Keith Taylor, Assistant Quarry Manager at Wickwar Quarry in South Glos, reported that 33 primary school students and three staff visited the Quarry in July.  The visit went well and helped to strengthen local community links. The aim of this visit was to raise awareness of the lagoons on site and the dangers to anyone entering them.

Keith set them a task of coming up with a logo/badge to be used on the Wickwar Quarry Newsletter. The selected winner is shown here in the picture. The Newsletter covers all of our business on site which includes the Block Works, Readymix Plant, Asphalt Plant, Sales and Quality, as well as Health & Safety. Our aim is to use this logo for a year and then the following year, when we have another visit from them or an alternative school, to come up with something different. It was interesting to see that they included some of the village environment, village clock and school, and they even brought in the logo of the village pub and the history behind it.

After a safety talk the students watched a video regarding fatalities in deep water in Quarries. They then went to the Quarry to learn about what we do and what the stone is used for.  Our Technical Manager, Mark Mitchelmore, explained how the rock was formed many years ago. The children took trips in dumpers so that they could see the loading operations closer at hand, and also watch the crusher break the rock down.

All in all it was a very successful visit involving the local community in what we do.