17-10-11 Rebecca Sarah Oatley memorial bench donated by us

Rebecca's mother Sonia asked us to make and donate a memorial bench to mark the first anniversary of Rebecca tragic death. We have never donated a bench before, but in this tragic case we were moved to do so. We were given very short notice for this job as it had to be ready for a press conference in Bridgend on Monday 17th September, where Sonia would be making an important statement about civil action in connection with Rebecca's murder. I made a special trip South Wales to present the bench to Sonia in time for her press statement and later took the bench to a local school where rebecca had studied. The bench used for the donation is a signature FSC teak bench the Chelsea 1500, the wording on the top rail was in Times New Roman font 1 inch high in 2 lines using upper and lower case.
RIP Rebecca
Email from Rebecca's mother Sonia:
"Hello John
I would like to thank John Caldwell and all who worked on my daughter Rebecca's memorial bench that was so kindly donated by the firm, not only did they donate the bench John personally delivered it to us here in Wales stayed through the press conference and then transported it to Archbishop Mcgrath school to be put in the memorial garden.
The craftmanship of this beautiful bench is second to none and would highly recommend them I will in the future be creating another memorial garden for Rebecca and will definately be coming back for another bench.
I cannot thank you enough for this lovely gesture.
Sonia Oatley"
bbc news-south east wales
sky news video
sky news
daily mail report
wales online report
daily post report
wales online local report: "A memorial bench, made free of charge by John Caldwell, of Warwickshire-based firm Memorial Benches, will be placed at Rebecca’s former Archbishop McGrath Catholic School to mark the anniversary "

06-08-11 new sign written van

We purchased a new VW crafter van at the same time we sold our old Citroen relay which had served us well for 5 years. This was 3 months ago, the intension was that the van would be sign written straight away, but we have been so busy it was only last week we managed to get it done. We are really pleased with the job done by Signs Express in coventry. If you spot our van out on the road, please take a photo on your mobile and add it to our facebook wall, all friends will get entered for a prize draw at Christmas.

22-06-11 Conrad Lewis of the Parachute Regiment memorial bench

We were asked by Conrad's friend Oli to make a memorial bench for him.

The brief was that the bench was to have the following words:
CONRAD JAMES LEWIS 21-10-1988 TO 9-2-2011
TO THE WORLD HE WAS A PARATROOPER, TO US HE WAS THE WORLD
and to have the Parachute Regimental crest as large as possible in the centre.

Oli wanted the crest to be the same design as the one used on grave stones in the British Cemeteries in France. This has the logo set in a circle.

We chose the Malvern teak bench for the task as this has the largest ara on the seat back to engrave the crest in the center.

We contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to ask for the artwork and permission to use the image on a memorial bench. They were very helpful and gave us the permission and a large paper copy of the artwork.

The parachute regiment logo was the most difficult logo we have attempted, i was determined to use my engraving skills to the maximum and achieve the best result possible for our local hero. The logo is very intricate and i have to remove a lot of the detail first, then redraw parts before choosing the routing bits and cutting methods which best suited the logo.

The end result was achieved with a single V bit, but used in V carve, Profile and Pocket methods. A proof was carved into mdf before the carving on the teak bench was attempted.

We handed over the bench to Oli on the 22nd June 2011, we understand that its final position will be on Yarningale Common in Warwickshire.

It has been an honour to be asked to supply the Lewis family with this lasting memorial to their son

John Caldwell

18-12-10 Our team building adventure / Christmas party in the Western Lakes

We wanted to combine a team building exercise with our Christmas party this
year. My family have been visiting the lake district, going to The Screes Inn at
Nether Wasdale each year for holidays for over 20 years now. For us the heart of the village, from a visitors perspective, is the Screes Inn. It has always provided great affordable food and good beer with friendly staff.

When we visited this summer Steve and Caroline had recently taken over
managing the pub for Robinsons brewery, Steve told us at this time of his
plans for the West Lakes Adventure.

We are a small team at 4Mememorial Bench / Forsyth4, Marlena runs the office, Barrett does the van deliveries and I try and do the rest and not get in the way, at Christmas we all like to get together and enjoy ourselves. Barrett already had rock climbing experience and Marlena and I had been
introduced to it at Warwick University Indoor Rock climbing wall, so it seemed like a good idea to get Steve to take us all rock climbing at Eskdale followed by a Christmas dinner at the Screes Inn cooked by Caroline and make a weekend of it.

The weekend of the 18th/19th December 2010 which turned out to be one of the worst snow falls to be seen in England since 1981 (in read in the daily mail). Sarah (my wife), Emma (my younger daughter) and i arrived on the Friday evening at 10pm having battled through the snow in our defender, followed by Marlena and Kris at 11pm, even though it was past last order for food, Caroline got us all bowls of chips.

We were invited to join in the locals darts competition, £1 to enter, winner akes all. Well little did they know but 25 years ago at Reading University our team at Wantage Hall had won the inter hall darts championship ! I am pleased to say i had not lost my touch, dispatching Caroline in an early round and Steve in the final, I came away with the winnings.

We were staying at a cottage just down the road, but nothing is too much trouble for Steve an Caroline, we asked if they could do breakfast for us all before heading off on the Rock Climb with Steve. Caroline produced a full English breakfast with eggs done to individual taste, it really set us up for the day.

Rock climbing is just one of the adventures that Steve can lay on for you, so can only comment on that. Steve is a responsible, calm and good fun. All the equipment, ropes, harnesses, helmets were all new, comfortable and good quality (just remember to bring your own boots). Our climb was a rock face called diamond crag a short walk from Irton road station (on the ratty steam railway line). The scenery was quite breathtaking, snow all around, cold, but the sun on our faces. Sadly, having got all harnessed up ready for the climb i was called away to rescue Barrett and Julie who were stuck on a snow bound hill near Irton hall. So i was in my element now, John in his Landrover Defender coming to the rescue, my delight was not to last long as after picking them up I also got stuck on an icey hill between Santon bridgeand Nether Wasdale, to be subsequently rescue by Steve (the carpenter) who I have beaten at darts last night.

I am informed that the climbing was great fun, such a same for me to have missed it though.

Early Saturday evening we met all met up in the bar at the Screes Inn, for mulled wine and dizzy blonde beers for our apres climbing party while Caroline was slaving away in the kitchen preparing our lamb feast.

There is a steep hill as you enter the village from the Gosforth direction, Steve was straight on the case when we asked, half joking, for some sledges. 5 sledges were provided for us to work up a good appetite, Steve was to join us later sledging on a snow shovel !, the road was compacted snow, very fast, like a bob sleigh run, from the top of the hill we slide all the way down to the Screes, many times :)

Caroline had roasted two joints of lamb, the lambs and been reared locally on her parents hill farm, and served them for me to carve are requested. We had roasted and boiled seasonal vegetables with gravy. There was so must food i have seconds of most of it. We had bottles of house red and white for £11.95 each, pudding was a homemade lemon cheese cake or a selection of the regulars Screes favourites including chocolate fudge cake, followed by cheese and biscuits. The meal cost at the seasonal Christmas dinner rate of £16.95, which i feel was great food and service for a fantastic price.

Steve and Caroline are the perfect hosts, they joined us for a drink in the bar after the meal when to left at 11pm to head off back to our cottage, it seemed that their night was just beginning with locals and residents still in the bar.

If you looking for adventure, great food, friendly people and spectacular scenery then the West Lakes Adventure and The Screes Inn at Nether Wasdale will not disappoint you.
Click here to visit the Screes Inn website
Click here to visit West Lakes Adventure website

14-01-10 BBC One
- So You Think You Can Dance featuring Malvern bench

Our Malvern teak bench was shown in 'So You Think You Can Dance' on BBC1 in Januray 2010. Our teak benches are robust and strong enough to withstand whatever you or mother nature can dish out.
click to see So You Think You Can Dance featuring our Malvern bench

24-11-09 free pin up calendar

"would you sponsor me £100 for me to take my clothes off for a calendar?", now thats a question i don't get asked every day. I happened to be at a drinks party hosted in a Stratford upon Avon art gallery, the lady i question was young, pretty and confident, naturally i couldn't refuse the offer. We exchanged business cards and Hannah told me about her plan for a WI lite Calendar Girls style Calendar for 2010, i would be sponsoring one month, with the proceeds going to The Stratford Hostice. Now the Calendar has been printed, i am thinking of ways to help sell as many of these Calendars as possible to raise money for this good cause. £1 from each purchase goes to the Shakespeare Hospice. I have bought so far 20 calendars and I am giving them away with every bench order.

14-09-09 warwick round table - thunderball

It has been an honour to serve as President of the Warwick and District Round Table this year, we organized a ball themed on James Bond, to raise funds for the "make a wish" childrens charity. Everyone from work attended with their partners, which was great. We had a number of fundraising events during the night, "bond or baddy" elimination game, sale of meal vouchers and charity auction. Thank you all for your support in raising £2800 for "make-a-wish". I would like to thank my local the boot inn for donating a meal for two with wine for the meal vouchers. We donated a Fatboy beanbag to the raffle which raised £105, thank you to my daughter Hannah who modelled it and succeeded in pushing up the price

17-02-09 extreme memorial benches

We have combined a delivery to the lake district with a few days holiday with the family. We walked up to Blea tarn above the village of Boot in Eskdale. Walking up and down the fells an idea formed in my mind, it may come to nothing, but i would like to share it with you. Would customers be interested in memorial bench installations at some extreme locations in the UK? We could combine a weekends walking with the installation of a bench in memory of a friend or family member, perhaps at the location which you enjoyed together. These last few days we have seem some benches in the valleys but none at higher altitude, the benches have also been made of softwood and appear to be in a poor standard of repair. If you would like to discuss this possibility with me, email me at john@4memorialbench.co.uk

15-02-09 buy now, beat the price increase

We have seen the steep decline in the value of the UK pound in the last quarter of 2008 and this has continued this year.
The benches from 4memorialbench.co.uk are imported from Thailand and Vietnam and are paid for in US Dollars. This means that as the pound falls against the dollar, the higher the price to import the goods into the UK. For example a $300 bench purchased last year at a rate of 1.9 dollars to the pound would have cost us £157.89, the same bench at the current exchange rate of 1.45 dollars to the pound will cost us £206.89. This means that exchange rate price inflation for us is 32% for our imported benches.
If the exchange rate stays at this level for the next month our prices will have to increase.
We are holding 2008 prices for now because we still have stock left from 2008, when this runs out and new stock has to be paid for, our prices will have to increase.
Our opinion of government statements that they expect inflation to stay low is incorrect. We have a balance of payments deficit, we import more that we export, imports are paid for by buying dollar and euro currencies and the pound is trading at low levels against both of these currencies.
Lasted government ideas of "printing money" will only make this situation worse.
In our opinion there is no better time to buy a teak bench, we look forward to talking to you soon.

08-02-09 naked wines offer

4memorialbench.co.uk will issue you with a voucher code and password on the receipt
page when you place an order for one of our memorial benches through this site.
Full terms and conditions available through www.nakedwines.com
£25 to spend NOW on Any of our wines worth £64.99 or more
NEXT DAY delivery as standard

04-02-09 the big freeze !

We are sorry that some of our deliveries were cancelled this week, however we were all in work as normal.
My daughters were at home due to schools being closed, its not often we have enough snow in warwickshire to build a snowman.

20-12-08 christmas celebrations

we challenged the staff of Kingdom Teak to a karting race, we won both the individual and team trophies after drafting in our own "stig", who can be revealed as Paul Brown from Placement UK.

26-11-08 vietnam business trip

my first trip to vietnam to source new suppliers and products, 4 hr drive from saigon to see factory in the Mykong delta the roads can be a bit hairy at times, Apocalypse Now nightclub is famous in Saigon, The Caravelle Hotel buffet at lunchtime was recommended to me by an american vietnam war veteran i met, he was not wrong. I remember the Singapore spicy crab followed by strawberries with cream.