Hardwood

2-bay oak notice board with rotating Open and Shut slats for Redbournbury Mill & Bakery, Hertfordshire.

When it came to solving the problem of publicising the differing opening times of their watermill and its associated bakery, the volunteers at Redbournbury Mill near St Albans in Hertfordshire can most definitely be said to have used their loaf.

Greenbarnes Ltd was approached by designers Roy Bellamy working on behalf of the Mill, to manufacture a notice board incorporating independently rotating slats which in addition to conveying general information about the Mill and Bakery within a glazed display area also indicate whether the respective parts are open or closed.

“We chose a Greenbarnes notice board because you were able to adapt one of your standard boards to our needs. You supplied extra oak engraved panels which we have fitted to the base of the board, allowing us to rotate them to show the different combinations of opening times for the mill and bakery.”, commented Justin James. “We also liked the fact that the boards are produced from oak which is used extensively in the mill and they look very appropriate in an idyllic rural setting.”

We chose a Greenbarnes notice board because you were able to adapt one of your standard boards to our needs. You supplied extra oak engraved panels which we have fitted to the base of the board, allowing us to rotate them to show the different combinations of opening times for the mill and bakery.

Whilst it is good to know that the end result met expectations, equally gratifying are Justin’s comments on the process of getting there.

“Your staff were always friendly, well informed and efficient when contacted and were particularly helpful last week when we needed to collect the signs at short notice. I am delighted with the quality of the boards and with my whole experience of working with your company.”

If thoughts of fresh baked bread have you salivating already, further details of Redbournbury Mill and Bakery can be found at www.RedbournburyMill.co.uk/. Meanwhile if your appetite is for a similar project, please call us on 01280 701093, email our Sales Department or see more of our hardwood notice boards here.

A2 notice board designed by Greenbarnes Ltd specifically for use in church porch environments.

The Church Porch – A difficult space to manage.

The church porch is an odd environment. Neither wholly inside nor outside, this transition between the secular and spiritual worlds, frequently becomes a neglected hinterland, of windblown debris, mildew and damp paper. Even churches which otherwise pay great attention to first impressions, are often guilty of falling at this last hurdle on their threshold.

In truth it is a tough environment to manage, in many cases still more suited to its original purpose of storing visitor’s weapons than to its more mundane modern roles of providing shelter from the rain, offering a place for meeting and greeting, and displaying copious amounts of information.

As a result this latter function, walls are often covered in damp and rotting pinboards, most of which are ill-designed to cope with the environment in which they are located. And it is for this very reason that Greenbarnes have developed a purpose-made range of unglazed notice boards for church porch applications.

Framed either in oak or, for completely maintenance-free performance, in Man-made Timber, (a recycled plastic with the appearance of timber), these boards have a weatherproof rubber pinboard, are available in a range of standard sizes, or can be made to measure.

If the problems outlined above have set alarm bells ringing, then contact us on 01280 701093, or email our Sales Department

A recent church sign project for Great Baddow United Reform Church, Essex. From January 2011 all non-VAT registered customers will inevitably be paying more to get their message across.

If the two great certainties of life are death and taxes, 2011 will start with a third, yet more tax! In order to begin plugging the huge hole in its finances, the UK government recently announced that from 04/01/2011 the standard rate of VAT will rise by 2.5% to 20%.

This may not sound like a lot but if you are currently considering spending money on signage, notice boards or street furniture and, if like many of our customers, you are on a tight budget and unable to reclaim VAT, (churches and village halls in particular come to mind here), in effect this represents 2.5% more that you will have to spend to achieve the same result. The only alternative will be to pare down your wish list to match the funds available.

Given that, by their very nature, these projects tend to take a while in the planning, our advice to anyone in this position would be to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later. Time spent now on working out what you need and gathering the necessary information will ensure that, not only do you have the time to make informed choices but also that you will be in a position to place an order in good time ahead of the crowd.

From January 2011 all non-VAT registered customers will inevitably be paying more to get their message across.

So, having convinced you that now is the time to act, the next question is where to start. Perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that, in our opinion, you could do worse than ringing our sales team on 01280 701093 or email our Sales Department for sound advice and no-obligation quotations.

Top: Burgess Square signage in stainless steel. Bottom: Bespoke oak-framed chalk board for The Old Hall Bookshop

A quick glance at our “Recent Projects Map” immediately reveals the nationwide coverage achieved by Greenbarnes products. However, three very different signage jobs, coincidentally all undertaken within the last 3 months in our home town of Brackley, Northants, have combined to provide a useful showcase of the company’s diversity.

First to be completed was a project for developer Swan Hill Homes Ltd in connection with the town’s new Burgess Square development. The signs, in brushed stainless steel with chemically etched graphics, are mounted between bollards at the front edge of the site to identify the newly created space and to delineate it from the existing Market Place.

Immediately opposite the Burgess Square project, but a world away in style, a bespoke oak-framed chalk board for our local independent book shop demonstrates the company’s skills in more traditional areas of sign-making. The Old Hall Bookshop occupies elegant Georgian premises set back from the High Street behind a garden area and was looking for a way to raise its profile by means of getting a variable message to passers-by. The railing-mounted board can be removed for safe storage at night.

Last but not least was a brace of powder-coated aluminium “tray” type signs with computer-cut vinyl graphics for life insurance specialists Pulse Insurance Ltd who have recently opened new premises in the town.

If you are considering any signage projects, why not contact our Sales Department for a no-obligation quotation.

Cows on the mooove!

Created in 1978, the Concrete Cows of Milton Keynes have become the city’s best-loved and most widely known piece of public artwork. To date the cows have lead an adventurous lifestyle which has included being kidnapped and held to ransom, decapitated Damien Hurst style and headlining at the Cambridge Folk Festival.

Now, in order that they may be enjoyed by a wider audience, five of the herd have been loaned to Midsummer Place Shopping Centre by their owners, The Parks Trust. Greenbarnes Ltd are delighted to have been chosen to supply the three bespoke interpretation panels, framed in oak with graphics printed onto Dibond panels, which accompany the three cows and two calves currently corralled under the oak tree in the centre.

One of the more unusual challenges to present itself in 2007 was the construction of a new “watering point” for St Peter’s Church, Iver in Buckinghamshire. The project required that the new unit, which was funded by a family in memory of their parents, be built as closely as possible as a replica of the original, a challenge made no easier by the absence of a number of the original details.

The new unit, which we are delighted to report has been well received by the client is constructed in oak and comprises a pair of 100mm square posts with decorative brackets, a central panel and “tap box” to accommodate the plumbing and a hipped roof structure with oak slats and ridge mouldings.