A Pheasant estate, bureaucratic madness and shoddy construction of Milton Keynes

In 1955, Bill Clark takes up work at the three farms forming part of the Malborough estate in Oxfordshire. Tales of pheasants and potato picking incidents. Moving on to work for a contractor he experiences some of the insanity of army bureaucracy only to also see the dirtier side of constructing the M1 and building Milton Keynes.

Clearing the land with the Drott during M1 and Milton Keynes construction 

Extracts of readings from Bill Clark's autobiography, Route and Branch chapter 5. This is a longer reading of about 30 minutes and covers a range of experiences. Some examples here:

...A few days later, a tall, quietly spoken, elderly man in green tweeds accosted me as I repaired a dry-stone wall. ‘Good afternoon young man, I must say you are making as good a fist of that wall as I have seen for many a day, the Duke will be well pleased when he next passes: but then a fellow that can shoot a pigeon through the eye at two hundred and twenty paces, should probably make a good job of most things, hey?’ He then introduced himself as the Head Keeper, continuing, ‘If you ever want to come and beat for us on a Saturday shoot, you will be most welcome, and I’ll see that you get a couple of pheasants too. He then pointed to a corner in the Park – where stone had been quarried. ‘There’s a large rabbit warren down there, making it safe for rifle shooting, feel free to get one whenever you want.’ And after shaking my hand, he walked on....

...My work was to be mostly with civil engineering machinery this time, much of it subcontracting to build Britain's first motorway, the M1. I wasn’t the only one excited by the chance of big money: businesses, both large and small, were sinking large sums into new machinery and fleets of lorries in readiness for this bonanza. Mr T had bought a stone quarry near Lower Heyford – it had not been in use for many years but still had planning permission – and he was pleased at the low price he had paid. Once the large stone crusher arrived from the ‘Parker’ factory, I could make a start on getting a few hundred tons stock-piled in readiness. In the meantime, the very latest model ‘Drott Skid Shovel’ – designated the ‘Four in One’ – had been delivered, so I was contracted out to a demolition firm at Bicester Army Camp. This job proved ‘memorable’ right from the moment I arrived. First I was held up whilst the sentries removed the smashed crossing gate which an army steam train had just run through, then, on finding heaps of new ventilator cowls, from 100 mm to 300 mm in the first building I was to demolish, I walked over to investigate the neighbouring – large dormitory with shower block – and found three workmen inside painting. It transpired that they had signed a contract with the army to redecorate all but the first building, prior to Ministry officials deciding to demolish them instead – the army was not in the habit of giving money away, so a sergeant regularly inspected their work, making sure it was up to standard!...

...I did get to work on some M1 verges, but most of my work was in association: such as pushing surplus soil from cuttings into land-fill, and opening up a new gravel pit. Once it was seen just what I could do with the Drott, I was more involved with groundwork for new factories, and housing estates, including some of the first for the new town of Milton Keynes. In all those environments I saw sloppy work being done – I was present at the fiasco, when fabricated beams, meant to carry the M1, fell to the ground as they were being lowered into place: the buttresses had been built too far apart!...

The full reading is available in the podcast at: 
https://archive.org/download/pheasants-Army-madness-Milton-Keynes/Ch5-Oxfordshire-poached-pheasants-Buckinghamshire-contracting.mp3