“Buy Cheap, Buy Twice”
Dec 13, 2011 General News
As a child from the sixties, I remember the days of poor quality goods from China or South Korea, and as soon as you get them home – They Break! Unfortunately this quality issue still remain, as many project managers and parents will find out over the festivities. But this issue is not just confined to the every day person trying to make their budgets stretch further, as a major Brazilian mining giant found with a project involving a 400,000 ton iron ore carrier . Not quite a small toy!
The ship is part of the company’s35 ship order being built at Asian yards – a wildly ambitious multi-billion dollar plan by the (ousted) former chief executive, to cut freight costs.
On its maiden voyage, two of the ship’s ballast tanks cracked during the loading process and the grandly-named ‘Vale Beijing’ was taking on water in the balmy waters of northern Brazil. Engineers have concluded that both vessels needs major repairs. I wonder who will be paying for the repair bill. I am sure lawyers on both sides will be rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of a major international law suit. To read more: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/09/steering-vales-megaships-away-from-china/#axzz1gQcgqGp7
My Gran’s old saying “Buy cheap, buy twice” comes to mind.
The same can be said with street furniture and school playground equipment. Unfortunately there are many cheap imports flooding the European, UK and American markets. Mainly copies of original works that were designed to a quality standard and made by quality companies that have been making products for the street furniture markets for years.
The only way to ensure quality and sustainability is to purchase off reputable companies based in travelling distance from you. You can then go and see the goods being designed and handcrafted, especially worthwhile on big budget schemes for school playgrounds or street furniture projects. Look for manufacturers who have a passion for what they do as they will usually offer better guarantees and back up services if any thing does go wrong. They are also within easy reach of your site, so can be with you within hours.
At Pendlewood street furniture and school playgrounds, we offer that level of service to all of our customers. They can visit our 18000 square foot workshops and see, feel and smell our handcrafted street furniture being designed and made.
We also offer a bespoke service where your design ideas can become reality. Bespoke street furniture and bespoke school playgrounds.
For School projects, we are more than happy for pupils to visit. We supply all the bob the builder hats and safety equipment. We even let them get “hands on” and put their own stamp on the project – A truly personal touch, from a truly personal company
Tags: Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, school playground, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure
Christmas Charity Donation
Nov 30, 2011 General News
Pendlewood street furniture and school playgrounds have donated a considerable sum of money to the Shooting Star Hospice Charity as this years christmas charity Donation.
In light of the recent publicity with X Factor charity single ” Wishing On A Star ” and patron of The Shooting Star Childrens Hospice, Simon Cowell raising awareness of this charity, we though it a suitable charity for this years donation.
Shooting Star CHASE is the children’s hospice service, supporting local families with a child or teenager not expected to reach their 19th birthday.
Please click here to donate this christmas and help a family and their children through the tough times ahead.
Tags: Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, charity donation, school playground, shooting star, simon cowell, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure
Dream Street School Competition
Jun 21, 2011 General News, School
My Dream street Sustrans competition
Pendlewood are pleased to work in conjunction with Sustrans and Red or Dead Founder Mark Hemmingway to spread the word that street furniture is cool.
Young adults and children either as individuals or as a school group are invited to enter the dream street competition to design their own street.
With designs for street furniture, Street benches, Bespoke street furniture, Tree seats, Line markings or just a wild planting schemes coming through,
Pendlewood school playground and street furniture company are excited to see more weird and wonderful designs. I am sure there will be many more funky designs for street furniture coming through.
No matter how modern or traditional your street designs are, the chance to win £14,000.00 worth of prizes is as close as your imagination can get you.
Give your school the playground that you have always dreamed of by winning a Pendlewood outdoor classroom and / or a Pendlewood hissing sid snake bench.
For more information, please click the link below to be taken the “my dream street” webpage
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/safe-routes-to-schools/my-sustrans-dream-street-competition
Tags: Bespoke school playground, school competition, school playground
Shawn the Sheep
Mar 31, 2011 Current Products, School
Shawn The Sheep has been very popular over the spring months and a family of sheep have gone out all across the UK. Keep an eye out for Shawn The Sheep in an area near you
Lyn Hayler – Cemeteries Manager – East Hampshire District Council “I have taken delivery today of ‘Shawn’ and he is just perfect thank you”
Tags: Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, school playground, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure, Urban street furniture
Pendlewood take YouTube by storm
Mar 21, 2011 General News
Pendlewood have now created a new Pendlewood YouTube channel.
This channel will showcase Pendlewood products and test them for the whole world to see. Our first group of videos are to showcase our Kew Range and just how strong and durable these outdoor classrooms / school shelters are. Watch these videos for yourself now and see Alan DRIVE OVER a small kew roof, not only in a company van, but then in his huge 4×4. These products really can withstand a lot. The quality in our products speak for themselves…
Sign up now to our YouTube channel now and await the next set of crazy videos from The Pendlewood Team
Pendlewood YouTube Channel - Product Testing http://www.youtube.com/user/Pendlewood1
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BIBA Awards
Feb 22, 2011 General News
The search continues to find Lancashire’s brightest business stars in this year’s BIBAs (Be Inspired Business Awards). With registrations at an all time high, the Awards are one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing tools and winning a prestigious BIBA will help your organisation to stand out from the crowd, send a positive message to your existing customers and attract new business.
We want to help you raise the profile of your organisation and enhance its reputation by promoting the great work you are doing while at the same time providing you with a platform to celebrate your success.
There’s at category to suite every business – so what are you waiting for, enter at www.thebibas.co.uk
Good Luck
“I think it just shows what can be achieved with hard work and a positive outlook. Attending these fabulous awards really showed me that there are some fantastic business achievements going on in Lancashire despite the tough times and I just hope this can inspire other businesses in Lancashire and hopefully we can all move the local economy forward, together” …. Alan Pendlewood, Managing Director, Pendlewood Ltd – Small Business of the Year 2010
Important dates for your diary
Closing date for entries: 4pm on Thursday 24th March 2011
Announcement of shortlisted companies: Week commencing 26th April 2011
Awards ceremony: Friday 10th June 2011
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Tags: Bespoke canal boat, Bespoke narrowboat, Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, biba award, bibas, charity donation, contemporary street furniture, design job vacancy, job vacancy, Narrowboat, New Street Furniture Range, school competition, school playground, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure, Urban street furniture
Health & Safety Mythbusters !
Dec 13, 2010 General News
The Reality
We recently read that the traditional party game ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ is allegedly under threat because parents consider it a health and safety risk.
Not trusting children with drawing pins seems a little overprotective to us. After all, millions of children have been playing traditional party games like this for years without any problems.
Was this just a marketing ploy to drum up sales of party games?
The Reality
As we said at the start of the last school year, few parents would see wearing ties at school as a safety issue. Millions of children have been wearing ties as part of their uniform for years without any problems.
Simple precautions such as removing the tie during laboratory work or around machinery make sense. But if the concern is really about children fighting, while clip-on ties may help, the real issue is discipline.
So HSE doesn’t ban school ties – it’s up to schools to make their own decisions about uniforms.
The Reality
Come the summer sun and what tops off a great day out better than good, oldfashioned candyfloss?
But if you believe some newspaper headlines this beloved sweet treat is under threat – because of the dangers posed by the stick it is spun around.
The truth is that there are no health and safety laws banning candyfloss on a stick.
Is the traditional form of this sweet disappearing because it is easier to mass produce and store it in plastic bags? Who knows, but it certainly isn’t health and safety leaving anyone with a bad taste in their mouth.
Let us leave you with one thought – health and safety is about saving lives, not stopping them.
Please visit the Health & Safety Executive website for more lively examples http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm
Tags: Bespoke canal boat, Bespoke narrowboat, Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, biba award, bibas, Canal Boat, charity donation, contemporary street furniture, Narrowboat, New Street Furniture Range, school competition, school playground, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure, Urban street furniture
Environmentally Friendly Pendlewood Nominated for top award!
Oct 8, 2010 General News
Pendlewood are celebrating after once again being shortlisted for a leading business award!
Our long-standing commitment to the environment and running a sustainable, eco-friendly business has been rewarded as our Managing Director Alan Pendlewood has been nominated for the Environmental Champion award at the 2010 Lancashire Business Environment Awards. The awards are organised by Groundwork Pennine, who are the largest environmental charity in Lancashire. A swanky ceremony will be held on the October 21st at Ewood Park, home of Blackburn Rovers FC, where Pendlewood will battle it out with two other innovative, green companies in the hope of being awarded the prestigious title. The Environmental Champion is an award for which Groundworks describe the required criteria as “outstanding performance or influence by an individual who has led by example, encouraging others to become more environmentally aware and put a lot of time and effort into organising environmental projects in your workplace”
Pendlewood will be hoping for their second piece of silverware this year; back in March, in a stunning coup, we were named the 2010 Small Business of the Year at the BIBA’s (Be Inspired Business Awards), an event described by the Chamber of Commerce as the “Oscars of the North-West Business World”. Alan is determined to get the message across that this is a nomination for the company, rather than an individual award though. He explained: “I’m just a representative of the company really. The staff we have here is equally as passionate about the environment as I am and this is credit to everybody at Pendlewood”. Although keen to win again, Alan remains pleased that Pendlewood’s commitment to being environmentally aware has been recognised. He admitted: “It would be a real thrill for Pendlewood to be crowned Environmental Champions. However, win or not, there is a real delight at being recognised and shortlisted for this award. We have always been passionate about the environment and Pendlewood being regarded as a potential environmental champion feels like a real validation of our efforts.”
Tags: Bespoke canal boat, Bespoke narrowboat, Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, biba award, bibas, Canal Boat, charity donation, contemporary street furniture, design job vacancy, Narrowboat, New Street Furniture Range, school competition, school playground, street furniture, UK outdoor furniure, Urban street furniture
Lord of the Playground!
Sep 7, 2010 New Products, School
Pendlewood has unveiled a sensational new product that promises to redefine imaginative and educational children’s play.
The Hobbit Hole brings a magical, creative design to the playground
The HOBBIT HOLE is a magnificent structure that manages to be magical to children, educationally relevant and versatile all at the same time!
And it is the lucky youngsters of Park View Community Primary School in Manchester who will get to reap the benefits of the initial Hobbit Hole. They have just moved from their old school grounds to a brand new, state-of-the-art site that cost a cool £7 million to build.
Urban Design specialists Planit were responsible for enlisting the outdoor play environment, and after seeing some of our previous projects, they promptly drafted in Pendlewood in to ensure it was full of innovative and educational play equipment.
The new school grounds also feature a variety of bespoke and standard Pendlewood equipment, including a Castle Fort tower, a Barge inspired decking area, complete with chalkboard and sumo benches, a Sandpit with seating and an Amphitheatre.
It is the Hobbit Hole that is the centrepiece of the project though. As the name reflects, the Hobbit Hole was inspired by the Lord of the Rings and it fit the request from Park View for there to be “an external structure dedicated to encouraging young children’s interest in storytelling”.
Our Chief Designer Piers Dutson-Steinfeld described how the Hobbit Hole fits the bill. He explained: “The Hobbit Hole has a mystical and magical design that we think will inspire and stimulate role play, while as the school specified it will also play a large role in helping children get the most out of storytelling time.”
“Storytelling is a vital and wondrous part of every child’s education and a structure like the Hobbit Hole is enabling it to become even more extraordinary. The versatility of the product is only too apparent as it can also be used as an effective storage area during school holidays.”
Georgina Baines, Senior Associate at Planit, confirmed that everyone concerned with the project was thrilled with the result and singled out the Hobbit Hole for particular praise.
She said: “Pendlewood’s experience of working in the education sector shines through and the items they provided have made both Planit and the school very pleased. The Hobbit Hole is a really special place for children and comes complete with a snake door, chimney stack, feature windows and many more intricacies of detail that really make this piece the highlight of the school grounds.”
For a full look on this sensational project in full, check out our Case Studies page for more school playground designs and school play equipment!
No Roof-ache for Pendlewood’s KEW canopies!
Aug 18, 2010 Current Products, General News
One thing that Pendlewood has always prided ourselves on is the quality and durability of all our products – and this was recently confirmed in the Pendlewood workshop during the construction of one of our Kew Outdoor Classrooms!
Already renowned as an industry leading design by schools, architects and decision-makers across the country, we decided to put to test the strength of our fantastic UV-safety roofs that are used on the range.
While it was always assured that the roof would be strong enough to withhold two or three of our less-bulky workers, even we were surprised at the results of the test…
As you can see from the surrounding pictures, we managed to get seven of our master craftsmen and Managing Director Alan Pendlewood to stand on the roof – without any sign of the roof being even slightly stressed from the excess weight!
The KEW roof can withhold much more than just the sun and the rain!
Pendlewood Managing Director Alan Pendlewood said that what was initially intended as a bit of light hearted fun during an afternoon break had actually proven a very apt and serious point.
He mused: “We have always known that our roofs are robust enough to withstand anything the infamous British weather tries to throw at them. However, we didn’t know they would be strong enough to comfortably withstand an army of Pendlewood’s most generously built gentlemen!”
“In all seriousness, this reinforces a message that we have been pushing for years – Pendlewood products are of the absolute highest quality. In the current economic climate people are looking for quality and products that will last – after all they don’t want to be buying the same product again in 12 months time. It’s all about value and quality; and these are two things Pendlewood has always offered by the bucket load.”
Tags: Bespoke school playground, Bespoke street furniture, outdoor classoom, school playground, school shelter, UK outdoor furniure