Christmas!
After a very busy year, were really pleased to get the opportunity to all be able to get together for Christmas dinner at Peterstone court. It was especially nice to be able welcome the newest addition - baby Oliver - just 5 weeks old - congratulations to Greig (Product Support - Limecrete Floors) and Lizzie!
New Bird Hide!
Enquiry by design (EbD) is a process designed by the Prince’s Trust Foundation which promotes rapid joined up decision making and community engagement.
In the early summer The PTF, in a ‘Live Enquiry by Design’ designed & built models of a new bird hide to replace the existing structure on the south shore of Llangorse Lake. A public and stakeholder vote chose the final design. The Ty-Mawr Farm workshops then provided the facility for the huge oak frames to be shaped and jointed by the students before being transported to the lake shore, as we speak, the beautiful timber frame is being erected. By the Spring of 2012 the hide will be ready to receive its first bird watchers where they will be able to enjoy a new and much improved view of the the lake and lakeshore from one of the most beautifully crafted hides in the country!
On-Line Retail Award!
We were thrilled to return from a few days in Saundersfoot, West Wales to discover that we were the winners of the On-Line Retail Awards! The judges unanimously agreed that the Ty Mawr website was the out and out winner in the Green Products category as well as the Prix D'or! They noted that there’s a huge amount of useful information about ecologically sound building materials on this immaculately designed website. “One of the most informed and informative, intelligent and challenging retail experiences in this year’s competition” was the view of the judges!
Summer School
Summer School playing tennis on Ty-Mawr lawn by Harvey Gervis, Aged 7 and a bit!
For news of the Summer School - please see this link!
More to follow...
New Catalogue!
Our new catalogue is now available with 80 pages packed full of information, selection tables, comparison tables, tips, coverage rates etc of our entire product range. Click here to view it on-line or here to order your copy!
Our 2011 Newsletter is also available electronically or email us at tymawr@lime.org.uk for further copies.
Showtime - Thatching, Rope Making, Thrashing, Milling, Baking, Slating, Gilding, Lime Plastering, Pointing, Leadworking, Oven Making, Pargetting, Stone Carving...
We were really pleased this year to work much closer with the Royal Welsh Show in developing a 'skills section' - bringing together lots of our friends and colleagues from the traditional building skills world, who so generously gave of thier time to help us in our quest to inspire others!
The stand was a hive of activity, Alan Jones and Dafydd Driver, as always, attracted huge crowds to their thatching demonstrations and this year Henry, Harvey and Cai really enjoyed helping them thrashing the local straw (where the straw was used then for thatching) and the grain for milling on a little quern-stone. Boys were covered in flour most of the week but thrilled at their new found skill!
Michael and Owen set up making a new pizza oven inside the adjacent stand, firstly making a fire resistant base on Monday and then forming a mould for the shape of the oven out of sand. They then worked on this during the week and finally created a new oven finishing it with a pargetted dragon on the lime hemp mix. During the daytimes Mike and Owen produced a variety of pizzas, with peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms and cheese, all on their home made pizza dough of different varieties, including brioche and in the afternoons delighted spectators by producing a banana, Nuttella spread, flaked almond and soft cheese version of a pizza, folded over to form the aptly named by Henry ‘Llangasty Pasty’! Later in the day when the pizza oven had cooled, bread was baked in the oven made from the flour that Alan had produced. It was good to have that lovely warm oven so close to the stand, as it was pretty chilly at the beginning of the week!
Jane Turner spent Monday and Tuesday with us providing demonstrations of her stone carving, for statues, house names and numbers and other intricate carvings - beautiful work! Tom and Finn (Jones and Fraser Traditional Building) were there all week showing examples of slate cutting in a fish scale design to form a replica church spire which they then dressed with a lead capping. They also knocked-up a lime hemp plaster and together with Scott (one of our Product Specialists), demonstrated plastering on laths and straw bales during the day.
Our new recruits, Sam Hale and Joanna Porter, looked after the Ty-Mawr main stand and were joined by Christine Armstrong from Second Nature and Richard Poole from the British Wool Marketing Board for some of the time who spent their time on the stand answering various questions relating to the benefits of Ty-Mawr Thermafleece sheep’s wool insulation. Many visitors from the farming community were not only pleased to see wool being put to a good use, but asking questions regarding the purchasing and processing of fleeces!
His Royal Highness, the Duke of Kent visited us on Wednesday, he showed an interest in the sheep's wool and the thatching asking Alan all about the processes.
On the last day, we were joined by Cath Haslam and Sarah Warburton who attracted crowds to watch them gild. Tom and Finn completed their slate roofing demonstration, Owen completed his new oven, and all just before the rain came during the latter part of the afternoon.
On the last night, Henry made it to the auction of produce in the flower tent to buy his Mum some gladioli - lovely!
On-Line Retail Awards
We are really please to have been shortlisted for the On-line Retail Awards. They are the only international awards that celebrate the great experiences online retailers provide for their customers through their websites. Watch this space for further news!!!
Pizzas and Penguins
A busy campsite over half term gave us the opportunity to try out the pizza oven built on the stag weekend, see below, they were fabulous! Henry is the master of pizza dough making now! Note, the new limecrete floor laid in the campsite, we are polishing it to reveal the glass before the Prince's Foundation for the Built Envrionment create the struture as part of their Summer School in July.
Nigel and I headed off to London Zoo to look at some of their buildings, they have an astonishing balance to achieve of animal welfare, caring for listed (sometimes obsolete) structures, sustainability issues and funding. There are over 40 structures on site, 17 of them are listed including the first Reptile house (1849), first public Aquarium (1853), first insect house (1881) and the first children's zoo (1938). We thoroughly enjoyed looking at some of the building challenges with them and were very pleased to be shown around the recently completed renovation of the penguin enclosure - some very happy penguins!
Launch of the Natural Building Centre, Betws Y Coed
We have just returned from Betws Y Coed from the launch of the Natural Building Centre.
We have worked with Ned and Sophie Scharer for over a decade, initially as customers and then Ned worked for Ty-Mawr part-time holding stocks and looking after clients in North Wales. Such was the interest and the need for local stocks, that Ned and Sophie have set up their own business - The Natural Building Centre at an amazing site just outside Betws which will be their own restoration project - Plas Tirion - a 16th century farm. The Natural Building Centre will be located in the wonderful outbuildings.
As well as holding our full range of products for North Wales clients, Ned and Sophie will be offering first class support and advice as well as running training courses and setting up a pottery. Plas Tirion, like Ty-Mawr will provide an exemplar, showing how the materials can be used to care for an important house and buildings historically whilst being sensitive to environmental issues.
Their website is full operational - click here - or call Ned or Sophie on 01492 640888 or email - post@thenaturalbuildingcentre.co.uk
Re-limewashing Ty-Mawr
After a year of window replacing etc, Ty-Mawr was in need of another coat of limewash. We kept to the copperas which looks so stunning when it rains! Our limewashers - Bridget, Tom Jones and Finn Fraser (Jones and Fraser Ltd, Bronllys) and our own Scott and Josh, did the whole of the house and Training Centre in just two days (as we were also against time for a photoshoot) but careful preparation (note windows covered, woodwork masked off, plants were covered with tarps, hose pipes at the ready) as well as perfect tending by Nigel to ensure it didn't dry too quickly, including regular wetting down, even at 6am, which has led to a very successful finish.
Tree House and Summer House
As our new 'sustainable' structures start to take shape at Ty-Mawr, we were really pleased to see Martin Frazer arrive with his woodmizer to plank up the tree thinnings from the old wood ready for the boy's treehouse and for the 'outside eating house' which will be constructed by this year's Summer School participants for the Prince's Foundation for The Built Environment. The limecrete floor slab is being laid as I type this and a Pizza Oven constructing party are arriving very soon to put the most important elements in place!
Lots of wood of all dimensions! Pizza oven building 'stag' weekend!
Coloured Willow from Miss M Bide, planted for shelters in the Millenium Wood at Ty-Mawr!
Donations
Joyce Gervis, Managing Director and Di Deem, Financial Director would like to thank everyone for their donations to the Deri Morgan Breath of Life fund which has reached (and exceeded it's target) to help further research into Farmer's Lung.
On 8th May, we visited the Cefn Lla Woodland, where we were able to see the oak tree dedicated by the British Lung Foundation in memory of Deri Morgan as a result of everyone's kind contributions. The little oak tree stands among 36,000 others in this amazing valley full of spring flowers and bird song. We were pleased to see that the Welsh Assembly have also planted a tree for every child born in Wales there too which means that Deri's (Dad's) tree is amongst trees planted for some of his grandchildren.
Our thanks to everyone who has contributed.
Cai standing next to the oak tree dedicated to Dad (Deri Morgan) by the British Lung Foundation
New Recruits!
We are pleased to welcome Scott Bradburn to our team as our new 'lime plastering support' - Scott is available for site visits, site supervision and training. Our experience shows that the success of a project very much relies on the experience of the plastering team plus the support of someone like Scott to ensure the products are used exactly as they should be. Scott can be contacted at scott.bradburn@lime.org.uk.
He is very much involved in Product Development and is working closely with Nigel, Technical Director and the University of Bath in testing various new product applications.
We also welcome Sam Hale who is working with Joyce Gervis, Managing Director, to further develop our range of customer services to include historic research into client buildings, appraisals of listed and unlisted buildings along with product/systems recommendations as well as undertaking a number of case studies where Ty-Mawr products have been or are being used. Sam can be contact at sam.hale@lime.org.uk but keep watching the Case Studies section of our website for his work!
We also welcome Michael Aldridge to our Production Team and Dan Pearson to our Warehouse team! They join us at a busy time of year where we are processing up to 75 orders per day! All very good news for traditional and sustainable building as well as the environment!
Summer School Presentations
We were really thrilled to be invited to Charlotte Street in London's east end to the offices of the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment to see the Summer School participants of 2010 being presented with their ceritificates by His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.
The boys (Henry, Harvey and Cai) were especially pleased to be invited, to be able to see everyone again (and to get a day off school I suspect), but they were really pleased to see all those familiar faces of talented and special people from all over the world, recieving their recognition in this way.
We look forward to welcoming the new recruits to Ty-Mawr in 2011!
The Natural Answer to Sustainable Building!
We missed this when it came out in the Western Mail but thanks to technology, it is nice to be able to see it and make a link!
Spring at Ty-Mawr
This years SPAB (Society of the Protection of Ancient Buildings) Scholars and Fellows arrived at Ty-Mawr with the Spring!
They had a day at Tretower Court (see above) with Martin McNamara and Nigel, a walk (or race in Kenny's case pushing Cai) around Llangorse Lake to enjoy a meal and a drink in the Red Lion before visiting the lambing shed at the farm on the way back!
The following day they spent with Nigel and Dave Fay (plasterer) at Ty-Mawr discovering and celebrating all things 'lime' and 'vapour permeable'. The boys thoroughly enjoyed their stay too - plenty of trampolining, bike pushing, Croatian omlettes (thank you Boris!) and films by the fire!
Welcome!
As we get into the 'lime season', we are busy recruiting - in the warehouse - Dave is joined by Dan Ferguson, in the sales office, we have been joined by Rhys Jones and David Wilson...
Excellence in Construction in Powys
We were very pleased to sponsor Powys County Council's first award scheme to encourage and commend excellence in construction.
Building Control Surveyors from throughout Powys had nominated schemes for the LABC Cymru Building Excellence Awards 2011, we had the honour of presenting the certificates at the awards dinner to those Highly Commended and those who won 2 out of the 11 categories - for Sustainability and for the Built Heritage.
It was lovely to see so many of our customers there and to see details and pictures of schemes they had been working on over the last year or so and within which our materials had been used like Abergwdi Builders for the stables at Penpont, C Sneade Ltd for the WISE at CAT and Pen-y-coed Construction. It was very inspiring to see the quality of schemes, materials and building skills that we now have available in the county. Congratulations to all!
Local Purchase!
Over the last decade, the value of purchasing local food has been well recognised and accepted. At shcool, the boys have done some fabulous projects looking at the road miles of chocolate eggs or pizzas with some terrifying results - ingredients literally clocking up 10,000s of miles!
It is estimated that 10% of the road transport in this country can be attributed to moving construction materials around and in turn this has a significant impact on energy consumption and hence carbon dioxide emissions. If we can source raw materials for our building products locally and/or manufacture within the UK, whatever the figures, we feel this is sensible from an environmental as well as an economic point of view. We are therefore pleased to be able to add a British grown and manufactured hemp fibre insulation product to our range - Thermafleece Hemp.
Did you know - hemp is the second fastest growing plant on the planet, that it uniquely enriches the soil in which it grows, absorbs carbon dioxide, is a low input plant (requiring little water, and little or no pesticides or herbicides, is strong and versatile - over 30,000 products can be made from it (it is an ideal substitute for cotton, plastic, food oil and in construction, sand - see our lime hemp plaster!).
Our Anniversary!
It seems unbelieveable that it was 18 years ago this week that we moved into Ty-Mawr. We felt excited and strangely undaunted despite having just £1,500 left in our bank account, a large mortgage, no clear plans for how we were going to fund the enormous restoration project we had on our hands just lots of enthusiasm, energetic family and friends and determination to repair it appropriately with minimal environmental impact (words that weren't really being used/thought about hugely back then!) and to bring it all back to life, to help it earns its living again which would secure its future!
We were, I guess, fortunate with our timing, but are thrilled that our passion for materials and buildings, has allowed us to develop a business that has helped us to achieve many of our ambitions at Ty-Mawr and to be able to share that with others. It is relentless though, and days off, even now, are rare. These early months in the year, when the lime business and courses are quieter, allow us crucial time to do work on the site - clearing the woods, stock piling wood for the biomass, repairing walls, installing any new equipments/improvements to make sure that the manufacturing yard, training centre and warehouse are all ready and geared up for our really busy time (March- October).
We escaped for a day though over half term to one of our favourite places, the Harbour Master in Aberaeron, and showed the boys the Old Weigh House (for Lime) in Aberaeron. The Weigh House was used between 1800 –1900 for weighing the lime which was burnt with coal in the nearby limekilns. The two grass-topped humps are the only remains of the limekilns now to be seen.
"Happy anniversary! Seems a long time ,1998, since I first met you both, time flies. Anyway just a short thankyou for my latest order which was delivered this morning by Paddy, as ever the mixes look great. All your success is thoroughly deserved and I hope you continue on your pioneering ways! Kind regards to all concerned!". IH.15/3/11
Courses start again this week with the Introduction to Lime and Lime Plastering days kicking them off - we look forward to welcoming everyone back to the site!
Energy Efficiency Measures at Ty-Mawr
For our Energy Efficiency open day in January, attended by 30 delegates, we highlighted the steps that we have taken in trying to make our own property - see below- more energy efficient. We have produced a leaflet describing the measures that potentially reduces our own carbon dioxide emissions (through energy saved) by up to 40 tonnes per annum! Email joyce.gervis@lime.org.uk for a pdf copy.
We have incorporated our own products in systems including a warm roof, a new timber-frame building and an insulated limecrete floor, please email us for systems builds or further information.
Happy Birthdays!
We have two friends with 50th birthdays this week - I thought Harv's card (of Ty-Mawr) was gorgeous!...
Ty-Mawr by Harvey Gervis Aged 6
Henry is doing a history project on Ty-Mawr - we decided that as we have a good timeline of owners already, it would be nice to explore their characters and lives a little - they have been quite colourful - from Dukes that were executed for Treason to Lords fined for stealing eels from the crown, from wealthy French bankers to not so wealthy lime producers! All very exciting....
Precious Resources!
I know not exactly about buildings or building materials but the issues about being careful with the world's precious resources for a sustainable future are exactly the same, so we have just signed up to Hugh's Fish Fight - let's hope it changes things!
EMS Award
We are extremely proud to be the first company in Wales to receive a UKAS accredited BS8555:2003 Environmental Management System registration under the Seren Scheme.
Tarian Inspection Services who assessed the business, awarding it phase 3, said “We are delighted to award our first UKAS accredited certificate to Ty Mawr and are very proud that this certificate has been awarded to an organization with such an excellent commitment to environmental improvement through not only the ethos of the staff but the products and services of the company itself. We therefore offer our sincere congratulations to the whole team at Ty Mawr"
At a time when businesses have being pulling back from anything other than essential expenditure, we felt that it was important to be able to continue to demonstrate that although we are operating as efficiently as possible to keep costs down, we are not compromising quality or our environmental principles. BS8555 shows that we ‘practice what we preach in everything that we do’ – from the paper we buy, to the way we heat our premises, to the way we deal with any waste and through to training our staff to be aware of and to operate and continually improve our environmental performance. It also helps us to understand and ensure our legal compliance which again is important in terms of caring for the environment.
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