This genuinely was a random drive-by find that looked far too tempting to pass up. After checking something else out nearby with no luck we headed back here before leaving the area just to see what was what. A little bit of googling revealed it to be a former sawmill/timber yard which piqued our interest, I didn't think for a minute it'd be close to anything like Jeld Wen but we had to check it out.
There is a lot of history of the company and the people involved here in this article from 2002 - Timber treasure - I have cherry-picked an abridged history below.
Glenmere Timber was a family-run business founded by Ron Robinson and his wife as well as his sons and daughter in 1978, on the premises of the former Hoptons Sawmill in Market Harborough. Glenmere timber was, when operational, one of the last timber companies to import African logs including mahogany and walnut into the UK and specialised in the highest grade best quality timbers and hardwoods. The company was proud to be able to custom cut timbers for customers including much larger than normal timbers for furniture companies, with on-site kilns. In the 1980s the company acquired a second site on the Riverside Industrial Estate in the town, this was fitted out with numerous large warehouses for bulk storage of European and North American woods. Their stock holding on Riverside was known affectionately in the trade as 'Fantasy Island' because there was such incredible variety of woods on offer to customers. The company appears to have worked right up until the end of 2023, the latest dates on calendars dotted around were December 2023 so I imagine it closed for Christmas and that was it. It would appear there were plans to build an Aldi store on site, as in a few places around the main building are things referencing Aldi drawn by the workers who were presumably pretty disgruntled. It's currently got a large 'development opportunity' board stuck on the side of one of the buildings although weirdly the company named on it has no online presence short of one guy's LinkedIn account, and there is only a phone number on the board!
Walking the perimeter, the site is incredibly exposed as it sits on a junction in the middle of the town, however after a further look we discovered a nice discrete entry point away from prying eyes and set about the explore. As expected it was heavily stripped, but still had a few things of interest in it and to be honest it was nice just to see somewhere that I don't think has had any coverage. A few smaller sheds had been demolished at some point, I assume this was to allow easier access for removal of equipment and machinery.
Thanks for looking
There is a lot of history of the company and the people involved here in this article from 2002 - Timber treasure - I have cherry-picked an abridged history below.
Glenmere Timber was a family-run business founded by Ron Robinson and his wife as well as his sons and daughter in 1978, on the premises of the former Hoptons Sawmill in Market Harborough. Glenmere timber was, when operational, one of the last timber companies to import African logs including mahogany and walnut into the UK and specialised in the highest grade best quality timbers and hardwoods. The company was proud to be able to custom cut timbers for customers including much larger than normal timbers for furniture companies, with on-site kilns. In the 1980s the company acquired a second site on the Riverside Industrial Estate in the town, this was fitted out with numerous large warehouses for bulk storage of European and North American woods. Their stock holding on Riverside was known affectionately in the trade as 'Fantasy Island' because there was such incredible variety of woods on offer to customers. The company appears to have worked right up until the end of 2023, the latest dates on calendars dotted around were December 2023 so I imagine it closed for Christmas and that was it. It would appear there were plans to build an Aldi store on site, as in a few places around the main building are things referencing Aldi drawn by the workers who were presumably pretty disgruntled. It's currently got a large 'development opportunity' board stuck on the side of one of the buildings although weirdly the company named on it has no online presence short of one guy's LinkedIn account, and there is only a phone number on the board!
Walking the perimeter, the site is incredibly exposed as it sits on a junction in the middle of the town, however after a further look we discovered a nice discrete entry point away from prying eyes and set about the explore. As expected it was heavily stripped, but still had a few things of interest in it and to be honest it was nice just to see somewhere that I don't think has had any coverage. A few smaller sheds had been demolished at some point, I assume this was to allow easier access for removal of equipment and machinery.
Thanks for looking
