A.S.Fisher and Son: memories of a family business
Part 2: Huntingdon 1967
By Ian Fisher
In 1964 Father passed away aged 56, hard work and illness having taken its toll. He left a thriving business, which I was very determined to continue.
Although most of our work was in Hertfordshire, we did go further afield. The photograph here was taken about 1970 just outside Huntingdon. These were the largest trees we ever felled. As you can see the whole load consists of just the one piece of wood. What the photograph does not show is that the bottom twenty feet has been removed and loaded separately.
Another problem here was the removal of the roots; normally roots were dug around, the main roots cut and the bole winched out. On this occasion it was decided to try another method. Fortunately, the timber haulier had an explosives licence and it was decided to blow the roots out of the ground. It was arranged to carry this out on a Sunday morning. On the Friday previous, I went, with some apprehension, to the Police station to see of there would be any difficulty over this. In the event they said there would be no problem and just to go ahead – not even a form to fill in! As some of the roots were hollow, a great deal of explosive had to be used and the results were pretty spectacular.
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The photograph was given to me by the photographer and there is no other copy. The contractor was indeed Michael Watson; the timber was taken for mining (pit props) and was hauled into Messrs Watts of Finedon – this being the only mill capable of dealing with so large a log.
I own and restore several timber tractors which were used for timber haulage and extraction in the late 1950s until 1980s ,these vehicles worked throughout the home counties and were used extensively to fell and haul the large elm trees similar to the one pictured, one of the tractors is an AEC Matador reg no 774 FBD it was owned and operated by Michael Watson Ltd timber hauliers Loddington nr Kettering Northants he was also an explosive engineer and the job at Huntingdon sounds likely to have involved him .