Calders & Grandidge

Calders & Grandidge is a timber manufacturing company in Boston, Lincolnshire that is the UK's largest (and main) manufacturer of wooden telegraph and (electricity) transmission posts. The company has a Royal Warrant.

Telegraph poles in May 2009
Calders & Grandidge logo

History

Calders Ltd was developed by Sir James Charles Calder CBE (28 December 1869- 22 August 1962)[1] of Milnathort, who was knighted in the 1921 Birthday Honours; he died in 1962 aged 92; he was Timber Controller at the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade from 1919–20; he was a friend of the American ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and his son; from 1940-41 he was Director of Home Timber Production.

A site in Boston was established in 1896, and moved to the 46-acre London Road site in the 1920s. Calders Ltd was incorporated on 3 February 1919 at Dunkeld in Scotland; the company was formed to acquire the business of Sir James Calder's grandfather, which was formed in 1820, and another company George Wood & Sons of Brandon, Suffolk.

It made railway sleepers for the Railway Executive (British Rail).

In 1945 the company took over James Grandidge Ltd, forming Calders & Grandidge on 24 March 1959.[2] In 1986, the company was awarded a Royal Warrant[3] for Preserved Timber Fencing.

In the 1980s it was a main supplier of wooden joists and rafters for house builders, known as the Calders system.

C&G gate in May 2007

Ownership

On 3 May 1948, Calders Ltd was floated on the London Stock Exchange.[4] It was bought by the multi-national French construction products company Saint-Gobain.

Products
  • Telegraph & transmission posts; the UK needs around 50,000 telegraph poles a year and around 60,000 electricity poles
  • Fencing (pressure treated)
  • Gates (wooden)
  • Railway sleepers (wooden)

See also

References
  1. National Portrait Gallery
  2. Companies House
  3. "Calders Direct". Archived from the original on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  4. Times, 5 December 1950, page 9
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