Memory of the month the way things were (Part Five)

Continuing with our series featuring memories from retired plant man William (Bill) Peters as he recalls his time on the Plymstock/Pomphlett Gas works site, featuring archive period photos from various sources.

At this site there was a pinnacle of solid rock, on one side the old vertical quarry face and the other side very steep and covered in trees etc. obviously they had found it too dangerous to blast it in the past as it was very close to and faced the main road so had been left.  I was asked if I could clean off the trees and bushes but it was a really dangerous task but I gave it a go, it was far too steep to go across sideways so the only way was up, as I was pushing up it was impossible see anything but bonnet, growth and sky when suddenly all the material just fell away into space and I was right on the edge, so I dropped back and decided that this was a step too far and retreat was better than valour. I must admit the adrenalin was pumping a bit, I believe that it may have been removed years later when large swing shovels were available.

Later on I was directed to clear a large area near the entrance to the site and had been at it for a few hours when I noticed a piece of metal that looked suspiciously like a bomb about four feet long and a foot across pointed at one end and blunt at the other but no fins.  I could see the blade had scraped over it and there was a shiny gouge where the track cleat had come down diagonally across it, well I figured that it hadn’t gone off with that amount bashing it probably wasn’t going to, so I pushed it out to the edge of site road, then went in to the site office, told them about it, but it didn’t seem to register and they didn’t bother to even come and look at it so I carried on working.

Next day I carried on and in the afternoon I uncovered another one the same as the first, but it had sustained no damage so I pushed it out beside the first one and again went to the office and reported it with the same result, by this time I was beginning to doubt I was right but finished the job and returned to the top of the quarry. Another day passed then the following day I’m ripping away when about eleven o’clock I spy a whole row of blue lights coming down the road, a police car followed by a bomb disposal Land Rover then two Bedford army lorries another Land Rover plus another police car, the penny had dropped and I’m vindicated.

They spent a while inspecting the objects and the next problem was that they were too heavy to lift, so a Cat 955 was used to put one into each lorry then away to Plymouth Sound to blow them up.  There was nothing in the paper about it, nowadays they seem shut everything down even for a small incendiary, the emergency services make a mountain out of a molehill these days I presume they are afraid of being sued.

I then had a two week holiday and on returning I spot a crack in the back of the blade running from one bottom corner right across the back to the top corner the other side and the two halves were really moving.  The previous driver (I won’t give him the credit of the name operator) had obviously been repeatedly straining the blade on one corner, much welding was required to fix it, I don’t know why some fellas have to beat up older machines.

One day I’m ripping away when suddenly everything went very smooth, lifting the ripper I can see the shank had broken in half, I guess the metal had just had enough and gave up.  Ringing the yard I spoke to Fred White, father of Horace and Les, I explained what had happened and he said he would bring down another, a couple of hours later he arrived with it hanging out of the boot of his big green Mercedes car with bonnet pointing at the sky, how the cops didn’t pull him over goodness knows as it weighed about half a ton and the car was almost dragging the road. There will be a third instalment from this site next month. The Co-Operator