The History of Wheeldon’s

What Got Wheeldon’s Started?

Wheeldon’s started with John and Luke Wheeldon buying one wagon to help on their family farm in 1966. Now Wheeldon Brothers Waste Ltd is quite a familiar name in the Bury community. The brothers established their waste removal business, taking advantage of the new demand for specialist waste disposal firms.  This was caused by the arrival of smokeless zones which meant people could no longer take the easy option of just burning rubbish. Since the businesses incorporation in 1976, it has continued to go from strength to strength with John and Luke’s wives, Glenda and Patricia, helping run the business from its early days.

John and Luke at a young age

Since the businesses incorporation in 1976, it has continued to grow. A major step forward in the businesses history was in 1984 when the brothers decided to buy a waste transfer station at Mossdown Road, Oldham. Before this acquisition, the business was just run from Ryecroft Farm. With the success of this waste transfer station, John and Luke decided to expand even further and obtained Unit 8 at Yeargate Industrial Estate at Heap Bridge, Bury.

With all this new land, they decided to increase the range of services that were offered. This started with skip hire service; more precisely the supplying of 8 cubic yard skips, which then led to ‘rolonof’ 20-40 cubic yard skips and also ‘REL’ 14 cubic yard skips. After skips, they then decided to incorporate compactor wagons and wheelie bins into their growing list of services. A further boost to the business would come with the introduction of the governments ‘green’ legislation which was a bid to make more people recycle instead of disposing at a landfill site. With these changes, such as landfill tax, the Wheeldon’s decided to modify the licenses for the disposal of special waste such as asbestos, oils and tyres.

With it all going so well, there was, in fact, a slight disruption in 1996 when a large fire broke out at Heap Bridge which destroyed the building, wagons, business records, electrical installations, telephones and machinery. Despite this, the business continued its operations with little disruption to customers and even resulted in Heap Bridge being expanded by the acquisition of an additional unit.

Richard Wheeldon (Luke and Patricia’s son) was the manager of the Oldham Transfer Station for over 9 years. He left in 2001 to pursue his own company, Ryecroft Plant Hire, which provides reliable and professional landscaping and plant hire. His sister, Joanne Wheeldon, also became our glamorous sales manager for 12 months before qualifying in sign language, a much more rewarding job.

Unfortunately, there was more bad news to come with co-founder Luke sadly passing away in 1999. With this, Luke’s widow Patricia decided to no longer be involved in the business, and both continue to be missed.

What’s Happening Now?

Currently, the business is run by John and Glenda with the help of their 3 children, James, Jonathan and Susan. John and James are mechanics, but also manage the Bury and Ramsbottom transfer stations. Glenda deals with customers and drivers, Susan is the accountant and financial director and Jonathan is the transfer station manager at the Oldham and Failsworth site.

Over the 4 sites we have over 90 staff contributing to the recycling figures. Wheeldon’s use shredders, trommels, density separators, magnets, finger screeners, crushers, granulators and Eddi Current separators.

Even today we still strive to achieve a better greener environment and to meet the needs of all our customers. To do this, we are always researching into more modern and innovative machinery to increase recycling even further.

Call now to get a quote for professional waste and recycling collections on 0161 764 8888