One of the great things about timber is its sheer versatility. It is used in housebuilding in many often unseen ways but because it’s such a natural material more and more architects are using timber cladding as a way of making new homes look both traditional and modern at exactly the same time. This new…
Category: great british timber
From one rural business to another
Andrew Masterman, who is our man in the North of England, must have one of the most picturesque territories going – but there’s serious business going on there. He took this picture today whilst visiting Hartlington Fencing Supplies a family-run fencing business based 9 miles from Skipton in North Yorkshire. The business offers anything fencing and…
Round bits to square bits…and back again!
Sawmilling is a fascinating activity and, as in any other business, success relies on being able to supply the customer with what they want. So, whilst our logs arrive as round sections of tree the first thing we do is cut them up into square bits of useable timber like posts and rails. However, some…
Good acoustic fences make Wren Kitchens good neighbours at their new plant in Humberside
The huge purpose-built manufacturing, management and training facility built for Wren Kitchens in South Humberside (aptly named The Nest!) embraces modern technology in just about every aspect of its design and construction. In one respect however it suffers from a very traditional problem: the noise created by vehicles coming and going from the site at…
Supporting our stockists
It was great to support #ransfords stockist #DaviesBuildersMerchants at their trade show last night. There was a big turnout and our sales Director Chris Offa reports lots of interesting conversations about #greatbritishtimber As a company that believes in strong partnerships with our customers we’re always happy to help stockists with activities like this in whatever…
New outdoor shelter and pond nears completion at St George’s Clun
It was great to hear from St George’s Primary School in Clun that work on their outdoor shelter and pond is almost complete. We donated some timber to the project. Class 4 have invited us to a celebration opening on 21st June which we wouldn’t miss for anything and we’ll post pictures of the event…
Efficient transport operations make perfect sense all round
One of the areas we pay a lot of attention to is the efficient use of transport. For example, in almost every case lorries taking finished product from our mill to customers run with full loads. It makes sound environmental sense because part loads mean more wagons on the road, full loads mean fewer. It…
Work is progressing nicely on our new line
We’re in the home straight now in the construction of the new incisor and post pointing line. The inciser has completed its journey from Oregon to Shropshire and the electricians are starting the process of making everything work.. We were delighted to receive this 3D render of the new line from manufacturer Kalfass over the… Read more »
TWELVE STEPS TO SUSTAINABILITY: #1
Forestry and sawmilling are among the most sustainable activities in the UK economy. During the course of the year we aim to demonstrate 12 ways in which Ransfords plays its part. Here’s the first. We mill most of our timber from forests very close to home thus reducing timber miles. Wood from sustainably managed forests… Read more »
Nearly time to toast your toes. Happy Christmas from everyone at Ransfords.
More progress on the new production lines
Work on the new lines for adding various added-value finishes to posts from 75mm to 200mm s coming on very well thanks to a superb team effort. Above we can see the new 4 head saw being installed and, below, we can see our new inciser being loaded onto a truck in Oregon, USA ready… Read more »
Our new line is coming together nicely
As you can see from this image we’ve made huge strides in setting out the new lines for adding various added-value finishes to posts from 75mm to 200mm. There’s still a lot to do and even more equipment to arrive – but we’re ge…
A cold morning – and plenty to do!
We’re making great progress on the new building for our in-house engineering department and the new line for adding different finishes to posts from 75mm to 200mm. We’ll show more of that later but in the meantime here’s a reminder of how the weather has turned and the temperatures have dropped: steaming asphalt being laid… Read more »
Breathe in!
There are plenty of narrow roads and tiny lanes in our part of the world which is why we went to some lengths to design our new firewood delivery vehicle so it could cope. This is us out on Saturday morning in some pretty tight spots but the wagon and the hoist coped admirably! Firewood… Read more »
Now this is what you call a full load
We set great store here by being as efficient as we can with our deliveries. A full wagon load is an efficient wagon load: good for the environment and sound business sense. Even we were surprised however by this beauty: 43 cubic metres of air dried timber ready for delivery in a covered trailer to… Read more »
Sound sense in Southampton
When the Highways Agency reconfigured the road layout where the M271 meets the A33 in Southampton it was decided that neighbouring residential properties needed protection from traffic noise. Arbus fencing chose Ransfords Noisewall® single-sided acoustic fencing panels and, as we can see, they were installed in a curved configuration to match the road layout. The… Read more »
How the bark from our trees brings new life to British gardens – and keeps peat in the ground where it belongs
Here we are shredding and then grading bark for our sister company Melcourt. At a time when the world knows we should be doing our best to keep carbon out of the atmosphere it’s astonishing to realise that we are still releasing tonnes of the stuff annually by the simple act of digging up peat… Read more »
When you’re in a tight spot it always helps to have the right kit…
…such as this little number which is a tipper for bulk loads as well as having a hoist to lift in bulk bags. As you can see, it’s just perfect for getting into tight spaces when delivering firewood.
Latest statistics on UK forestry and sawmilling
The latest National Statistics on forestry produced by the Forestry Commission were released recently in line with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. They include information on woodland area, planting, timber, trade, carbon, environment, social, employment and finance & prices as well as some statistics on international forestry. Where possible, figures are also provided… Read more »
Our permanent war on waste
Here at Ransfords we ensure that no part of the timber taken into our yards (often from our own forests) is wasted. If any of the timber isn’t good enough to be cut as Great British Timber because of damage or its size we leave it to dry then chip it to run the boilers… Read more »