Garside Sands had its fifteen minutes of fame as it became the star of the BBC programme, ‘The One Show’.
Everyone welcomed presenter Angellica Bell and the crew as they set about answering a this viewer’s question on ‘what makes the sand in Leighton Buzzard so special that it is exported overseas, to countries in the Middle East, which have an abundance of their own sand?’
As part of the show, Ms Bell tracked the process of a grain of Garside’s Leighton Buzzard sand from excavation to washing, grading, drying, bagging and finally shipping to see what was so special.
Graham Turk, Operations Manager and Clive Martin, Business Manager were interviewed about the history and special nature of the sand. As Graham explained: “Leighton Buzzard sand is special because of its high silica sand content and grain shape. The sand was formed over 130 million years ago when the area was a sea where the motion of the waves created the rounded grain shape of the sand we quarry today.”
“These properties make the sand ideal for specific applications such as water filtration for drinking water to upgrade infrastructure, not just in the UK, but also in Middle Eastern countries and beyond. Leighton Buzzard sand is therefore a very specialist type of sand, of which there is limited availability in the UK and overseas.”
The One Show also interviewed Bob Blake, who recently retired after 45 years as Garside Sands’ Transport Manager and who has a wealth of knowledge on the company’s history. The crew went onto visit the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway which used to transport the sand between the quarries, processing pants and canal. . As the only surviving line of its type in England, it is a popular tourist attraction, and is a nationally accredited working museum operated by volunteers.