History

A long traditional family business which has been working with timber along Martley Hillside which
continues vigorously to this day...

Fencing

Here at Hillend Sawmills we manufacture a large choice of fencing with the Heavy duty vertical panels being the best seller due to it strength, other types of fencing panels available are overlap, straight edge, interwoven and hit and miss panels...

A long-standing reputation for creating durable timber structures

Hillend Sawmills (Martley) Ltd

A history of strong family values and quality craftsmanship through the ages

Hillend Sawmills is a long-established, traditional family business which has been working with timber along Martley Hillside for a number of generations. At present, Philip and Rachel Brooke run our timber yard, manufacturing all of our timber products.

Rachel’s great, great grandfather Williams was a wheelwright in Abberley who specialised in making long ladders for fruit pickers. He moved to Martley and worked for the Earl of Dudley on the Great Witley Estate making gates and doing all the woodwork repairs. When the Dudley’s sold the estate, Williams started a business on his own, which is when it all started…

The beginning

Bob Williams took over the business in 1936 and started to make high quality gates for which he became famous throughout the county. He also bought and sold round timber, supplying pear wood to Waterford Glass in Southern Ireland to purify glass until fruit farming in the area had declined and the supply of pear trees had finally run out.

Time for expansion

Rachel’s Father Andrew, along with his wife Barbara, expanded the business along Martley Hillside, employing local men from within and around the village - setting up a working sawmill to supply the woodworking factory, which is where all the manufacturing is still done today.

The sawmill was once used to cut walnut wood which was used for making gun stocks. Elm was used by Ercol for furniture making, but when the dreaded Dutch elm disease struck, Andrew bought all the elm on the county council property and was responsible for the felling, clearing and murchanting of the majority of elm felled in Worcestershire at that time. Various kinds of timber have been purchased over major estates in the county, as well as woodland in Wales, where 58,000 trees have been planted to mature into beech and conifer.

With the post-war increase in home ownership, Andrew and Barbara began to manufacture and sell fencing panels, sheds, greenhouses, conservatories and gates. English oak was big on the market for restoration work on listed buildings, churches and general conversions, and has even been supplied to the Department of the Environment, National Heritage and to British Waterways for the maintenance of lock gates.

Rachel and Philip took over the wood working side of the business a few years ago, finding work for approximately 25 full and part time staff. Barbara still runs the conservatory side to the business.

Hillend Sawmills has grown dramatically since the days of village wheelwright. Round timber is still delivered in by the arctic lorry load – allowing us to provide sawn and kiln dried timber.

Fencing materials, small sheds, kennels, hutches, pens, hardwood timber and playhouses are manufactured on-site and delivered locally. However, we do offer a UK-wide service for the manufacturing of stables, garages, summerhouses, sauna houses and children’s play systems.