AFTER opening the recent and highly successful Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally, canal and television celebrities Timothy West and Prunella Scales accepted an invitation to formally open the refitted 1,800 sq ft workshop at Braunston Marina’s Trade Centre for new tenant AS Joinery.
Prunella Scales (Sybil in Fawlty Towers) cut the blue ribbon, in the presence of Daventry’s MP Chris Heaton-Harris, Braunston County Councillor Malcolm Longley, Braunston District Councillor Jason Pritchard, Barby District Councillor Catherine Lomax, and Braunston Marina MD Tim Coghlan. The party was then shown round the state-of-the-art joinery shop by AS Joinery MD, Adam Shenton.
AS Joinery Ltd was started by Adam and his assistant Tim Hastie three and half years ago in a workshop in Rugby. Both were trained joiners, and teamed up to pool their skills and have their own business, producing traditional bespoke joinery. Such was the success of the operation, that they needed larger premises, in a location which better served their discerning customer base, which includes a number of major building contractors. Some of these are London based, where AS Joinery’s bespoke oak doors, staircases and panelling are much in demand in luxury developments.
The new workshop is a conversion of a former boatbuilding workshop, which had remained empty since 2011, when the last boatbuilder retired. Tim Coghlan said: “After finally giving up on trying to get another boatbuilder – the whole industry had nose-dived since 2007 – I approached Tom Drake of Drake Commercial. Tom came up with a plan to give the workshop a major makeover, and then found a tenant who would happily move in once the works were done. It has been win-win all round.”
Adam Shenton said: “Since moving to Braunston Marina our business has taken off, and we are now looking into taking on an apprentice, and maybe more. Being canal-side is also great, and we have our lunch on the nearby Braunston cafe boat – if there’s time.”
L/R Tim Coghlan, Cllr Catherine Lomax, Chris Heaton-Harris MP, Cllr Malcolm Longley, Adam Shenton, Prunella Scales, Timothy West, and Cllr Jason Pritchard with his three children.
(Waterways Images)