A Christmas Tree for Danbury

Tag Archives: listed buildings

A Christmas Tree for Danbury

9th January 2020Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, Christmas tree lights switch on, christmas tree switch on, churches, collins and curtis masonry, danbury Christmas tree, Danbury Focus, danbury news, Essex, general builders, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, pickford builders, principal contractors, principle contractors, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

Bakers of Danbury donated a large Christmas Tree to the village of Danbury again, and at the beginning of December Danbury Parish Council invited the whole community to an event to switch the Christmas Tree lights on.

After Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Essex had switched the lights on, everyone enjoyed singing Christmas Carols together then enjoyed warm refreshments and mince pies in the local Sports and Social Centre where Father Christmas had parked his sleigh to meet local children. Baker's Contracts Directors Mark Holland and Ron Lowe were introduced to Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, who thanked them for all that the company does for the local community, mentioning the new duck house Bakers made for the village earlier in the year.

You can keep up-to-date with other initiatives within Baker's Corporate Social Responsibility Programme, which we set up to help support both our local community and the communities in which we work by visiting our Corporate Social Responsibility Page or by liking our Facebook page!

The Danbury Focus Magazine featured an article in their January Edition about the village Christmas Tree Lights Switch on. The article read;

The community of Danbury enjoyed a Christmas event hosted by Danbury Parish Council for the whole village to enjoy, on the evening of Thursday 5th December. The event was attended by record numbers this year, according to the Parish Council Chairman Stuart Berlyn. After everyone had counted down, Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Essex switched on the lights, to illuminate the Christmas tree which had been generously donated by a local building company Bakers of Danbury Ltd. Everyone enjoyed singing along to traditional Christmas carols around the Christmas tree, accompanied by the wonderful Salvation Army Band.

After the carols were sung everyone enjoyed warm refreshments and treats at Danbury Sports and Social Centre, and the children of Danbury were delighted to meet Father Christmas who had landed his sleigh and reindeer in the Sports and Social Centre car park.

Mrs Jennifer Tolhurst, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Essex said;

“It was an honour to be invited to switch on the Christmas tree lights for Danbury tonight. It is wonderful to see such a tremendous sense of community, with so many local residents enjoying tonight together. I would like to thank all involved; Danbury Parish Council, Danbury Society, Bakers of Danbury, The Salvation Army Band, The Rotary Club, Danbury Mission, St Johns Church and other members of the community, who have all played a part in making tonight possible. With so many people doing great things for their village, it’s a great way to start Christmas Festivities!”

Newsletter (Winter 2019)

18th December 2019Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, collins and curtis masonry, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, pickford builders, principal contractors, principle contractors, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

Although we are Principal Contractors in Essex we have projects across the East of England and London. Our Winter 2019 newsletter looks at a selection of projects recently undertaken by Bakers of Danbury as well as our sister companies Collins and Curtis Masonry and Pickford Builders.

The Winter Newsletter looks at recent projects which include a grade II Listed barn conversion (to provide an entertainment suite, kitchen and bar area and gymnasium), recent repair work to the spire of St Mary's Church in Shoebury, a new build extension to Westminster School (to provide a presentation/ reception room, four new offices, new stairwell, lift and a new block of visitor w/c), enabling works recently completed to Chelmsford High School for Girls, a new build extension to Grays Convent School as well as many projects our onsite joinery workshop are working on.

The Winter Newsletter also looks at recently completed and current works carried out by our sister companies Collins and Curtis Masonry Ltd which is based in Ipswich and Pickford Builders Ltd which is based in Dunmow. Collins and Curtis has been busy supplying masonry to many projects which include stone products for private houses, a number of churches and memorials. Pickford Builders has been busy carrying out insurance repair works for a number of national insurance companies, as well as other general building projects which include the current conversion of a former industrial building into eight residential apartments in Braintree.

Click here to open our latest Newsletter. You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

Essex Wildlife Trust

2nd October 2019Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, principle contractors, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

2019 marks the 20th year that Bakers of Danbury Ltd have been corporate sponsors for Essex Wildlife Trust.

Bakers work in partnership with Essex Wildlife Trust whenever the opportunity arises. Financial support from Corporate members such as Bakers of Danbury is vital in enabling Essex Wildlife Trust to carry out Wildlife Conservation work across the County.

The aim of Essex Wildlife Trust is to protect Wildlife for the future and for the people of Essex. Essex Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading conservation charity and is supported financially by members, local businesses and grant making organisations. It has more than 37,000 members, manages and protects over 8,400 acres of land on 87 nature reserves, 2 nature parks and runs 11 visitor centres.

Grant Maton, Corporate Communications Officer for Essex Wildlife Trust said; “Your membership is greatly valued by the Trust and enables nature conservation to be undertaken around the county. Thank you for your continued support, it is very much appreciated.”

Bakers of Danbury offered additional support Essex Wildlife Trust’s recent Danbury Ridge Living Landscape partnership project, which was set up to help conserve local wildlife after a survey was carried out to identify the potential planting sites throughout Danbury Ridge Living Landscape. To read more about the Danbury Ridge project visit www.essexwt.org.uk.

Newsletter (Summer 2019)

22nd August 2019Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, principle contractors, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

Although we are Principle Contractors in Essex we have projects across the East of England and London. Our Summer 2019 newsletter looks at a selection of projects recently undertaken by Bakers of Danbury as well as our sister companies Collins and Curtis Masonry and Pickford Builders.

In addition to those projects detailed in our Newsletter, some other interesting projects include works to the WW1 and WW2 Coalhouse Fort near East Tilbury where we are replacing two world war II gun canopies, the restoration of the Portico on St Mary’s Church in Islington which was in poor structural condition and on the Heritage at Risk Register, as well as expansion and enabling works to Chelmsford County High School for Girls which are due for completion for the end of August.

Click here to open our latest Newsletter. You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

A Quacking New Duck House

21st February 2019Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, Barn, bathroom, builders, building contractors, chelmsford builders, chelmsford contractors, churches, community, conversion, corporate social responsibility, danbury, Essex, eves corner, extension, family room, general builders, hand build, house extension, in-house joinery workshop, kitchen, latest news, Listed, listed buildings, local builders, loft, news, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

Bakers of Danbury's in-house joinery workshop recently built and donated a new duck house to the village. Bakers of Danbury takes pride in supporting both our local community and the communities in which we work - sometimes through sponsorship or even offering a helping hand. We thought our ducks needed a new home!

On Friday 1st February representatives of Danbury Parish Council, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, children from the ECO Council for St John’s C of E Primary School, children from Heathcote Preparatory School and some local residents all braved the cold, wet and snowy weather and met on Eves Corner Friday morning to watch the ducks officially take up residence in their new home.

Stuart Berlyn, Chairman of Danbury Parish Council said;

“Once again Bakers of Danbury has supported the village and Parish Council with this fantastic donation to celebrate their 140th Anniversary. So much thought and hard work has gone into this duck house. It's the poshest duck house we've ever seen, but only the best for our ducks!”

The duck house design has taken inspiration from the The Parish Church of St John the Baptist. St John’s stands high on Danbury ridge, as a landmark whose spire is visible from the A12 and from many local vantage-points.

Peter Smyth, Managing Director of Bakers of Danbury Ltd said;

“The guys in our church department, who overlook Eves Corner, felt sorry for the ducks in their wonky house with holes in it.

So, we decided to ask our in-house joinery workshop to build a new duck house. We asked our Bench Joiner Robin Palmer to build the duck house, because he has taken his lunch by the pond almost every day, since he joined Bakers over 14 years ago!”

The church duck house design seems very fitting for Bakers, as they are well known for their conservation work to churches, ancient monuments and cathedrals, as well as work to listed buildings and private homes. Bakers have recently carried out conservation works to both St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey amongst other ecclesiastical buildings.

Bakers’ in-house joinery workshop handcraft bespoke joinery and furniture. The joinery shop meets all the joinery requirements of the company, as well as taking orders directly from clients for projects such as bespoke kitchens, dressing rooms, furniture for business reception areas and bespoke ecclesiastical items. The duck house is something a little out of the ordinary them!

Bakers took advice from The Essex Wildlife Trust who suggested the duck house should be installed in time for early spring as the Ducks will be looking for nesting sites then. The duck house has two nesting boxes – a door for each box can be found at either end of the house. Each nesting box has a floating ramp leading from the house into the water.

Bakers joinery shop made the duck house from weatherproof ply with a felt roof and a spire covered in Cedar shingles. Over time the Cedar will go a dark grey, more like the colour of St John’s Spire. The tower has been thoughtfully designed to capture the rain water on a felt roof within the tower and redirect it back out from under where the tower meets the church.

The duck house sits on metal stilts with the wooden legs sitting above the water level to prevent the wood from sitting in the water and rotting. It took a whole day to paint the duck house which includes details such as a mallard duck, flowers and detailed stone quoins, very much like those on St Johns. Peter Smyth said;

“We've been trying to give a bit back to the village, as we've just celebrated our 140th anniversary last year. Bakers have always been on Eves Corner, so we bought the Christmas tree to go on Eves Corner last year, as a thank you to the village too.”

Newsletter (Winter 2018)

20th December 2018Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

Our Winter 2018 newsletter looks at projects recently undertaken by Bakers of Danbury and it's sister companies Collins and Curtis Masonry and Pickford Builders.

Bakers of Danbury Ltd have had another very busy and exciting year across all of our companies. Our projects have won a number of prestigious awards again this year, including the following:

Civic Trust 2018 AABC Conservation Award (restoration of a redundant church Quay Place, Ipswich)

Civic Trust 2018 Commendation (conservation and alteration works to the Charterhouse, London)

National Churches Trust - The King of Prussia Gold Medal 2018 Highly Commended (major restoration project to St Peter and St Paul, Upper Stoke in Kent)

We have recently completed a new build consisting of four apartments on Mill Lane opposite Maldon Promenade, Maldon, Essex. The apartments are on the market now.

We were pleased to have been awarded extra masonry conservation works at the College of Arms in London. The College of Arms is a royal corporation acting on behalf of the Crown in all matters of heraldry, the granting of new coats of arms, genealogical and heraldic research, recording of pedigrees and matters relating to the flying of flags on land.

We have also been awarded additional conservation works at Coalhouse Fort, Tilbury, Essex. Coalhouse Fort was built between 1861 and 1874 to protect England from invasion by the French and used again during WW1 and WW2.

We look forward to starting a number of new projects in the New Year including an extensive refurbishment of a fire damaged barn in Essex, the rebuild of St John's Abbey precinct wall in Colchester, stone repairs to Rivenhall Place, reroofing and masonry repairs to St John the Evangelist Church in Bury St Edmunds, an installation of a new kitchen, w/c and mains services to St Catherine's Church in Littlington and timber repairs to a both a house in Layer Marney and a barn in Blackmore.

You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

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Newsletter (Summer 2018)

12th October 2018Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

This newsletter looks at projects recently undertaken by Bakers of Danbury and it's sister companies Collins and Curtis Masonry and Pickford Builders.

As many of you will know, or will have seen from our website, local press or national trade magazines; Bakers of Danbury celebrates it's 140th anniversary this year, so it seems somewhat appropriate to remind ourselves about the history of the business in our Summer Newsletter.

William Baker founded the business at the current Eves Corner site on 11th June 1878, with £50.00 and the loan of a horse and cart as a millwright, wheelwright and carpenter, working mainly on the local mills. As the mills fell into decline however, the business adapted to work more on local houses and churches whilst training and employing skilled local craftsmen.

William became very successful as the company worked on most of the local churches and also built many of the historic houses around Danbury, usually using red bricks from his own local brickyard. In time, William’s sons Frank and Charles took over the business and continued with works to churches and housing, with the business being further handed down in the family and then into private ownership, becoming Bakers of Danbury in 1971.

The current company continues to train and employ local people and continues to benefit from a highly skilled, loyal and motivated workforce enabling us to have the pleasure of working on many prestigious buildings producing the quality work for which it is very well known.

You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

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Bakers celebrate 140 years

13th June 2018Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, builders chelmsford, builders danbury, church, Church works, conservation, danbury, joinery, listed buildings, listed roof repairs, restoration, stone masons, stonemasory, traditional joinersKate Gunner

Monday 11th June marked Bakers of Danbury 140th anniversary. William Baker opened the business on 11th June 1878 as a “Millwright, wheelwright, carpenter etc”, with £50 and the loan of a horse and cart .

With the demise of mills there were few mill jobs after the 1890’s, at which point William Baker concentrated on building and a small amount of church works. The first house William Baker built was at a cost of £170 in 1880. The many houses that followed were built with bricks supplied from William Baker’s brick yard.

William Baker became very successful, carrying out general building works. In 1904 William Baker retired leaving the business to his sons - the business became “Baker and Sons”. Charlie Baker’s main interest was in building and Frank Baker’s main interest was in church restoration work. The restoration of the spire to the local church Danbury St John the Baptist in 1922 was their first major undertaking in church restoration work.

Being the only builder of size in the area, Baker and Sons were approached by clients wishing to acquire land and have a house built in the area. For these houses, Baker and Sons generally made use of red facing bricks manufactured in their own brickyards, and therefore much of the architecture you see today as you walk around Danbury and surrounding villages can be identified as the work of Charlie and Frank Baker.

The business was handed down to family members over the years and became “Bakers of Danbury Ltd” in 1971.

BAKERS OF DANBURY TODAY

Today, Bakers are still known for their expertise on historic and listed properties, and interestingly, many of the methods used in conservation and restoration work remain very similar to those used over a century ago.

Bakers of Danbury has 5 Directors one of which is Antony Wood, the son of David Wood (Director from 1965 until 2005).

Bakers are currently working on Westminster Abbey, and in the past 12 months have carried out restoration and alteration works to The Charterhouse in London, Westminster Cathedral and St Pauls Cathedral amongst many other projects. Recent projects have won the following prestigious awards; RICS National Award 2017 for Building Conservation, RIBA National award 2017, Civic Trust 2018 AABC Conservation award and a Diocese of Chelmsford, Design Award 2017.

Other interesting projects include the soft capping conservation work to the Norman high flint walls of Walden Castle in Saffron Walden, Essex (2017), various restoration works to the Norman Colchester Castle, Essex (since 1985) and Colchester’s Roman Walls, repairs to a number of local windmills, and various restoration works and preventative maintenance carried out to St Albans Cathedral (since 1984) and Chelmsford Cathedral (since the 1960’s).

Bakers benefit from a team of experienced stonemasons, carpenters, joiners and other tradesmen. The longest serving having worked up through our apprenticeship scheme has been with Bakers over 35 years!

To read about our history and view our collection of photos taken over the years, visit our history page.

Newsletter (Winter 2017)

29th March 2018Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

We have had another very busy and exciting year across all of our companies, with works to some of our country’s most iconic landmarks including Westminster Abbey, St Pauls Cathedral and St Albans Cathedral to name just a few.

At the beginning of this year we had the honour of being invited to meet the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at the formal opening of The Charterhouse. The “Revealing the Charterhouse” project was a £4 million project for which Bakers were Principle Contactors. It involved the remodelling of a Grade I Listed building to house a new museum and learning centre as well as other conservation and restoration works.

2018 will mark the 140th anniversary for Bakers of Danbury, established in 1878 by William Baker with £50 and a horse and cart. The company initially carried out works to local mills but with the demise of the mills in the late 1890s, William Baker concentrated on works to churches and house building. Most houses William Baker built were with bricks from his own local brickfields.

140 years later, Bakers of Danbury continue to engage in a very similar portfolio of works ranging from conserving our regions listed buildings and monuments to new build projects including houses and schools.

We continue to work hard to maintain the company’s excellent reputation as we look forward to another 140 years. On behalf of all of our Directors I wish you and your family a peaceful but merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.

You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

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Newsletter (Summer 2017)

14th July 2017Latest NewsBakers of Danbury, Bakers of Danbury Ltd, building contractors, churches, Essex, general builders, latest news, listed buildings, monuments, news, Noble & Taylor, Ongar, RefurbishmentKate Gunner

2017 has certainly been a year to remember for Bakers of Danbury!

In February we met the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh when they formerly opened the Charterhouse, London. We had been principal contractors for the works at the Charterhouse which involved remodelling the Grade I listed building to house a new museum and learning centre, amongst other conservation and restoration works.

We are also delighted with the recognition we have received for some of our recent projects, having been awarded a RICS East of England 2017 award for Building Conservation, two RIBA East 2017 awards and a Diocese of Chelmsford 2017, Design award!

The Summer Newsletter provides a short description of some of our latest projects including the restoration and remodelling works to the Grade I Listed Charterhouse in London, conservation works to The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban, the restoration of the King Harold Memorial at the Waltham Abbey Church and a recently completed double storey extension to a Grade II listed home. The newsletter also features updates from our sister companies Collins and Curtis and Pickford Builders.

You can also keep up-to-date with Baker’s latest news by visiting our latest news page and our Facebook page!

If you haven't already done so, please watch the short film of one of our Joiners hand carving a crocus detail for works taking place at St Marys Church, Saffron Walden, Essex. The skill involved really is something to be admired.

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