22
MODERN QUARRYING
January - February 2014
persuaded to support the enterprise. Although the
committee meeting minutes no longer survive, it is
believed that some of the early advertisers asked if
they could also join the Association. Thus, in 1919,
Associates or Trade Members, as they were origi-
nally called, appeared in the register for the first
time.
Turning point
The launch of the journal was a turning point in
the fortunes of the Association. As well as being
supplied to members, it was also widely circulated
throughout the industry, and within a year, mem-
bers had risen to around 150. In 1919, Brigadier-
General Sir Henry Mybury, the influential Director
of Roads at the Ministry of Transport, accepted an
invitation to become the first president – a position
he held until 1931.
On 1 January 1920, the Association of Quarry
Managers changed its name to The Institution of
Quarry Managers, as it was thought to be more
dignified, and the annual subscription was suitably
adjusted from 21 to 30 shillings.
One of the early aims of the Institute was to
promote the professional standing of its members
through the certification of quarry managers. This
aroused great passion at the time and hardly one
issue of the journal went without a letter to the edi-
tor from a quarry manager, expounding the virtues
of the scheme; this was followed by a response the
following month from a proprietor in dispute.
However, despite the great enthusiasm at the
time, and with a subsequent investigation of the
proposal by the Board of Trade, the idea was never
likely to succeed. It must be remembered that in
those early days, the industry in the UK was very
fragmented with over 5 000 quarries, mostly pri-
vately owned, whose total production was some
200-million tpa. It was also successfully argued that
there was no written test of competence available
on which to base the certification. Despite appeals
for the establishment of a system of examinations
for the industry to meet this need, it was to be
another 25 years before the Institute was able to
bring this to fruition.
Through the early pages of the journal, the
Institute took on the question of safety in quarries
as the accident rate was much greater than would
The highlight of the Conference week was the Annual
Banquet, where members indulged themselves by eating,
drinking and speechmaking. It was quite common to have an
eight-course banquet followed by 10 or 12 speeches where
toasts were proposed to all and sundry.
be acceptable today. As well as giving advice on
safety matters in its regular ‘Safety First’ page, the
journal also recorded accounts of some extraordi-
nary accidents.
None more so than the fate that befell James
Else of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, who was working
on a narrow bench in a limestone quarry, when a
charge of gelignite exploded prematurely blow-
ing a ramrod through his neck. Else was pinned
to the face by the steel ramrod which was about
10’ in length, and before he could be taken to hos-
pital, the bar had to be cut through by a hacksaw
close fo the flesh at the front and back of his neck.
Amazingly he survived, and the next issue of the
journal reported that he had recovered sufficiently
well to be able to walk about the grounds of the
local hospital.
The Institute’s first conference was held in
London at the Olympia Conference and Exhibition
Centre in 1921, in conjunction with the Building
Trades Exhibition. Five papers were presented by
eminent lecturers including three professors, on
subjects including: ‘crushing and sifting’; ‘industrial
accidents’; and ‘some geological characteristics of
roadstone’. The programme also included a visit to
the National Physical Laboratory to ‘witness a dem-
onstration of apparatus for testing the properties
of stone used in the construction of roads and the
endurance of asphaltic carpets’.
The conferences grew in popularity as mem-
bership steadily increased and the pattern of mov-
ing to different venues around Great Britan was
established. In 1924, women were admitted for
the first time.
Conferences were relaxed affairs in the 1920s
with activities spread over five days from Monday
to Friday. The programme was a mixture of tech-
nical and social events with the emphasis firmly
placed on social aspects. As well as numerious
dinners and visits to quarries, factories and places
of general interest, there were golfing, tennis and
bowls competitions. Also popular, were the cricket
matches between the Members and the Trade
Members. Variety concerts of music and drama
were also provided in the evening by members for
the benefit of their colleagues.
In 1926 at the Llandrindod Wells conference,
another innovation was introduced to the pro-
gramme. This was a plant exhibition held in a
field near the hotel, with drilling demonstrations
in a local quarry. Prominent among the exhibi-
tors were well-known companies such as Ruston
and Hornsby, Shell-Mex, Ingersoll-Rand, Hadfields,
Nobel’s Explosives and Frederick Parker. Much
interest was also expressed in the exhibit of Samuel
Pegg and Sons who were demonstrating a crusher,
the stone from which was then made into tar-
macadam by Messrs Stothert and Pitt.
INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE FOCUS
