Description:
Lorries lined up for loading at Hoveringham Gravels.
'In 1939 gravel extraction from alongside the river Trent was begun by Hoveringham Gravel Limited. Soon they found that their operations were periodically halted by the discovery of the tusks and teeth of mammoths which had to be recorded by palaeontologists before digging could continue. Many of these remains are now in the Natural History Museum at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham. Perhaps as compensation for this disruption in production the company adopted the mammoth as its 'logo' and for many years its lorries with their mammoth symbols were a familiar sight in the district. The company had its headquarters near the village of Hoveringham in a building opened by Lord (R.A.B.) Butler, then Master of Trinity College, Cambridge who owned the land being used. They also commissioned the mammoth sculpture by Kim James and from 1966 this stood at Hoveringham. In 1982 the Quarry Products Division of Tarmac took over the extraction of gravel and the administration building at Hoveringham was no longer used.'
Information extracted from http://www.phizzie.com/portfoilio/hoveringham/Hoveringham%20Quarry.htm which has some excellent pictures of the old quarry. See also http://www.ontrent.org.uk/files/uploaded/Hoveringham.pdf for some fascinating comparison pictures by University of Sheffield and English Heritage of the Pit in its heyday and prior to the site closing down a few years ago.