Andy Jackson's Story: A Lifetime of Holcim Memories
For over three decades, Andy Jackson, quarry operations manager at Holcim UK’s Bardon Hill Quarry, has dedicated his career to making sure everyone enjoys coming to work. Now retired, he looks back fondly at his time working the quarries and is apprehensive, but excited, about what the future holds.
In 1992, Andy joined Croft Quarry as an operator fitter, where he worked for nine years in the asphalt side of the business. He was then involved in shot firing (using explosives to break solid rock) for five years before completing 18 months as a night shift manager.
Discussing his journey, Andy said: “After my time at Croft, I was asked to go and look after a quarry in Derbyshire for two months, but I ended up staying there for two years! Sadly, that quarry closed, which is when I was asked to move to Bardon Hill Quarry.”
Since 2011, Andy has overseen production and staff at Bardon Hill Quarry and made sure the site fulfilled its extraordinary targets.
The day-to-day
Bardon Hill is a hard rock quarry, which means two key areas were under Andy’s control – the crushing of rock and the removal of overburden.
“In order for us to crush 4.2 million tonnes of rock per year at Bardon, we had to remove 1.2 million cubes of overburden – essentially, this is the layer of soil, subsoil, and weathered rock that sits above the bedrock in a quarry,” Andy said. “The two operations work hand-in-hand because you can’t have one without the other.
“That’s the same as the teams I had working for me at the quarry. I had three or four teams operating at Bardon Hill and everything fed into the wider picture. The teams themselves always worked well with one another, which made coming to work a very good experience.”
Andy and his teams at Bardon Hill had a special relationship. Not only did they work well together, but outside of the quarry, they were true friends who would meet up for social events whenever they could.
Reflections on a lifelong career
Andy has plenty of memories from his time working at Holcim that he looks back on fondly. But one of his proudest achievements was creating a culture where people enjoyed coming to work.
“I wanted to make the workplace somewhere people want to come each day,” Andy said. “You hear of people saying they don’t like going to work, but I’ve always wanted people to want to come to Bardon and work for me. I want them to do their job well and safely – that’s what really matters.”
“I think by and large, I’ve been successful with that.”
Over the course of his career, Andy has witnessed significant change, which he puts into two buckets – technology and health and safety.
Andy said: “Technology is moving on constantly in both the construction sector and in every other industry, but the real big change for me personally has been attitudes to health and safety in our job.
“When I joined in the early ‘90s, you’d have a lot of accidents where people would get hurt. Now, we aim for zero harm. This is what we need to keep aiming for, and I’m so pleased to see the significant improvements that have been made to health and safety.”
Another important part of the job for Andy was preserving the history of the quarries he worked at. Between helping with school visits to the site and making sure photos of the quarry throughout the years were displayed around the office, Andy knows the importance of making sure the next generation get excited about the industry.
Andy said: “In 2011, where the new quarry is at Bardon Hill, it was just farmland and there were three farmhouses which had to be demolished. In one of them we found a brick with an 18th century date on it and a bottle behind it.
“Historically, people would put a flower in the bottle while they were building the houses to ward off evil spirits.
“I’ve kept that brick and bottle in my office and want to make sure it stays there as a reminder of the history of Bardon Hill Quarry.”
Andy is also a keen advocate for the natural beauty and areas of scientific interest that are located in and around Bardon Hill.
“A couple of months ago I had geologists from the Geological Society come and visit Bardon,” Andy said. “I have no idea how they found it, but they found a Charnian disc in a piece of rock. It’s a famous, disk-shaped fossil impression from the late Precambrian era.”
“They then went away to do a thesis on it. Everywhere else that it’s been found, the site has become an SSSI. But because they found this in the side of an already broken rock, they were able to take it away for analysis, which they’ve never been able to do before.
“Every day has been a school day!”
Apprehension, excitement and the unknown
Before Andy retired, he was nervous about what life would look like without work.
“You do go through lots of different emotions before retirement,” Andy said. “I already do some volunteering at a hospital on Saturdays, and I’ve just signed up to drive a bus once a week for a hospice charity, so that will give me a bit of structure moving forward because it’s the first time I won’t have worked.”
Despite his apprehension, Andy had an idea of what he might be doing on a daily basis even after he retired.
Andy said: “My children are queuing up with my grandchildren, for me to do the dropping off and picking up at school, so I am sure I’ll be kept very busy!”
“And, of course, my wife has given me a list of jobs to do around the house.”
We will certainly miss Andy’s passion for the people and the work we do at Holcim, but are extremely thankful for the solid foundation he has built at Bardon Hill Quarry, which will allow the next generation to continue the good work and preserve his legacy.
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