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ALDERSHOT CONTRACTORS EQUIPMENT RENTAL LIMITED The founder and present owner of Aldershot Contractors Equipment Rental Limited, Robert A. Henderson, was born in Scotland and came to Canada at the age of four. His parents settled in the Town of Burlington and up until 1966 owned and operated a market garden on Woodview Ave. where Mr. Henderson was raised. Mr. Henderson was superintendent for E. V. Breckon for 15 years and, at that time, acquired his first P & H shovel which he operated as a sideline. In 1944 he operated a garage at Carlisle in partnership with Neale E. Poole and they later built a garage in Aldershot and together they operated a garage known as Aldershot Motors. This building is now occupied by York Auto Sales on Plains Rd. W. at Howard Road. While at Aldershot Motors, he purchased another shovel and also was Superintendent of J. Cooke plant. Just prior to going into business on a full scale, the shovels were rented to Therrien Construction Co., railroad contractors, and worked in northern Quebec. In May, 1948, Aldershot Equipment Rental became a full time job and the Company operated out of a small room in Aldershot Motors building. Mrs. William Carr, the former Shirley Bowen, started as the bookkeeper and is still the Secretary-Treasurer of the business. The first office was in her home in Hamilton. At that time there were five employees and the office work took approximately five hours per week. Once a week Mr. Henderson would take in invoicing and payroll data and the work would be done when her two young children were asleep. The only office equipment was a portable typewriter and a filing drawer which was kept in the children's clothes closet. It was not too long before a used adding machine and desk had to be purchased and an office was set up in the basement of her home. In the fall of 1949, the business had grown to such an extent that this arrangement was found unsatisfactory and the Carrs built a home at 196 Townsend Ave. in Aldershot and the office work was transferred to an office in the basement in which Shirley Carr still carries on her executive duties. There are now six office workers at 14 Plains Rd. W. office, plus salesmen, foremen and maintenance staff and machine operators totalling over 150. In 1948 there were three Power shovels, two carry-alls (floats) and miscellaneous non-operated equipment, required by the construction industry. The Company now owns 44 shovels, crawler cranes mobile cranes and front-end loaders as well as 7 bulldozers, 16 Mack dump trucks (14 cu. yd. capacity), 13 carry-alls (2 of which are licensed for the province of Quebec and New York state border crossing), plus all types of non-operated construction enuipement. The Company, which was incorporated in 1952, and has 122 vehicles licensed for highway use. In 1949 the garage owned by Bailey Bros. [Brothers] was purchased and the operations were transferred to this location. The building has been added to and remodelled many times to take care of increased administration staff. Since that time, the Company has acquired several pieces of adjoining property including the George Briggs home which has been demolished and the property at the corner of La Salle [LaSalle] Park Rd. and #2 highway where the original Half-Way House was located and owned previously by the Sinclair family. The company also has a storage yard on the Waterdown Road on the property previously owned by Aldershot Cold Storage. In 1957 a warehouse 100'x110' was built at the rear of the property purchased from Bailey Bros. Also owned by the Company is a farm and gravel pit on the 8th Concession, West Flamborough. The 1940 Dodge truck is still in use on this farm was purchased from Claude Bowen when their property was sold.