saw myself and brother Terry just about coping with the terrible weather during the 62/63 winter, ...
Read moreFirst brochure 1963
Returning from our Faringdon site I listened to Mozart Eine KleineNachtmusic[ a little serenade ] the music ...
Read moreStone Circles for Garden
Thankfully, after nearly 60 years in the trade, I still find our business exciting. When visiting our Faringdon ...
Read moreAct of kindness
John Jackson in Ecuadour 1987 during the terrible earthquake witnessed a simple scene of compassion. He wrote: The ...
Read moreWinter 1962/63 – part two
Cold air became firmly established on the 29th December 1962,blizzards developed in the south west of England where ...
Read moreWinter 1962/63- part one
Christmas morning 2016, the morning sun`s rays had just burst through the conservatory windows, for a moment we ...
Read moreA lesson for life- part two- learning to walk again
For many months I experienced a painful neck and tingling in my hands and feet, after many visits to doctors and ...
Read moreA lesson for life – part one
Since my most recent blog, the sentence returning to haunt me is “still achieving still pursuing, learn to ...
Read moreHenry Longfellow( 1807- 1882 )
A Psalm of life [ extract ] Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime And, departing, ...
Read moreNew production systems 1963 -part three
After a good nights sleep and a lot of thinking time I realised I might have a solution. My training at Harwell ...
Read moreNew production systems 1963-part two
I arrived the following morning to take out the previous days production, I was very excited and could not wait to ...
Read moreNew production systems 1963-part one
At last after four long years of full and part time employment in the summer of 1963 we built our first dedicated ...
Read moreCompletion of Drayton St Leonard site 1963
After all the difficulties experienced erecting the Emmetts building and continuing to develop our small business, ...
Read moreDrayton St Leonard land purchase 1961
During my visits to London for the Get Ahead competition I began to realise the present site at Drayton-st Leonard ...
Read moreGet Ahead Competition 1961-part two
During the first week of February 1961 I received a letter from the Daily Mail inviting me to a preliminary ...
Read moreGet Ahead Competition 1961-part one
During the month of November 1960 an article appeared in the Daily Mail advertising a competition for entrepreneurs ...
Read moreSwimming pool construction 1960’s
During the winter of 1960 Hugh Farrant a local farmer living in Drayton St Leonard asked the question could I build ...
Read moreChristmas 2015 Part two-Alfred Delp
Alfred Delp wrote these amazing words in a Nazi prison Christmas 1944 waiting his execution date. Space is ...
Read moreChristmas 2015 part one-Alfred Delp
Christmas 25th December 2015 celebrates the arrival of a new born child a refugee in Bethlehem bringing hope to a ...
Read moreAconite-Middle of December 2015
I always find this time of year extremely difficult, having developed a business where sales of the ...
Read moreFirst Loan-July 1960
The first two years saw the continued struggle (scrabble) between part time jobs and production of concrete ...
Read moreQuality- Wallingford Market Square
Walking in Wallingford (Oxfordshire) market square I was reminded how privileged we are to live in such a beautiful ...
Read moreRemembrance- Halifax 579 51 Squadron
Remembrance Sunday always reminds me of the waste and tragedy of war. I remember my father who returned from the ...
Read moreMarch 1959-Morris Minor Pick Up
1959 became a very busy year. I purchased my very first new vehicle, a Morris Minor 1000 pick-up truck from ...
Read moreStone circles part two
The thought process started when walking the streets of Norwich looking at small gardens and the hundreds of ...
Read moreStarry Night
I must have been woken by two hooting tawny owls, one in the old sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden, the ...
Read moreStone Circles
My son Dominic reminded me, the blog started last year had slowed to a snails pace, in fact for a few months it may ...
Read moreFirst ever haulage contract-3 years old
I have this very early memory of being just 3 years old sitting on a small wooden tricycle and trailer observing a ...
Read moreLenten thoughts
During this special time of the year, I often think of the carpenter dying on the wooden crossbar, and of all ...
Read moreIpsden Woods- Summer 1959
Paving was being manufactured at least three times weekly, this was not enough to keep the lorry fully occupied and ...
Read moreWooden Moulds- Summer 1958
During the summer months I began to improve the speed of manufacture, by developing a wooden tiered pallet ...
Read moreMy First Concrete Mixer- July 1958
According to my diary I purchased my first concrete mixer from Philips the local builders merchant, now Jewsons of ...
Read moreRomanesco
Eating Romanesco broccoli and seeing them on the plate makes you feel better. Research has revealed Romanesco ...
Read moreTypical working day 1958
19 years old I had worked at UKAEA for 2 years as a S.A. with lots of responsibility, I also delivered milk 7 days ...
Read moreFirst concrete casting base-1958
March the 8th 1958 was the day I walked to Tom Greens the local builder at Dorchester on Thames, bought 1 bag of ...
Read moreThought for January
Just recently I watched Songs of Praise on television and a great, very old gentleman was being interviewed; he was ...
Read moreSt Mary’s Street Wallingford
St Marys street is one of the oldest streets in Wallingford UK, and walking through the street on my way to the ...
Read moreFathers WW1 service
My father became an engine room Artificer at the age of eighteen and spent most of his war on the Russian convoys. ...
Read moreBe at peace
Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow The same everlasting Father who cares for you today Will take ...
Read moreFathers early life
My father was born on the 22nd of June 1893 and his father died when he was just three years old, being one of six ...
Read moreEarly Lorry Experiences- Piano
I was approached by a member of staff at UKAEA asking could I deliver a piano to Leighton Buzzard as normal NO ...
Read moreFirst lorry experiences- June 1958
June 1958 I was not producing enough concrete paving to justify the running costs, so I started selling horse ...
Read moreMy first lorry- May 1958
May 1958 and I recall my first real problem, delivery? I was receiving orders, from the advertising in the AERE ...
Read moreMrs Beaumonts story- 1890
My fathers aunt was an amazing person who became engaged in England to a mechanical engineer. Soon after the ...
Read moreMrs Beaumont
My grandfather died leaving my grandmother and six children, 5 boys and 1 girl at the at the very young age of 43 ...
Read moreThe beginning-1958
I started digging sand using a pick axe and a shovel, then manufacturing paving at my parents home in ...
Read moreMy first advertising 1958
The internal site newspaper at Harwell was called the AERE news, this proved to be a great advertising medium and ...
Read moreMy first concrete blocks
After leaving school I started a career at UKAEA Harwell training as a reactor engineer. My first attempts ...
Read moreWestmorland Planters Idea
We have a fantastic orchard overlooking a water meadow the river Thames and the Sinodun hills,I often sit on one of ...
Read moreWhy Concrete?
I have often wondered Why concrete, but as Dominic my son reminded me. I was born in a concrete block house mother ...
Read moreMy Father made his own house bricks 1932
In 1932 my Father (Harold Rogers) started casting his own house bricks. He was an engineer by trade and had been ...
Read moreThe casting tradition
The family tradition for casting products started with the ROGERS FOUNDRY at Henely on Thames- products as diverse ...
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