Ray Crocker

As a lad, Ray became an apprentice electrician, but his wages were so low that he found he was able to earn three or four times the amount by picking up bits of scrap metal, mainly copper at the time. He has never looked back since.

Now Ray specialises in non-ferrous metals - the expensive end of the scrap metal business. He has a long list of regular clients who bring their metals to him. He buys then sells to a number of big boys. Copper wiring, for instance, gets stripped at the yard and sent to China. Aluminium radiators, car wheels, strips and rods go to a smelting business in the Midlands.

Ray believes that scrap metal merchants were the trailblazers of recycling. He claims that we would have run out of the Earth’s natural resources of metals well before the end of the 20th century if we hadn’t recycled. And recycling has long been happening in these overlooked scrapyards, tucked away under railway bridges and next to railway sidings.

Half a million pounds worth of metal are lying around Ray's yard.