FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Chapter 2 A Change of Guard

Jim Murphy on our first roller. This is the earliest picture I have of the company’s working plant, which shows the company name and address, and which proudly displays the new Conway Green!

(sixteen tonners in those days) and were usually waiting for us when we arrived. We got to know the drivers very well, and they were nice blokes. They did the hundred-mile drive every morning; then they would climb out, and brew up the tea ready for when the gang arrived. It was a friendly atmosphere, although the constant pressure of the work did cause some tense moments. Gus Smith, who usually drove the Drott, had been roped in to work with the gang on the laying. He recalls how, on the few occasions when the drivers from Frome were running late, Jim Murphy was sent to phone Foster Yeoman to find out when the lorries were due. ‘But if the load was coming late,’ Gus

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