Garside Sands to star on ‘The One Show’

AGGREGATE Industries business Garside Sands, producers of high-grade silica sand products, are to feature on BBC 1’s ‘The One Show’ at 7.00pm on Friday 6 June, following a viewer’s question about 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.

The programme answered the question by sending TV presenter Angellica Bell to Garside Sands’ Heath & Reach site, where she tracked the process of a grain of Leighton Buzzard sand from excavation to washing, grading, drying, bagging and finally shipping, to see what was so special about the material.

The film will be aired as part of The One Show’s series on towns which have a ‘claim to fame’.

Graham Turk, operations manager for Garside Sands, explained that Leighton Buzzard sand was special because of its high silica content and rounded grain shape, which make it ideal for specific applications such as filtration for drinking water, not just in the UK, but also in Middle-Eastern countries and beyond.

‘Leighton Buzzard sand is a very specialist type of sand, of which there is limited availability in the UK and overseas,’ said Mr Turk.

Liz Brown, Garside Sands’ marketing manager, added: ‘It was an interesting and educational day. My thanks go to our team who worked very hard and diligently to prepare the site for its five minutes of fame, and especially the members of the team who are set to star in the film.’

The One Show crew also visited the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, which was once used to transport sand between the quarries and the mainline railway in the town. Now the only surviving line of its type in England, it is a popular tourist attraction as well as a nationally accredited working museum operated by volunteers.

One of the jewels of the museum’s collection was brought out especially for the occasion; an armour-plated locomotive of a type built for the supply lines of the First World War trenches, and then used on the sand trains in Leighton Buzzard for over 30 years, recreated history by hauling a train of loaded sand wagons through the open countryside for the cameras.