Our home town of Bishop’s Castle is a small and close-knit community in Shropshire close to the border with Wales. It’s the sort of place which still has a kind of unwritten seasonal calendar on which, of course, Christmas features prominently. So, the picture shows one of the first acts in the Town’s preparations as… Read more »
Category: great british timber
We’re making good progress on the new chip store
We’ve had more than our share of downpours here recently but enough dry weather to be able to crack on with our new chip store. The roof is half on and the wall panels are all in. Next we need to put some Yorkshire Boarding on. Good job we know a good sawmill producing Great… Read more »
Visit by students at Bishop’s Castle Community College
Lightfoot Enterprises and the Community College, Bishop’s Castle (the secondary school which serves the town and surrounding villages) have been working together to introduce pupils to the delights of woodlands. As part of the College’s enrichment programme, a group of Year 7 pupils have been going into the woods to experience the richness & diversity… Read more »
Our war on waste keeps us warm as toast (and kiln dries the timber!)
Outside, it’s a cold and extremely wet November day. Inside, the shed is kept at a fairly constant 20 degrees thanks to the biomass boiler which also fires the kiln into which we’re busy loading another charge. The boiler burns the butt chips which are peeled off the bottom of the log at the very… Read more »
The investment never stops
Those who know Ransfords well will know that we’re always looking for ways to make the business more efficient and more effective. It’s good for our customers and so its good for us too. An investment a few years back enabled us to start producing dry chips from what would otherwise be waste from our… Read more »
Sound solutions in Steel City for Heras
Since its formation in 1952 Heras has grown into Europe’s leading end-to-end supplier of perimeter protection solutions. It operate in 6 countries and employs more than 1200 highly skilled staff serving blue-chip customers across business, community and industry sectors. Their aim is to be recognised as Europe’s premium perimeter protection brand, proven by reliability, commitment… Read more »
Investment continues apace at our Bishop’s Castle sawmill with timber drying timber
We’ve just completed an upgrade on our kiln (pictured here) which included changing the heat source from electricity to biomass. The fuel is woodchips which come from the flare at the base of the logs which is removed at the very start of the milling process to allow the log to go into the mill… Read more »
No post-brexit supply log-jams with Great British Timber from Ransfords
Even now the exact terms on which the UK will be leaving the EU are still unclear, so there’s a great deal of uncertainty about delays to imported supplies of a whole host of goods including timber. Great British Timber from Ransfords is grown here, felled here, and milled here so there will be no… Read more »
The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining…
…or so the old saying goes. Easier said than done in recent weeks when most days have brought rain, followed by showers, followed by long periods of drizzle. The good news is though that the job is nearly done: a new roof on the vast building that holds our main sawline with only finishing touches… Read more »
Look what we did
There aren’t many sawmills with the skills and ability let alone the willingness to cut posts like this: 200mm square post with a tenon cut at 100mm square. The mortise is in the support for the roof of a car port so precision was the order of the day. Whilst most of our production is… Read more »
It’s all about teamwork
One of the features of our business is the close relationships we have with other family businesses in the area. One such is David Ford Transport Services who regularly haul logs from the forest to us and finished product from us to the customer. When things get busy we’re not averse to using our Terberg… Read more »
Strength in numbers
Our mill is laid out in such a way that unnecessary movement of product is avoided. The material flows from one stage to another in the most efficient way possible. Of course some movement is unavoidable and, in the end, trailers have to be loaded for the despatch of finished product. These three beauties join… Read more »
Ransfords mountain bikers on top of the world
We were very pleased recently to co-sponsor (with Euroforest) the Forestry Industry Mountain Bike Challenge, even more pleased to take part with two teams from Ransfords, and simply delighted to take first and second place. The challenge involved seven timed stages on a 14 mile course at Llendegla in Wales – pretty gruelling stuff against… Read more »
Timber fencing: naturally
We’ve been using timber fencing in rural settings since Adam was a lad and this picture demonstrates why. On the left a major new extension to an existing holiday home park, on the right open countryside with sheep safely grazing. In the middle, Great British Timber fencing which is as much a part of the… Read more »
500th load goes through our new Timber Treatment Centre
Less than 6 months since it became fully operational, this is the 500th load of timber being sent into our new fully automated Timber Treatment Centre, one of the most advanced of its kind in the UK. Built at a cost of £2.75 million, the new facility has dramatically increased the efficiency of our treatment… Read more »
Independence day? We have our own anniversary to celebrate!
It is 41 years to the day since the Evans Family of Bishop’s Castle stepped in to save the sawmill from bankruptcy. Alan Evans and his older brother Brian bought the mill for just £100 but along with the mill came £1.5 million of debts to the bank and trade creditors. Every penny of that… Read more »
Effective acoustic solutions for JJL Design & Build
JJL Design and Build has developed a reputation for providing a high quality full turnkey construction service for blue chip industrial and commercial clients across the UK. The company was founded in 2004, to combine proven expertise with a proactive approach to the design and delivery of new builds, fit-outs and refurbishment projects in a… Read more »
Perfect: a British Larch building in the British countryside
Is there a sight more pleasing than a well made British timber building sitting in the British countryside? We don’t think so. Timber is the original building material and it fits perfectly into rural surroundings like this – so much so that within weeks it will look as though it’s always been there. It has… Read more »
April starts on a positive note
As we’ve already reported, we’ve had a really brisk start to 2019 and April is looking to be no exception. These seven trailers are all fully loaded with treated and untreated fencing and some untreated cladding ready for despatch to proje…
A fantastic start to the year
After a really busy January and February here’s a cracking start to March as we load 7 trucks today for Monday delivery. This one is being loaded by Martin Jones with redwood posts all either pointed or weather topped. Fantastic!