A.F. Budge

The company had an opencast mine in the 1970s at Esh Winning and West Chevington (Northumberland).

In August 1991, British Coal Opencast gave the company a £16m contract for its Colliersdean site in Northumberland.

Anthony Frederick Budge[9] liked racehorses, and his company invested in Doncaster Racecourse.

Budge (Road Materials) Ltd went into well-publicised receivership on 9 December 1992, undertaken by Cork Gully, with £96.6m debts, under the Insolvency Act 1986.

During 1992 the company had reduced its debt by £30m, but blamed Barclays Bank for forcing it into receivership.

The company was bought by Alfred McAlpine Construction of Chester on Monday 4 January 1993, with 26 outstanding road contracts, according to its managing director Peter Hulmes.

[11][12] The company, and RJB Mining, were investigated in the King Coal edition of Panorama on 1 May 1995.

In January 1991, it had a £14m contract for Newcastle Science Park (5.5 acres), which is next to Manors Metro station and Manors railway station, with a 284-vehicle car park; it received £2.5m from the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation, with the Chief Executive being Alastair Balls; Michael Portillo dug the first section on Thursday 21 February 1991.