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 »
Category: larch fencing
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 »
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 »
3 nations timber – and a pat on the back
Here’s a sight for sore eyes: a full load of Welsh Larch that has been cut at our sawmill in England ready for delivery to a customer in Scotland. Talk about Great British Timber! On the subject of delivery, it was really good to receive this feedback from a customer in Somerset yesterday: “We just… Read more »
Bishop’s Castle timber for a Bishop’s Castle school
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… Read more »
A sight to gladden any mill worker’s heart
We joke in our sawmill that what we do is best summed up as taking round logs in and cutting them up to send square bits of timber out. Doing so efficiently and using the best equipment available lets us take huge pride in what is an essentially straightforward process. Making sure that none of… Read more »
When the cobbler’s busy…
…his childrens’ shoes have holes in them. It’s the same for us with fencing: we’ve been so busy making acoustic fencing panels for customers that it has taken us literally weeks to finally get round to making and installing the final section of fencing round our new Timber Treatment Centre. The fencing is designed to… Read more »
Keeping the family busy during lockdown: Ransfords style
These two members of the Evans family (owners of the sawmill) normally work at sister business Mellington Hall Hotel and Holiday Home Park. Alex came in for a day to cover holidays helping out at an extremely busy sawmill with some fork lift driving (for which he is fully trained) whilst his younger brother Sam… Read more »
The finished colour of treated timber
We’re often asked about the different colours of treated timber and these two packs illustrate things nicely. The posts in the two packs are of the same timber cut the same day but treated two weeks apart. The pack on the left goes a warm honey colour in the sun exactly as it is supposed… Read more »
Air dried Larch
Here’s another benefit to increased storage capacity at our mill: 3.6m larch boards kept in the dry ready and waiting for swift delivery. Larch of course is incredibly durable and has become very popular for use as cladding as well as being a traditional material for fencing. Delivered in bundles of 160, there’s plenty more… Read more »
Keeping the noise down for the neighbours
Our business is in a small town which has grown and spread in recent years so that houses now stand quite close to the sawmill (which has been here for well over 100 years!) in what once were fields. We are keen to minimise the impact of our activites on our neighbours so, the new… Read more »
It’s that time of year again!
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 »
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 »
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 »