Dick Hampton

[Neversweat]

Does anything exist of their old yard or is it now built on like everything else ?

Steve

[Martyn Henley]

I found these links about Dick Hampton and their demise and motorway contruction in general
http://www.iht.org/motorway/m74glascarl.htm

On the Hamilton By-Pass Stage II a serious problem developed associated with the Earthworks and Bulk filling. There was one large embankment over very bad ground and the filling was specified as being Red Shale. The muckshifting sub-contractor was Dick Hampton who bought a local Colliery Shale Bing in Bothwell, about 1 mile from the site. This wasn't well burnt shale, probably due to the tip being doused during the war. This was not accepted and he was forced to buy Red Spent Shale from the West Lothian area. This is a processed material and very good but was at least 25 miles from the M74 and the financial impact eventually forced Dick Hampton to sell out to Cementation.

And the M5
http://www.iht.org/motorway/m5brisbirm.htm

The earthmoving was sub-let by Tarmac Civil Engineering Ltd (now Carrilion Construction), to Dick Hampton (Earthmoving) Ltd., and at the peak of their task they employed 48 No. rubber-tyred and tractor-drawn scrapers on the site.

Martyn

[tim]

Does anything exist of their old yard or is it now built on like everything else ?

Steve

It is an industrial estate Steve with a few units on,I go down by there occasionally but it never looks very busy. Tim

[charlie one]

Charlie,do you remember Mick Weale,known as "Muppet"when later he worked
for MJ Rolls,a couple a pictures might remind you of him when he operated a D9
and 637 scraper

Hi Roly.Yes the face and figure look familiar.However we didn't spend too much tim on site as Dick expected you to earn your coin.Sat in the odd cafe waiting for police escorts.I got to know the odd one or two over the years like Pat White who was the best dragline man I ever met.Tommy Lamb from Romsey and his boys and the Tipping family from I think Hereford.All a great craic.Regards Charlie

[Gordon 2]

One thing i did know, was that Hamptons sold out to cementation. I am only in my forties but i worked for and with 3 or four men that worked for Dick. His old yard still has some of the original buildings at Blacknest.. He started his business from a garage in a small village in Surrey called Newdigate. He used to own as good as 100 D8 tractors at one time. He had 8 welders and they also ran the trackshop, yes they had their own trackpress. He moved out to somewhere like Geneva after he sold to Cementation and was not short of a few bob. He used to come back and visit his men that had worked for him for a long while. He was upset and disolusioned by the way that Cementation ran the business gradually assett stripping it until sometime in the seventies when the company was discontinued. I knew a welder called Don who told me that after one christmas break the lads from the yard came back to find crawler track marks in the snow all over the fields, fencing and tress smashed over .... it transpired that Dick and his mrs got drunk and chalenged each other to a race...using two D8's !!!!!
On a sad note Don told me that as Dick got older that he visited the UK less and less, after what seemed a very long time, maybe even years Dick arrived at the yard one day and had a good old yarn with the lads asking where some of his old lads were working he apparently travelled around to talk to as many of his friends and workers as he could, he flew back to Geneva on the sunday.
Some time on the Monday the workforce were told that Dick had died peacefuly in his sleep....

[Gordon 2]

OH CHARLIE.....where's those pics mate ??

[conway]

Gorden2,I was working in South Wales as a commercial trainee with George Wimpey, it was the summer of 1972 on the weekends,i would drive over to the laing section of the m5 motorway between clevedon and western super mare and drive wagons for my dad Bill conway who had the contract to shift crushed rock and dry lean ,left over from a huge rockshift by blackwells.He knew Dick and Chris Blackwell,Mickey pIerce,all of of whom worked on the the first 4 sections of the m1 built by Laings.My dad was a avid reader of the constuction news and he pointed out a article on Dick Hampton,It read Mr muckshifter dead at 42.How sad,tough game ,muckshifting.

[Gordon 2]

Colin, i have heard stories about all of the large muckshifters. I would never have thought Dick Hampton was only 42 tho' ?? I am suprised.
Regards Gordon.

[martind29]

i must have been a real ace driver. on the m11 i was promoted from a 631b to a 22a with a pusher plate and a set of rollers after upsetting alex skepper. i was made to look a right prat push loading c j pryors 68a's and box's. by the time i had changed gear, yhey were pulling out of the cut. happy days.

[Steve Q]

As a kid of 16years I used to drive old scab tippers and occasionally a Case 1000 tracked shovel ( on site of course) for a feller called Rodney Foster (affectionately known as Catweazle) in Farnborough Hants. At this time the M3 was under construction and the Hawley to Lightwater stretch was built by Farr's and the muckshift was by Dick Hampton. I used to watch the plant movements in utter amazement and would have done anything to have got a job driving one of the many AEC Barfords that used to charge up and down the haul road ( I think he had a couple of old Euclids there as well). Many years later, I worked for Alfred McAlpine (amongst others) driving Cat 350's and 400's and well remember the novelty of playing with "big boy's toys " soon wearing off, having spent 12 to 16 hours a day in the cab, even got to spend some time on a dozer (nothing creative, just pushing in the borrow pit). But for all the long hours and hard work I got to know a lot of interesting characters along the way and the fascination for heavy plant and machinery still exists. This is a great forum for nostalgia and some good pics and memories.