JCB recalls Street star links
As ITV soap Coronation Street celebrates 60 years on British television screens this week, JCB has been recalling connections with two of its biggest stars.
The first came in 1964 when actress Pat Phoenix – the Street’s feisty Elsie Tanner – took to the controls of a 3C backhoe loader to help dig a new swimming pool at the bottom of her garden. The machine was owned by Old Trafford-based plant hirers John Naughton & Co.
Commenting at the time, she said: “At long last I have made a start on that swimming pool at the bottom of my garden, well, me and my mechanical digger!"
Nearly four decades later, and it was veteran actress Helen Worth’s turn to swap the cobbles of Coronation Street for the World headquarters of JCB at Rocester in Staffordshire.
She visited the company to take delivery of a £35,000 3CX backhoe loader donated by company Chairman Lord Bamford to the Born Free Foundation, of which she was a patron. The machine was used by the Foundation in Sri Lanka to support a sanctuary caring for orphaned elephants.
Speaking during the 2003 visit, Helen Worth said: “We are really grateful to JCB and Sir Anthony Bamford for the kind donation of a digger which will be invaluable in developing the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home.”
