The early days of Dick Hampton

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paul.hogan.9066
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #21 by paul.hogan.9066 » Fri Mar 13, 2015 8:53 pm

An excellent company


mash
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #22 by mash » Sat Apr 04, 2015 9:41 pm

hi mary I worked with tommy lamb and his sons on the m5 at Cheltenham and in stoke on trent on the a500 got on well with them from mash


Barfoed
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #23 by Barfoed » Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:54 pm

And the M56 mash. I was a young lad on a tractor and box and you was slasher. Tommy and Mickey gave me the start. That was 73 up at A 56 interchange near Altrincham.


mash
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #24 by mash » Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:17 pm

graham just thinking those were the good old days mash


mash
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #25 by mash » Fri Jul 24, 2015 3:38 pm

to everybody who knows dave southall (sackum) he passed away last week ive known him since I left school we will miss him mash


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mary64
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #26 by mary64 » Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:40 pm

Thank you John, I remember your name well and most of the other names on the list.
Do your remember Tommy Lamb, he must have travelled around with Dick Hampton from site to site. He was an Irishman, lovely man, very generous. His wife was called Madge and he had two sons, I cant remember the name of the eldest but the younger was called Danny. I can remember visiting them in their caravan when works were going on at Rochester Kent back in 1963/4. I don't know if you have seen the photos that I put on this site, they were of the old days of Dick Hamptons. Dad loved his work and although he was only 62 when he died I sometimes think that retirement would have been hard for him because he just loved those old lorries! Lovely to hear from you.


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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #27 by concrete » Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:48 am

Great photos Mary what was the offices like and did you get any others photos


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mary64
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #28 by mary64 » Wed Sep 16, 2015 1:44 pm

No sorry, no more photos but it was quite a large yard for its time with smallish offices and a small office staff. It was a very fast growing company which was able to service a fast growing road network throughout the country. It was a happy place to work, Dad loved his lorries and being able to travel.


philiphales
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #29 by philiphales » Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:08 pm

I first started work for Dick Hampton's on the 27th February, 1967 on the A1 (M) Durham Motorway, following an interview with, I think his name was Dennis Bateman. I started on the same day as another trainee called Maurice Smedley. We had 2 young surveyors as our managers, one was called Philip Butt, who about 25 years ago I contacted who was working for ECC in the South. The other was Mike Mannick. The General Foreman was John Shaddick, later he was moved on and Gordon Elsom replaced him. I think Bryan Wells was a Contract Manager. Maurice and I started out making tea and keeping the office clean and doing chainman duties. We also had to walk the 7 mile length of the job, digging holes at every chainage ready for the topsoil to be ‘dipped’, it was funny because through 2 peat bogs we dug down to the length of the spade as we did not know the difference between topsoil and peat! The Plant Manager was Arthur Toon, who moved at the same time as us to the Morpeth Contract in ’69. The 2 young surveyors moved on and were replaced by Graham Blackburn (who was a good boss) and Malcolm Vest, who was a pain. Maurice and I eventually agreed the Final Account with Cementation before moving on the Morpeth By-Pass, where unfortunately for us Malcolm Vest was our boss for another 18 months. The funniest thing ever was one day Malcolm was on the phone to Ken Rooke the Chief Surveyor (he was always ringing him) and Arthur Toon’s fitter came in and told Malcolm he had an urgent need for the phone. Malcolm told ‘Ginger’ that he would get off the line when he was finished. About 15 minutes later Ginger came into the office and asked Malcolm if he was going to get off the line, Malcolm told him that he would when he was finished. At which point Ginger brought out a large pair of scissors and cut through the phone line. Maurice and I looked at each other, but dared not laugh until Malcolm had left the office for fear of his wrath! Rudi Fischer was the Contracts Manager. Ernie Walker, finished the Durham Motorway and I think was the Agent on Morpeth was Tom Wheatley. For a few weeks before Malcom Vest moved up to Morpeth there was a Quantity Surveyor from Amman Valley in Wales called Roger Price.
From this job I moved to Seaforth Dock in Liverpool, for 6 months over the winter – I think our boss was Dick Cummins, who moved on to Golden Valley. I then moved on to the Potteries ‘D’ road around Stoke-on-Trent. My senior here was Roger Peck, I think the Agent was Ashton Reece, and the Contract Manager was Phil Peters. Jock something was the Plant Manager, who used to play the pipes during his lunch.
From here I went to Telford on the Eastern Central Primary Road, Agent Billy Edwards, from Pembroke. I also had an involvement in a Site Scrape for a new hospital in Dudley.
This concluded in 1973 and I wintered on the Mickleover-By-Pass, where my boss was Joe Carr. There was a colleague called Brendan Byrne, who later moved to Tarmac shortly after I had joined them around 1975. In the early months of 1974 I started working on the M11 near Sawbridgeworth; my boss here was Terry O’Dell and the Agent was Fred Goldsmith. This was the time when Cementation who had taken over Dick Hamptons were in discussions with Seymour Plant, who were only interested in the Plant Yard at Bentley, and wanted out of contracting. I recall Seymour coming to the site in an Anstrom helicopter, I remember this as it was one of the first to loop-the-loop. This was a Tarmac job and I managed to get an interview with Tarmac, who I joined and moved to Cockermouth in late 1974.
People I remember, who I have not mentioned above were:- Barry Gould; Harry Wrath; Basil Gamgee; Bert Parrish; Ray Vest (who was Malcolm’s father and a real gentleman, not like his son. He used to fuel up the vehicles daily); John Penfold; Tommy Lamb; Tommy Bowes; Dick Whittle; Gordon Kite and Furey, who was one of the drivers moving plant from site to site: Another name was Youneedus, but I cannot remember where that came from!
Last edited by philiphales on Mon Mar 08, 2021 6:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.


bigkit
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Re: The early days of Dick Hampton

Post #30 by bigkit » Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:17 pm

Fab with names hats off to you........what about faces???? LOL


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