by Anne Hayes - Hills Group

A Drott excavator being lowered into the tunnelbeneath Swindon Station in the 1960s.Driver Cyril Hares has vivid memories of operatingthis machine as trains thundered by overheadBackground picture shows mobile craneat work erecting a steel framed buildingin Regent Circus, Swindon, in the 1960sHills driver George Sangerand the 1938 Bedford lorryhe drove for many yearsPhoto lent by his son,Brian Sanger of ChiseldonCyril Hares clearing a site at Moredon,Swindon, ready for new housing, 1963An early brickdelivery vehiclefrom the 1920s.This four-wheeldrive lorry hada mechanisedcontainer for tippingits entire loadThis period saw the birth of Hills Tyre Services Ltd(Tyresoles), which supplied reconditioned tyres for the fleetand customers. Another associated company, VaculugSouthern Services Ltd, provided retreaded tractor tyres.Richard Hill was the leading force behind these twosuccessful subsidiaries.In 1960 some of Hills vehicles were fitted with two-wayradio by Mervyn, a radio enthusiast from his youth. Theinstallation was ahead of its time but could create havoc asGrahame noted in his diary: “Radio communicationscausing chaos in front office”.When the concept of ready-mixedconcrete burst on the building scenein the 1960s, Hills became involvedand subsidiaries were formed –Mixconcrete Swindon, MixconcreteNewbury, Mixconcrete Devizes andMixconcrete Bristol.A feature of the years immediately after1945 was the employment by Hills ofGerman prisoners of war and later of Italianworkmen, some of whom stayed on inSwindon to form the nucleus of the town’spresent day Italian community.11