Old snaps from Cantley Sugar Factory c late 60's early 70's

[ChinaTom]

appropriate reg unless it is a 1500

during a flood

Don't think these vessels sail along here anymore - the last big one was the Blackheath that delivered oil to the site. That's no longer the case, so just tourists now. I used to love watching the Blackheath turn round from my office window - real precision navigation.

 

old mobile cranes coming in a mo.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

HBJ130D is indeed a 1300, and it's long, long dead.One day someone will post up a pic like this, and the old crock in the pics will still be taxed!

[ChinaTom]

 

here are some cranes - I am guessing these yellow and green ones became Quinto.

 

[dollywobbler]

Fantastic. Love the multi-coloured Victor! (and the big cranes obviously)

[michiel]

Nice! Have to fetch a cloth now, Triumph 1300s make me drool.

[Spottedlaurel]

Lovely pic's CT, thanks for posting them. Great to see all those local VG, NG, BJ etc registrations.The firm of Engineers I work for have done a few things at Cantley over the years, though I've never been involved with any of them.

[ChinaTom]

Simon Westaway is the only A'b based company I can recall from my Cantley days. I was only there for a few years in the late-90's though.There are volumes of these photos - but most of them are of plant and machinery. I daren't remove them from the plastic as they will probably rip to pieces. I rescued them from the site during a purge of archives for an office refurb. They were all consigned to the skip so I loaded up my boot one evening. Also rescued loads of lovely old engineering desks and drawing chests. They are mostly scattered around the UK now donated to friends and worthy causes. Remember delivering one old chest in a Fiat Ulysse to Shrewsbury School. I reckon at least £5k worth of useable kit got trashed - tragedy.

[Electric Leyland]

 

Driving tractors and shovelling slag.

 

Wearing suits.

 

Standards were high back then.

[Spottedlaurel]

HBJ130D is indeed a 1300, and it's long, long dead.One day someone will post up a pic like this, and the old crock in the pics will still be taxed!

The closest I’ve ever come to this is with a Wolseley Farina that’s in a family photograph that must be 28 years old, and DVLA say it’s on a recently renewed SORN. Suggests that it’s been on the road since 1998 and that someone is still looking after it – amazing that it’s evaded the oval track for all this time.CT, the work I’m aware of that we’ve done there is in the last 10 years or so, and even then it’s possible we’d have done it through contractors. Simon Westaway lives nextdoor to our offices...W F Pointer & Sons were contractors, not just crane hire (assuming that it’s not another Pointer company). Quick hunt on Google suggests they went under in 1993.

[ChinaTom]

 

It was just the colour scheme that made me think of Quinto.

[Albert Ross]

I have the remains of a windscreen parking sticker in my Land Rover that used to belong to British Sugar. On the red base of the sticker it is overprinted with "Cantley" suggesting it worked there at some point. It is still in the livery it wore at Ipswich, where I liberated it from.PEB 861J, it used to be grey, any pictures of this in your collection?

[trigger]

Quinto cranes are always at Felxistowe docks where i work, Only last week i was watching one being used to put a new driver's seat up one of the rubber tyred gantry cranes i drive.

[ChinaTom]

I have the remains of a windscreen parking sticker in my Land Rover that used to belong to British Sugar. On the red base of the sticker it is overprinted with "Cantley" suggesting it worked there at some point. It is still in the livery it wore at Ipswich, where I liberated it from.PEB 861J, it used to be grey, any pictures of this in your collection?

DCL444D is a grey one on one of the photos - I expect this was a factory car. I recall there being one old LR still at the site when I was there - the silo foreman used to use it to drive to the weighbridge and back (lazy bugger - only a few minutes walk). This was a red one - a pick-up I think. The Ag boys used to have them to tour the beet areas - most of these were sold off to sons of factory workers for a few quid - yours may be one of these. In those days BS had a lot more sites - the Eastern area of England (agriculturally speaking) alone had:Wissington (still there)Cantley (still there)King's Lynn (long gone)Ely (long gone)Felsted (long gone)Bury St Edmunds (still there)Ipswich (recently gone)Spalding (long gone)Peterborough (factory long gone)Brigg (long gone)Bardney (long gone)Newark (still there)York (recently gone)Selby (long gone)When a site closed, the vehicles either moved to nearby sites, or were sold off. The registration of yours may give a clue as to its history - EB is an old Peterborough reg and this became the HQ for BS in the 70's. My guess is that this was a factory vehicle, not the HQ offices, and moved around the area after Peterborough factory closed in the late 80's. However, the HQ may have purchased the vehicle in P'boro and allocated it to any of the nearby sites. My guess is King's Lynn as Cantley received a lot of KL kit when it shut. Cantley was obviously the last site it worked at. Most archive records are now binned, and most employees who can remember are deceased. Any other clues in the car? If there are any BS logos, this will help.Edit: Hmm, your LR maybe too old to be a centrally purchased P'boro car - it is more likely to be a Peterborough factory or Spalding factory vehicle which was then transferred around the company, probably via King's Lynn finally arriving at Cantley, then you. However, the centralization exercise in the 70's more or less coincides with a J reg. Do you recall the previous owner?

[Albert Ross]

I bought it from an Ebay user called boblee01, and the previous registered keeper is BS.........It has been through a Land Rover repair place called RST Motors in West Mersea, it also has IP37 painted on the inside of the drivers door, and another fleet number roughly painted on the bulkhead. The interior has stayed grey, except the pick up bit..........chassis was completely buggered, bent, split, and bottoms of main rails missing............Now sporting a brand new galvanised jobbie at great expense to me, but it still looks bollocksed outside!I bought it sans documents or chassis plate.............I felt very worried until the paperwork showed up. It was stored in a shed at Sproughton Road from 1999 to 2003, sold at tender to this guy I bought it off, who was going to use the engine in a S3.........deemed it too rare to break, and I paid £400 for it.........I t needed a fresh battery and fuel and it started. Has been in daily use now for 12 months.

[scruff]

Put a pic up Jim mate, it looks brill