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CEMENTING OUR INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Article from The Tring and District Local History and Museum Society Newsletter No 154 January 2023.

CEMENTING OUR INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Pitstone Cement Works was a major employer for Tring until its closure in 1991 and its tall chimneys were iconic landmarks visible from high viewpoints in Tring Park and elsewhere. In this article, Clayton Hirst tells the history of this significant local industry, sharing memories from those who lived nearby or worked there.

On a drizzly Boxing Day morning in 1999, thousands of people gathered in the village of Pitstone on the edge of the Chiltern hills. There was an air of anticipation as an Anglia TV news crew darted around interviewing locals, while celebrities – including the actor Geoffrey Palmer – mingled with the crowd.

At 11am there was a loud explosion as Lynn Wilson, Chairperson of house builder Wilson Connolly, pressed a large red plunger, bringing down the first of four 300 ft chimneys in a cloud of dust. With a fifth chimney demolished months later, this closed an extraordinary 60- year chapter of this Buckinghamshire village’s history.

Pitstone Cement Works opened in 1937, with cement packed and delivered to its first customer - Marley Tiles of Leighton Buzzard - in November of that year. Operated by Tunnel Cement, the site was chosen thanks to the abundance of high- quality chalk that was extracted in three local quarries over the decades.

Pitstone Cement Works Photo; Copyright Des Blenkinsopp

The cement works, three miles north of Tring, became the largest in the UK, growing five times in size. It profited from the post-war building boom by supplying cement to projects of national importance like Heathrow Airport. While its chimneys were incongruous to the backdrop of the Iron Age hill fort of Ivinghoe Beacon and the nearby 17 th Century Pitstone Windmill, the works became central to the Pitstone community and Tring, where many workers lived.

Barry Gregory worked at the plant, with his wife, brothers, brothers-in-law, his nephew, uncles and cousins. “It was more like a family than a workplace,” he says. “We all looked after our workmates and friends. It was a lifeline to many in the local area.”

Dave Allen worked at the plant for nearly 30 years until its closure in 1991. His widow, Mary, recalls: “Dave was in poor health for six weeks in 1976. On payday someone would knock on the door with a big wad of money that the men had collected, to make sure the family could manage while Dave was not able to work.”

The works became a social focus for the community, with its own football team, dance nights and Friday night social. Darts were particularly popular in the 1980s, with star players such as Eric Bristow, John Lowe, Alan Glazier and Jockey Wilson visiting Pitstone. “Dave and our son, Paul, played darts against them all,” says Mary. “When Paul was 14 he won a match against Jockey Wilson!”

Having a large cement works on the doorstep had downsides; locals complained about cement dust – reportedly the size of snowflakes – falling on Pitstone. Checking the direction of the wind became a daily ritual for locals, especially in the summer when washing was on the line.

Pete Ginda grew up in Pitstone and recalls the day his neighbor, Geoff, proudly arrived in his street to show off his brand new Mini. After parking it a few hours, “to his dismay it turned from bright red to a dusty pink”, he says. Pete also remembers showing the works lit up at night to his children as he drove around Ivinghoe Beacon: “I told them that it was

Father Christmas’ workshop and the elves were busy building toys for all the well-behaved children. It worked for years and made me smile. Happy days.”

During the 1960s and early 1970s production increased as demand for cement grew. To increase capacity, Tunnel Cement constructed a fifth kiln at Pitstone, producing 300,000 tonnes of cement a year, three times the volume of the original kiln. Sales peaked in 1973 but the recessions of the mid-1970s and the early 1980s hit the works hard.

In his annual review for 1982, Tunnel Cement Managing Director Leslie Hewitt wrote of the “seriously depressed state of the construction industry” and “the very real threat of imports”. In that year Tunnel Cement was acquired by the mining group Rio Tinto and the company was later renamed Castle Cement.

It was the economic recession of the next decade that delivered the final blow to the works. In 1990, 250 workers were made redundant with a further 300 the following year when the plant closed its gates for the last time.

Today, there are only a few clues in the landscape to the area’s extraordinary industrial past. After its demolition the works site was turned into housing, home to the Castlemead Estate, with each street named after a famous castle, a nod to the former cement company. On Westfield Road you can find the original works office. Built in 1937 and fittingly made from reinforced concrete, the elegant building is Grade II-listed.

The oldest chalk quarry, off Upper Icknield Way just outside Tring, has been transformed into the College Lake, a 65-hectare nature reserve. Home to 1,000 wildlife species, the wetland was the vision of Graham Atkins, a Castle Cement lorry driver who campaigned for its creation.

Around the lake you’ll find reminders of its history including a giant chalk cutting machine head, half-buried in the ground. The second quarry was subject to a lengthy planning battle centered on proposals to turn it into a landfill site. The landfill plans were eventually rejected and the quarry was turned back to nature.

Today, sheep graze on the land which has a few small clues to its past – such as an ivy- covered concrete box containing an iron valve, hidden on a corner of the site, still bearing the emergency phone number for Castle Cement.

Emergency contact details. Photo; Clayton Hurst

The third quarry is still in use but in late 2022 the site operator announced plans to turn the site into recreational facility, with a planning application due in the New Year.

The cycle of industry and nature keeps turning; the natural environment is gradually reclaiming the land once scarred by quarrying and cement production. While most of the infrastructure has been demolished, and the dust from those five giant chimneys has long blown away, the imprint on the local communities still endures today.

By Clayton Hirst

Erratum

The article incorrectly stated the order in which the quarries were opened.
Quarry One was on the land south-east of the works, through which Westfield Road now runs.
Quarry Two was on the opposite side of the Icknield Way, where Clark Contracting is engaged in extracting chalk.
Quarry Three is on the land that became College Lake.

An extended version of this article by Claton Hirst can be found here:

https://medium.com/@clayton.hirst/how-a-towering-industrial-plant-in-the-chilterns-cemented-an-unlikely-community-bond-4e277cf3b652

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