About us…
Based in Rhyl, on the North Wales coast, we are a small family run company, specialising in the manufacture of made to measure wooden gates, side hung garage doors and general joinery items. We have made our own range of gates and garage doors since 1989, but our experience in carpentry and joinery stretches back much further than this – three generations – and everything we manufacture is still based on this knowledge.
Three generations of time served craftsman…
We still use the same traditional skills that William Joseph Culshaw first learnt during his apprenticeship as a Carpenter and Joiner during the 1930s. Born in 1922, he volunteered for service in the RAF during the Second World War, where he drove ambulances in France and later Holland, before being recalled home for the grim task of making coffins for the war effort.
He completed his apprenticeship during his time in the RAF, and after the war, when consumer goods were in short supply, friends and neighbours would ask him to make cots, high chairs and toys from scrap materials.
He worked for several large construction companies during his time as a Carpenter and Joiner, including a spell working on liners for Cammell Laird.
William’s son, Bill, was born in 1948 and decided to follow his father into woodwork. He served his apprenticeship with a major construction company between 1965 and 1968, passing his City and Guild’s Advanced Craft Carpentry and Joinery with credits.
Also, serving in the Naval Reserve, Bill travelled to HMS Sultan in Portsmouth to take a trade test to become a Shipwright Mechanic Joiner. This involved making a swivelling drop-leaf table which was completed earlier than expected, so Bill was put to work refurbishing the horse box that belonged to the Admiral’s wife! Bill worked for other carpentry/joinery and construction firms until the late eighties, when he started his own business.
Jon, Bill’s son, born in 1974, also decided to take up Carpentry and Joinery. He started working for a local joinery company in 1991 and also attended college on a City and Guild’s Carpentry and Joinery course. Passing his initial City and Guilds craft with credits in 1993, he then enrolled upon and qualified from the one year City and Guild’s Advanced Craft course.
After this time, Jon spent his time gaining further experience on construction sites, before teaming up with Bill in his workshop, where he still uses some of his Grandfather’s original tools.
It is this three generations of experience that gives us the confidence to say –