Like Father, Like Son

by Nick Drew | Wed 22 Jun 2016

Like Father, Like Son

Growing up surrounded by plant and heavy machinery is often the spark that lights the catalyst for so many youngsters who come into the plant game, one of those is Matthew Whitnell son of the well-known Essex based plant man Lionel Whitnell.

We recently visited one of Lionel’s sites near Ipswich to see Matthew and his team at work on a large reservoir job, which keen readers may also recall was also the subject of a feature article in Earthmovers Magazine. One our way across to the job Lionel related a tale about coming home one day to find a young 7 year old Matt sat on board a Kubota KH-31 mini excavator, which he had mounted a topsoil heap with and was proceeding to hay-make it down the garden! It was pretty clear then where the lad’s destiny was going to lie. WP_20160331_13_08_14_Pro

Photo courtesy of Lionel Whitnell: Matthew Whitnell at the controls aged 7. As one might expect Matt, who is 35 years old, has been around the plant and machinery for most of his life, although Lionel said he was never really encouraged to go down the route. Interestingly Matt was a very skilled footballer who showed great potential in the game which could have seen him progress further, but much like his father before, the lure of the machines and the smell of diesel proved too strong.

Since joining the family firm in 1996 as a 16 year old, Matt has come up through the ranks earning his stripes along the way. There is not a single machine on the firm that Matt can’t handle and it’s not only the machines that he is involved with. He now runs and oversees the jobs he is deployed on too, organising the men and machines and all the other daily business that crops up on a busy job site.

Much of the fine trimming and batter work on this job was being done by Matt with his latest mount a brand new Caterpillar D6N LGP.

Pictured below: Matthew (left) and Lionel Whitnell, two of the nicest blokes you will meet in the industry.

Having witnessed the man in action I think it’s safe to that say dozers are this man’s forte, having first sat in one at the age of 18, he is now a master of his craft and real pleasure to watch at work.

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