eddy8men

to be honest i'd be happy with one :-D however if more are to be found then i'm up for it but the thought of all those lovely grapevines getting crushed under the digger tracks is not a good one and making good the ground after we've gone is going to be the hardest part of the job !

nice one tony, thanks for taking the time to dig the pics out of your collection and post them up. it does look to be in great condition (all things considered) let's hope we can get another out of the ground :thumbsup:

i have arranged to see the vineyard owner this week for a face to face meeting. i have a feeling i will be digging up tanks for xmas

tony thanks for your input and pics, i will include your newspaper cutting in my email to the vineyard owner. please don't sell the instruction book to a bookworm/collector, we may need it soon

state of play so far. the denbies vineyard owner has still not repiled to my earlier call, so i will give him a nudge today. a friend has spoken to the rickmansworth cromwell landowner but got nowhere fast, however as fate would have it another forum member and friend knows the landowner through work and has agreed to approach him on my behalf. when i get more info i will keep you all posted. i don't want these leads to die off and be forgotten about !!!

yes the difficult landowners could have something to do with why both tanks are still laying there but don't worry i have a plan to shock and awe them if things don't work out. basically i will give the exact locations and owners contact details to every tank nutter within my reach and let then grind them into submission

baz sorry mate hadn't cleared out the sent messages. all good now. we contacted the rickmansworth landowner who didn't seem very approachable but maybe we caught him on a bad day. anyway we will keep on with it until we have an answer

yes mate, pm sent

thanks i'll give it my best shot

i have mentioned the rickmansworth cromwell on this thread before and have been told by a few of the "old gang" of it's whereabouts. the story goes that a cromwell that was being pushed around a breakers yard fell into an old clay pit and was not worth digging out again, a few of the road wheels were removed and the radiators but the rest of the tank was left there and eventually covered up in rubbish and left to it's own devices. unlike a lot of buried tank stories i have no reason to doubt this is true. another forum member had given me the exact location so yesterday a friend that lives nearby went to look for the tank and found the ground was littered with the detritus of years of commercial use which tied in nicely with the story. there was no real chance of finding the tank as it's at least 3ft deep to the rear vertical plate (which is now horizontal). anyway we wanted to find the land owner so he went to the adjacent industrial site and asked a business owner. the guy gave the information and then asked if my friend had come looking for the buried tank it seems the tank is well known about. we will contact the landowner on monday and see what transpires!

i agree with david but a more informal filming of the excavation might be interesting. anyway we are now also looking at digging up the cromwell in rickmansworth. should be a busy xmas

lots of work to make even a static resto but it would be worth while, as i'd bet a pound to a pinch of salt the static one would eventually be snapped up by another enthusiast (one dark night) there's no need for any brass plaques with my name on. i'm just an average guy trying to make a bit of difference before i drop dead.

i'd also thought of digging up 2 and restoring one for static display for the vineyard in exchange for the other, this would also have the advantage of a spares donor for the one i keep. however i would much rather dig one up and pay for it and be done and dusted but we'll see, i have a feeling they will want paying not only for the vines but for the tank itself which is only fair as it will have a commercial value, what that value is, is anyone's guess as nobody knows the condition of the tank until i dig it up . i'll just have to roll the dice and see what happens

spoke to the manager today and he was receptive but there are vines growing over the site and these would have to be paid for. he will speak to the owner and get back to me. when i know more i will pass on the info. he mentioned they had thought of digging it up last year and the location is known to them. let's hope they agree

i rang the vineyard today wanting to speak to the manager but he was in the fields, it seems to be grape picking time so he might be busy over the next few weeks but i will keep trying until i get hold of him, when i do i will let you all know how it goes

some great research fella's thanks, especially the article that names the vineyard manager and the fact that they were already considering excavating the site, looks like we might actually pull it off :thumbsup:

got this pic from a friend on facebook. seems the tanks are buried quite deep, maybe 3m which makes me wonder if this tank was at the bottom of the anti tank ditch that was dug in the same area

jon we have a man on the forum who knows someone at the vineyard and will speak to them about the recovery. it's a case of wait out and see what happens. keep your fingers crossed

i reckon we would bob. i think of the recovery like this. what if this was just a normal building job, where the vineyard asked me to clear an old scrap septic tank and remove it from site and make good the ground afterwards. it doesn't need to be any harder than that. the key to the whole thing is permission from the vineyard and we already have someone onto that on our behalf. we will see what happens.

i would like to join your club :-D

i watched 6 complete churchills getting cut up in a german scrapyard not so long ago, they had been offered to bovy first but they weren't interested. there are many other examples of museums allowing rare tanks to be disposed of. the tanks are definitely there and i will definitely have a go at getting them out. i own and operate my own plant and have public liability of £10 million. if the vineyard ask me to remove the tanks as part of my job then it will be no different from digging footings or any other day to day job. i also own a 65 ton foden and low loader and spent 14 years in the army do daft stuff like this. yes the distance is not going to be great for my fuel bill but if no one else is willing to do it then it will fall to me (again) it's not a mission to mars, just digging out a bit of scrap and removing it from site

i was thinking about the same thing. how many cubic yards would a covenanter fill. i estimate 3 wide, 6 long and 1 1/2 high so about 27 yds which is 27 ton of soil, which equates to 2 loads from your average tipper. if we used turfing soil then it would be around £400 but access is everything if the tipper can't get to the dig site then we'd need a dumper as well

i'll do the recce and once the tank is out of the hole any cr@p we find that we don't want can go back in it before we fill it. (if it came out i don't see what harm we can do by putting it back where it came from). however if there is significant contamination and they want it removed then a few 1 ton bulk bags would do the job and could go on the low loader with the tank and back to my yard in manchester where i will make it disappear. all i can say is that if someone gets me on i will be leaving with the tank

i know i'm an optomist and always see things as fairly straight forward so bear with me but why do we need any health and safety or insurance or any other cr@p. we aren't professionals and there won't be a crowd milling about spectating. i don't see a problem with us getting the permissions and i'm sure the location of at least one tank has already been ascertained. i reckon a recovery would take the following order 1. get permission and tank location (might only take one phone call) 2. physical recce with digging equipment to find the tank and it's depth and orientation in the ground and come up with recovery plan. 3. go back with digger and whatever else was deemed necessary then dig it out and load it up 4. make good the groundworks and head off into the sunset doesn't need to be any more complicated than that

nice to know that these guys are still remembered, well done