Ramblings - Blog - Gardenstone

Big 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 ...

The Beast from the East

1st March the meteorological first day of spring, also St David’s day. The astronomical first day of Spring ...

Breathe

In early October 2017 Lizzy and I decided to visit the Kassam stadium cinema in Oxford to see “Goodbye ...

Bewick Swans

Good news for all you winter weather watchers, Bewick swans having flown 2000 miles from the arctic feeding grounds ...

RAF’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 ...

Church Cottage and the Rest

February 1963 saw myself and brother Terry just about coping with the terrible weather during the 62/63 winter, ...

First brochure 1963

Returning from our Faringdon site I listened to Mozart Eine KleineNachtmusic[ a little serenade ] the music ...

Stone Circles for Garden

Thankfully, after nearly 60 years in the trade, I still find our business exciting. When visiting our Faringdon ...

Act of kindness

John Jackson in Ecuadour 1987 during the terrible earthquake witnessed a simple scene of compassion. He wrote: The ...

Winter 1962/63 – part two

Cold air became firmly established on the 29th December 1962,blizzards developed in the south west of England where ...

Winter 1962/63- part one

Christmas morning 2016, the morning sun`s rays had just burst through the conservatory windows, for a moment we ...

A 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 ...

A lesson for life – part one

Since my most recent blog, the sentence returning to haunt me is “still achieving still pursuing, learn to ...

Henry Longfellow( 1807- 1882 )

A Psalm of life [ extract ] Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime And, departing, ...

New 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 ...

New 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 ...

New 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 ...

Completion of Drayton St Leonard site 1963

After all the difficulties experienced erecting the Emmetts building and continuing to develop our small business, ...

Drayton 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 ...

Get 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 ...

Get Ahead Competition 1961-part one

During the month of November 1960 an article appeared in the Daily Mail advertising a competition for entrepreneurs ...

Swimming 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 ...

Christmas 2015 Part two-Alfred Delp

Alfred Delp wrote these amazing words in a Nazi prison Christmas 1944 waiting his execution date. Space is ...

Christmas 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 ...

Aconite-Middle of December 2015

I always find this time of year extremely difficult, having developed a business where sales of the ...

First Loan-July 1960

The first two years saw the continued struggle (scrabble) between part time jobs and production of concrete ...

Quality- Wallingford Market Square

Walking in Wallingford (Oxfordshire) market square I was reminded how privileged we are to live in such a beautiful ...

Remembrance- Halifax 579 51 Squadron

Remembrance Sunday always reminds me of the waste and tragedy of war. I remember my father who returned from the ...

March 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 ...

Stone circles part two

The thought process started when walking the streets of Norwich looking at small gardens and the hundreds of ...

Starry Night

I must have been woken by two hooting tawny owls, one in the old sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden, the ...

Stone 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 ...

First 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 ...

Lenten thoughts

During this special time of the year, I often think of the carpenter dying on the wooden crossbar, and of all ...

Ipsden Woods- Summer 1959

Paving was being manufactured at least three times weekly, this was not enough to keep the lorry fully occupied and ...

Wooden Moulds- Summer 1958

During the summer months I began to improve the speed of manufacture, by developing a wooden tiered pallet ...

My First Concrete Mixer- July 1958

According to my diary I purchased my first concrete mixer from Philips the local builders merchant, now Jewsons of ...

Romanesco

Eating Romanesco broccoli and seeing them on the plate makes you feel better. Research has revealed Romanesco ...

Typical 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 ...

First 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 ...

Thought for January

Just recently I watched Songs of Praise on television and a great, very old gentleman was being interviewed; he was ...

St 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 ...

Fathers WW1 service

My father became an engine room Artificer at the age of eighteen and spent most of his war on the Russian convoys. ...

Be at peace

Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow The same everlasting Father who cares for you today Will take ...

Fathers 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 ...

Early 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 ...

First lorry experiences- June 1958

June 1958 I was not producing enough concrete paving to justify the running costs, so I started selling horse ...

My first lorry- May 1958

May 1958 and I recall my first real problem, delivery? I was receiving orders, from the advertising in the AERE ...

Mrs Beaumonts story- 1890

My fathers aunt was an amazing person who became engaged in England to a mechanical engineer. Soon after the ...

Mrs Beaumont

My grandfather died leaving my grandmother and six children, 5 boys and 1 girl at the at the very young age of 43 ...

The beginning-1958

I started digging sand using a pick axe and a shovel, then manufacturing paving at my parents home in ...

My first advertising 1958

The internal site newspaper at Harwell was called the AERE news, this proved to be a great advertising medium and ...

My first concrete blocks

After leaving school I started a career at UKAEA Harwell training as a reactor engineer. My first attempts ...

Westmorland Planters Idea

We have a fantastic orchard overlooking a water meadow the river Thames and the Sinodun hills,I often sit on one of ...

Why Concrete?

I have often wondered Why concrete, but as Dominic my son reminded me. I was born in a concrete block house mother ...

My 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 ...

The casting tradition

The family tradition for casting products started with the ROGERS FOUNDRY at Henely on Thames- products as diverse ...