Neville John William Day 7 March 1922 - 26 November 1990

	Preface		Dad and the Cranes
	Neville Day The early years		Dad and his duty to the Crown. Including the one on the can!
	Dad's Dad's Army		Dad’s driving lessons (and some)
	Help from Neville’s Father John Day		Dad and the Mercedes G Wagon
	The Day I met Day		Dad, four tonnes of concrete and the gravel tsunami
	Dad and the Coronation		Norfolk is flat (not!)
	Neville Day’s admirable tutoring		No pheasant in here Charles
	Dad promotes me to Chauffeur		You can drive when you're eighty!
	Dad and THE holiday		Dad and the North Sea Gas pipeline
	Dad’s pigs and the Onion Dance		Dad's Butt pricking
	Dad and me and the Farm Fire		Dad’s idyllic office and the end of Neville Day Plant Hire Ltd
	Fluffy dog meets Steam Engine (fluffy no more)		Dad’s little known speech impediment
	Helping Dad with the pruning and tree felling		Dad and the not a Volkswagen
	Neville Day The early years and the final hour		Dad’s wheelies
	Dad and Fairstead		Dad would have laughed!

Dad and the North Sea Gas Pipeline

One day in the late 60s a large 12 wheel low loader arrived in the yard. It had travelled all the way from Berlin in West Germany. Onboard was a brand new and enormous red and white tracked excavator, made by a company called O & K (Orenstein & Koppel).

Dad smiled. Mother didn't.

"Who is that for?" Asks Mother. Nervously.

"Us." Replied Dad in his usual eloquent, yet succinct and unambiguous style.

I will spare dear readers the body of the somewhat strained conversation that followed but suffice to say it ended in two further questions.

"What did it cost?"

And

"Why did you buy it?

Answer to the first above was £17,500. About £325,000 in today's money and the price of a typical house in the UK.

Answer to the second question was. "Dunno really. I always wanted one. I suppose we'll find a use for it."

This reply was of course a little mischievous. One might almost say facetious.

What no one knew, not even family, was that Dad had landed a contract to be part of a team of around a dozen ' Subbies', that is sub-contractors, laying a 36" diameter steel natural gas pipeline from the north east Norfolk coastal village of Bacton then all the way to Rugby in the Midlands. A trench, sometimes up to five metres deep, across a distance of one hundred and forty miles. Along with of course the occasional river crossing and groundworks for construction of overpasses. A formidable project of national importance.

Just a few months later Neville Day Plant Hire Ltd had purchased another similar machine. Together the two machines worth two thirds of a million Pounds in today's money.

Not bad going for a man who only half a dozen or so years prior, with a near rusted through Ford Consul and only a sad little grey Fergie was stepping out his onion plot on a close to bankrupt rented and no longer viable Fenland smallholding.

Lots of tales to tell about those exciting days and enough to fill another little book. If ever I can get a Round Tuit. As Dad used to say.

Neville Day Plant Hire Ltd used to busy itself with much smaller projects too. Often for no charge when he thought the need was great enough and the recipients impoverished. Sleeping Policemen at Brancaster Staithe Harbour

Chris Latham-Smith 2022.

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