About
Barnstone Plant
There has been an industrial site at Barnstone since 1864, using the locally produced Blue Lias limestone. Cement production began in 1885, using one of the first rotary kilns in the UK. This innovative approach was to set the tone for Barnstone as a site that tried new ideas and technologies. This first kiln has been retained by the plant as a piece of our industrial heritage.
Our History
For many years the site was known as Barnstone Special Cements. From the 1960’s until 1990’s a large research facility was based at Barnstone staffed by geologists, metallurgists, mechanical engineers, process engineers, chemical engineers and many others. The plant was used to develop many techniques that went on to mainstream use.
Alternative fuels, different methods of introducing fuels into the kiln and developing very specialist cements for the coal mining industry are a few of the projects successfully carried out at Barnstone.
In 2006 the kiln, which was of 1930s vintage, was closed. The plant then evolved into a grinding, blending and packing cement facility and remains so to this day.
Below is a timeline showing how the ownership of the plant has changed.
| 1864 | The Plant opens and initially produces Blue Lias lime with sixteen bottle kilns. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1885 | A Ransome rotary kiln is installed. | |
| 1886 | Cement manufacturing starts, using eight of the bottle kilns in a dry process mode. | |
| 1900 | The Hoffman kiln replaces the Schneider kiln. | |
| 1900 - 1937 | The Hoffman kiln was decommissioned (although it remained in place) when a rotary kiln A2 is installed. The plant is reconstructed on a new site in 1927, and kiln A2 moves to the new site in 1937. | |
| 1942 | Barnstone Plant becomes part of Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM). | |
| 1969 - 1983 | The Plant operates research & development activities. | |
| 1983 | Commences the manufacturing of specialist cements for the global mining/underground tunnelling market. | |
| 2001 | Barnstone Plant becomes part of Lafarge. | |
| 2006 | Barnstone Plant becomes a cement packing and blending operation. The kiln stops & all raw materials are bought in. | |
| 2013 | Barnstone Plant becomes part of newly formed joint venture, Lafarge Tarmac. | |
| 2014 | Barnstone Plant celebrates its 150th anniversary. | |
| 2015 | Barnstone Plant becomes part of Tarmac, a company in the CRH Group. |
Meet the team
Located in Nottinghamshire, Tarmac's Barnstone Plant grinds, blends and packs a range of ready-to-use cement products for customers both domestically and internationally, exporting specialist cement to around 27 countries.
Barnstone plays a major role in the local community and economy and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2014. The plant employs a highly skilled workforce, many of whom live within 10 miles of the plant.
Steve Odell is Barnstone’s Plant Manager. He has worked at the site since 1994 in a variety of roles. He took over as Plant Manager in 2018.He is supported by an experienced senior management group and a total team of over 60 people.
Quality Manager – John Leighton
Production Manager –Tim Hotchin
Manufacturing Co-ordinator – Will Ball
Logistics Co-ordinator – Jim Read
Electrical Engineer – Ricky Smith
Packer Engineer – David Kennedy
Mechanical Engineer – Darren Smith
Laboratory Manager – Alice Wray
HR Coordinator – Niki Heath
Employee focus
At Barnstone, our employees work in a range of diverse and exciting roles. Here, we put the spotlight on some of our team members and get to know more about their jobs at the site.
Name
Steve Odell
Job title
Plant manager
About me
I started here in 1994 and have overall responsibility for the Plant. My main drive is to run a safe, cost-effective plant where people can work in an interesting and motivating environment. Not only am I looking forward to further developing the operation here, but I am also looking forward to ensuring Barnstone Plant continues to play an active role in the local community.
About Tarmac
Tarmac, a CRH company, is the UK's leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions business.
With 150 years of experience and heritage to our name, we're a national network of local businesses, combining the knowledge and expertise of two of the construction industry's most iconic brands: Tarmac, pioneers and inventors of the modern road, and Blue Circle, the company that patented Portland Cement.
We employ around 7,000 people across a network of more than 400 sites across the UK
Tarmac is part of CRH, the world's leading building materials business
Health and safety
Protecting the safety, health and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and those around us is a core value of our business. We work in potentially hazardous environments so it’s important that everyone understands how to go about their jobs safely.
We believe that every task should be done safely and through measurement and learning we can continuously improve our performance. Everyone working at Barnstone is expected to work in a safe, responsible manner and to challenge unsafe behaviour.
We give everyone on site a thorough safety induction so they know our behavioural expectations and how to stay safe. We are very careful to separate out traffic and pedestrian movements, and we undertake risk assessments before each activity so that we know the risks involved and can prepare for them.
We measure our safety record by recording everything from a Near Miss (Unsafe Act or Condition), First Aid Treatment, Medical Injuries, and incidents that mean someone has to take time off work, known as a Lost Time Injury (LTI), so we can learn and avoid them altogether in the future.
On site, everyone outside the office buildings must wear Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).
The Mineral Products Association’s (MPA) has a Safe Quarry hub where you can access further information.