Bishop’s Castle Community College is one of our home town’s most important assets and one which as a business we’ve been pleased to support over the years. Many of the team who work at the Mill attended the school, as have their children and in some cases grandchildren.
We were especially pleased to help out recently by supplying timber for these two structures in the school grounds. Commissioned by the Friends of the Community College they were designed and built by Josh Davies of joshdaviescarpentry.co.uk and utilise timber for the roofing supplied by us and the chestnut posts by Say it with Wood in Ledbury. The spaces are going to be used for outdoor learning, as well as a place to take shelter during rain at break times.
Josh Davies is himself a former student of the school and has fond memories of his time there. After leaving he took an honours degree in Physics at Liverpool University and worked in the City of London before the chance arose to get back closer to his roots with his partner by working ‘on the tools’ with a play equipment manufacturer. From that it was a short step to establishing his own business in Bishop’s Castle designing and constructing all manner of bespoke and undoubtedly distinctive carpentry.
Paula Brayford, the chair of the Friends of the Community College, is unstinting in her praise for the project. “A huge amount of planning work and fundraising has gone into this and we’re all delighted with the result. We were especially pleased that the contract was awarded to a former pupil, and we’re most grateful to Ransford’s for their continuing support.”
For his part, our operations director Alistair Evans (himself a former pupil of the school) feels the project demonstrates the sheer versatility of timber. “There is huge and growing interest in timber as a renewable building material,” he says. “Josh’s designs nicely demonstrate what can be done, and we are delighted to have been able to help.”
