Our Story

The journey started back in 1985. Barry Steeples and Tony Guest, along with the occasional helping hand of Barry’s son Tommy (who was just seven at the time), established Carlton Industrial Estate. This business specialised in providing fencing and posts for their customers. A customer, Roy Hobson, was purchasing fencing panels regularly, and this was about to turn into a lucrative partnership.

After 10 years of service customers with exceptional products such as fencing, panels and posts, Barry had an interesting idea: to try and clean some of the timber they used in their processes with a wire brush. The result that was achieved was spectacular. The piece looked fantastic and was a discovery that would eventually develop into something special later on for the company. This instance was the first step in our shift from fencing to furniture crafting. They decided to take this new discovery of how to transform reclaimed lumber into a new business venture.

Barry and Tony decided that the best way to increase their slow moving sales in the new field would be to open up a shop at the Elsecar Heritage Center in order to appeal to people that were interested in bespoke products with the traditional, old-world aesthetic. In 1997, Tony decided to depart from the business leaving Barry, Roy, a long time friend and client; and Tommy, Barry’s now 17 year old son at the helm of the company. At this point, they decided that the best direction for the company would be to shift entirely away from fencing and instead focus on crafting wooden furniture with the process.

To further this new development, they attempted to expand their potential clientele by reaching out to The Emporium at Wentworth House who had already established a customer base that was attracted to the unique, handcrafted designs of the past. This partnership with them proved to be a success, enabling the company to expand the number of people being served and keep profits stable due to the high interest by the new clients.

Unfortunately, about 20 years later (by 2018) Roy decided to leave the business and Barry had passed away, leaving Tommy to head the company by himself. Despite the devastating loss of his father and presence of his close business partner, Tommy persevered and continued to expand the company on his own. In order to do this, he started diversifying his potential market by extending the services to more customers by developing a social media base and company website; this has allowed the company to shift toward modern standards of business and appeal to the new age of customers.