Sue Garner

As we mark Tamdown’s remarkable 50th anniversary, we’re taking a moment each month to look back at the people who’ve helped shape our story. Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing memories and reflections from some of our longest‑serving colleagues — those who’ve witnessed our evolution first-hand and contributed to the culture, resilience, and success we celebrate today. Their stories not only honour our past but also inspire the road ahead.

For our second feature, we spoke to Tommy Gant who has been working with Tamdown over for 34 years!

What is your earliest memory of Tamdown when you started?

Turning up with my bag of tools – you had everything you needed in that bag. We didn’t have the fancy electronic tools that you have today, just your hand-held tools.

What project stands out as especially meaningful?

St Mary’s Island – I lived quite close, so that was always a good thing that I didn’t have to travel so far to get to work. It was about 30 years ago now – there’s thousands of granite steps there – roundabouts, cobbles – and I worked on everyone of them!

How have the tools, techniques or site culture changed over the years?

Health and safety has definitely changed over the years. I’ve attended many courses since joining as health and safety has progressed. Toolbox Talks weren’t a thing when I started, you were just given your job. It was pretty simple in that respect. It was family-orientated back in the day – Tom Mohan would turn up and take us out for breakfast. I remember the times they organised a coach for us Kent workers to attend family fun days at Braintree Rugby Club in Essex.

What roles have you had at Tamdown?

I’ve been a health and safety representative, ganger man, black hat, dumper hat recently. I was also a mentor for the apprentices at St Mary’s Island.

Any stories that stick in your mind over the years? 

I remember finding cannonballs whilst I was working at St. Mary’s Island – probably Napoleonic as the area was used as a burial ground for French prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

Today, I work with an engineer, Adam Ward, and his grandad really came to my rescue one day. We were standing near some 3-way traffic lights when a drunk driver came speeding by and somehow drove into the cables that got wrapped around his wheels. They ended up catching my legs and if it weren’t for Sean Ward’s quick thinking, which allowed him to get the cables away from my legs, I might have been dragged down the street. Luckily, I came away completely unscathed!

Do you have a moment when teamwork make all the difference?

You can’t do this sort of work on your own. It’s always been teamwork for me. We look after each other and just get on with it.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

When I started out the money for a groundworker was very good. I’d say get a mortgage and just work hard.

What keeps you motivated through the toughest days on the ground?

My two children, my two grandchildren and paying the mortgage! My daughter got married last year – that was a very proud day for me. 

When there’s bad weather you just have to stay and do it. You just get on with it and try to be happy.

Thank you to Tommy for sharing his stories and reflections from years gone by. We hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at our shared history. Be sure to keep an eye out for next month’s feature, where we’ll spotlight another long‑serving colleague and continue celebrating 50 years of dedication, growth, and community.

As we mark Tamdown’s remarkable 50th anniversary, we’re taking a moment each month to look back at the people who’ve helped shape our story. Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing memories and reflections from some of our longest‑serving colleagues — those who’ve witnessed our evolution first-hand and contributed to the culture, resilience, and success we celebrate today. Their stories not only honour our past but also inspire the road ahead.

For our first feature, we spoke to Mark Cain who has been with Tamdown for 32 years!

What is your earliest memory of Tamdown when you started?

Other than turning up on that first day full of anticipation and a few nerves, the thing that really sticks in my mind is the feeling of camaraderie and team spirit that I encountered here.

What roles have you held within the Company?

I have carried out various activities in my career so far here, from Buying to Plant and from Waste Management to Transport (and a bit of technical thrown in), all of which have their challenges, excitement and steep learning curves.

How has the company changed?

Tamdown has changed hugely since I started – from a small groundworks contractor punching way above our weight, we’ve grown massively. We started a remediation firm and have been involved in some really challenging remediation projects including what is now the DP World project, we’ve carried out Concrete Frames and Shell & Core contracts. We’ve had a utilities arm and are now part of Nexus Infrastructure plc. We hold forums that are attended and listened to by our customers and the wider industry. It’s almost unrecognisable from its origins, but it’s still kept the team spirit and can-do approach.

What major changes or innovations have you witnessed?

Without wanting to sound too old, when I arrived the only computer we had was in Accounts! We didn’t have digital cameras and the mobile phones were large, expensive and only worked for about half hour (nicknamed bricks). Everything was written by hand, filed and then manually checked, we used fax machines and post back then!

Any stories that stick in your mind over the years? 

We used to work hard and play harder and doing that with some of the colourful characters that I’ve had the privilege to work with through the years has certainly produced some stories. Unexpectedly finding a box of hand grenades and having to call the bomb disposal team will always stick in my mind though.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?

Firstly, learn a skill or trade that can not be replaced by AI. Secondly, try and do something you actually enjoy as you’ll spend a long time doing it. Thirdly, give it your all, learn all you can, it’s a waste of your time otherwise.

What keeps you motivated after so many years?

Some people resonate with the quote “it’s not the winning but the taking part that counts”, however I’ve never wanted to just ‘take part’ and if you like to win, that’s what keeps me motivated.

Thank you to Mark for sharing his stories and reflections from years gone by. We hope you’ve enjoyed this look back at our shared history. Be sure to keep an eye out for next month’s feature, where we’ll spotlight another long‑serving colleague and continue celebrating 50 years of dedication, growth, and community.

Congratulations to all the winners and highly commended at the housebuilder awards last night.

We were proud to sponsor the awards show with our Managing Director, Rob Kendal presenting the small housebuilder of the year award.

A great event hosted by Housebuilder Media and good to see so many faces of the industry come together for the night.

An extra well done to the winners of the main prizes:-

🏆 Small Housebuilder of the year; Spitfire Homes

🏆 Medium Housebuilder of the year; Peabody

🏆 Large Housebuilder of the year; Bellway Homes

It’s been fantastic to see our Rainham site steadily take shape over the past few months. Since breaking ground, the team has made great strides, and we’re proud to share some key milestones:

✅ Temporary site entrance and compound now in place
✅ Main entrance completed alongside the handover of the Sales Area
✅ Over 400 metres of infrastructure installed
✅ 27+ homes currently under construction
✅ Attenuation ponds completed and ready for landscaping

A huge thank you to everyone involved for your hard work and commitment. We’re excited to see this development continue to grow and evolve in the months ahead!

For those slightly smaller jobs we’ve just added to the fleet a full insulated, tarmac spec’d, Mitsubishi 7C15 tipper. The vehicle was carefully chosen due to its mixture of emissions (Euro VI emissions standards with SCR + DPF after-treatment), excellent payload, strong chassis and compact design, giving great manoeuvrability.

Throw into the mix a local dealer ‘RCM-Saga’, Witham and it was the obvious choice.

To ensure the driver always keeps within his legal payload and compliant, we’ve added the on-board axle load indicator from Axtec, a great piece of kit.

Towing functionality finishes the truck off, adding to the versatility of the truck, enabling us to complete small tarmac works and customer care offerings, efficiently and effectively.

Great to see the progress at our Rivenhall site on behalf of Bellway Essex.

Some amazing work by the team whilst being Principal Contractor. Now that we have installed the main infrastructure, customer compound and sales arena we move onto the individual parcels roads and earthworks.

We look forward to seeing this project progress over the next few months.

Thank you to the site team for all of the hard work so far.

We are pleased to announce we’ve passed another three-day DVSA Earned Recognition audit. This enables us not only to continue to display the coveted DVSA Earned Recognition Logo but proves our dedication to operating a safe, reliable, and efficient transport operation.

Successfully completing another audit and continuing to achieve DVSA Earned Recognition status, demonstrates our commitment to the highest quality standards; it showcases our teams commitment to safety, compliance, and excellence in transport operations.

The audit, completed by an independent auditor, examined all of our transport systems, processes, and records across all relevant areas—including Vehicle Maintenance, Driver Hours, Training, and Operations Management.

Well done to the team involved.

Today is World Mental Health Day, and at Tamdown, we’re proud to stand behind the message that mental wellbeing matters — just as much as hard hats and harnesses.

We’re committed to building a culture of care and support, where conversations around mental health are encouraged and stigma is broken.

This year’s theme reminds us that every employer, manager, and worker has a role to play in prioritising mental health in the workplace. That’s why we’re inviting our teams to take part in tea & talk sessions, join our wellbeing quiz, and explore the support available to them.

Let’s keep the conversation going — because mental health is everyone’s business.

We are pleased to be working with Vistry Kent at their site in Tovil.

Having commenced works in April we are proud to share our progress:

Over 72 plots have been handed back to oversite
Over 37 plots are under build
7 Attenuation tanks have been installed
2,500m2 of Infrastructure Road installed

A fantastic site to be part of; great work by our project team led by Site Manager, Andy Orme.

We had a fantastic morning at Nexus Park on Monday raising funds for our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning.

We had an incredible turnout of delicious bakes and together we raised over £700 to help Macmillan Cancer Support continue their incredible work supporting people living with cancer.

It’s amazing what a cup of coffee and a slice of cake can do.