Presentation of Long Service Medals.

The Quarry Managers' Journal -July 1936

Chief Clerk with 65 Years Service and an Engineer with 63 Years

M

In presenting the medals, Mr. Turner said:-

In conjunction with the Institute of Quarrying, The Quarry Managers' Journal present a gold medal to any man who has worked for not less than 60 years in the quarrying industry.

This firm has two such men who commenced their careers here respectively in the years 1871 and 1873.

They have served under four generations of the Turner family and have witnessed the amazing progress of the firm in every direction.

The quarries at Anston had become famous by reason of half a million cubic feet of stone having been sent to London for the erection of the Houses of Parliament. The great-grandfather of the youngest Director of the present Board became tenant of a small quarry adjoining the Parliament Quarries and his successors eventually purchased the freehold of the remaining unworked mineral.

In the year 1868 a field near Kiveton Park Station was rented from the Duke of Leeds and a tunnel made under the highway to secure a railway connection with the then Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. This site became the Headquarters of the Firm and so remains. Here stone-quarrying, lime-burning, stone working and corn grinding have been carried on for 68 years. It is the registered office of the parent firm and of other subsidiary companies.

The two employees who today receive a gold medal each have been associated with every stage of progress.

Mr. Robertshaw, as the chief Clerk, has been responsible for keeping the books correctly. He was in charge before the type-writer and the calculating machine were thought of. In his heart he has no room for either. His copperplate penmanship has been broadcast all over the district for over 60 years. There is never any trouble about deciphering, either for the addressee or the postman.

Mr Burgess has had many engineering problems to solve. His work commnenced in the days of the hand-crane and horse-drawn transport. He was however one of the pioneers in the management and repair of mechanical transport. Sixty three years ago the countryside was terrified by the appearance of a ponderous traction engine. A man carrying a red flag was required to walk in front of it to warn people that wagons not drawn by horses were following. Such a herald in these times would appear to be more necessary than in the days of the traction engine which struck such terror to the heart of the countryside.

The development in one man's lifetime from stone drugs drawn by teams of horses to pneumatic tyred internal combustion vehicles is a veritable romance.

I have very great pleasure in handing to Mr. Robertshaw, who is 80 years old today this gold medal, upon which is inscribed:-

"Presented to Thomas Robertshaw of Anston in commemoration of 65 years' service in the Kiveton Park Quarry of Messrs. Jas. Turner & son Ltd."

To Mr. burgess a similar trophy was presented with the inscription:-

"Presented to John Burgess of Kiveton Park in commemoration of 63 years' service in the Kiveton Park Quarry of Messrs. Jas. Turner & Son Ltd."

This presentation was made by Alderman P.J.M. Turner who said it afforded him an equal pleasure.

Alderman Turner said he thought M Burgess had special cause for gratification in that both his son and his grandson were carrying on the work which he began 63 years ago. They had followed him in the engineering shops of the firm and were now in full charge.

He rejoiced in the happy relationship that existed all around between the management and the men.

So far as the two were concerned, who today were being honoured, their uprightness and diligence were their outstanding characteristics. Throughout their long lives one common interest had always predominated. There was never a question of masters and men. The prosperity of the Firm always came first in their thought and endeavour.

He told of an incident in a Sheffield Corporation Committee Room during his year of office as Lord Mayor. One of the councillors said that years ago, when he was a porter at Kiveton Park Station he had learned to write by copying Mr. Robertshaw's signature from his consignment notes.

He considered it a great privelege to take part in such an event.

Alderman G.H.M. Turner, J.P. hoped that the happy relationship existing between the firm and its workmen would continue.

As manager of the Worksop Sand Quarries he trusted that the men in that branch of the industry would take example from Kiveton Park and in due course be entitled to the same recognition. He had his foremen with him who had never worked anywhere else for thirty years and had no intention of doing.

Mr. Burgess acknowledged the gift and said the medal would remind him for the rest of his life of the happy time he had had whilst working for Jas. Turner & Son Ltd. It had always been his privilege to hold his own opinion and to discuss with management any point of difference that arose. He looked back at his relationship with four generations of employers and was truly thankful for the friendship that had existed with each in their turn.

He had been thinking that afternoon that if ever there should be a Roll of Honour of firms that had treated their workmen with the greatest respect and trust then the name of Jas. Turner & Son Ltd. would surely head the list.

He also remarked upon the fact that so many workmen of the Firm had grown up with the Company from boyhood, a state of affairs that must only exist in very few cases.