ID please!

[nepia]

I'm appealing here to any senior members who were operating in Surrey/Kent at the end of the 80s when half the membership weren't born! .

The attached pics were taken in Reigate in 1988 I believe. The timber being milled is the top half of a hurricane damaged Scots Pine, the last known board of which my son recently used to fashion a dining table top for himself.

The pics I've been given by a friend of the tree owner and they will be kept with the table.

 

Now does anyone recognise the guy with the very handy looking portable mill? The vehicle is probably the best clue; it is distinctive.

Sorry but I have no more to go on; the guy could have travelled far for all I know but I'm hoping not and that someone here who was around then may just know him.

 

Thanks in advance. I await the upside down/sideways pics, something that always seems to happen nowadays.

 

Jon

 

Yep, they're sideways. Great.

[openspaceman]

I'm appealing here to any senior members who were operating in Surrey/Kent at the end of the 80s when half the membership weren't born! .

The attached pics were taken in Reigate in 1988 I believe. The timber being milled is the top half of a hurricane damaged Scots Pine, the last known board of which my son recently used to fashion a dining table top for himself.

The pics I've been given by a friend of the tree owner and they will be kept with the table.

 

Now does anyone recognise the guy with the very handy looking portable mill? The vehicle is probably the best clue; it is distinctive.

Sorry but I have no more to go on; the guy could have travelled far for all I know but I'm hoping not and that someone here who was around then may just know him.

 

Thanks in advance. I await the upside down/sideways pics, something that always seems to happen nowadays.

 

Jon

 

Yep, they're sideways. Great.

 

It's an original trekkasaw, I can't be sure about the blokes but I think it is the son-in-law of the chap that took them on from the late Paul Elsey, Atkinson IIRC. He owned the Quarry at Betchworth from which they operated. At the time, or shortly after, the founder of Fuelwood, Richard Slatem, was the marketing manager.

 

Afterward the chap with the Trekkasaw operated out of Ockley, I loaned him my timber tongs and then lost contact.

[nepia]

I had you in mind when I posted! Thanks very much; that's great.

 

As a pointless aside the quarry at Betchworth (presumably the same one) is now an SSSI and hosts 11 species of bat in the kiln tower!

[J The Tree]

Jonathan Hobbs who owned redwood trees in Guildford brought that machine off those guys and killed some timber for me in 94-5

It was powered by an air cooled deutz Diesel engine, quite impressive unit at the time.

The power pack stayed on the trailer or pick up, you then assembled the guide rails around the timber and 2 of you carried the cutting head to the timber and sat it on the rails, jonno hat 60ft of hydraulic hose with it

[openspaceman]

I had you in mind when I posted! Thanks very much; that's great.

 

As a pointless aside the quarry at Betchworth (presumably the same one) is now an SSSI and hosts 11 species of bat in the kiln tower!

 

As another pointless aside or two:

 

There were two trekkasaws operating around Dorking The one you show with the long rails and a shorter one owned by the bloke who owned Biwater and then Denbies vineyard. I assisted with the latter when it was give to its operator before he went back to sea. I had great difficulty in counting the turns on the handles that raised the rails and keeping both of my arms in sync. Also one very cold day John fired up the Ruggerini and we started the mill but the oil was so cold it immediately blew the pump from trying to suck oil, the oil was glittering silver from all the aluminium as the pump disintegrated.

 

Paul Elsey was a clever young man and a very early adopter of CAD.

 

The day I met him I was up an ash tree in a garden beside the road and he stopped and asked me for the stem as he had not tried ash on a new bandsaw he had developed.

[openspaceman]

Jonathan Hobbs

 

The only job I did for him was winching a tree away from the A3100 at St Catherines.

 

I've not heard of him since he went to Oz.

[nepia]

This is brilliant chaps - thanks very much. Even if I never get the name of the mill's owner it's fascinating to see the connections here, there and everywhere.

 

Keep it coming...

[Old Mill Tree Care]

Can't help you at all Jon but did you notice the Austin Allegro in the back ground. The '80s really could be cruel, dishing out cars like that. My dad bought a Maxi. Mega legroom in the back but so ugly you vomited before every journey!

 

 

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[nepia]

You know the colour of a good free range egg yolk Al - that rich and bright yellow? My dad had an Allegro that colour.

[Old Mill Tree Care]

You know the colour of a good free range egg yolk Al - that rich and bright yellow? My dad had an Allegro that colour.

 

 

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