After meeting the wheelwright Greg Rowland, you
are left with the impression he is not only a talented
wheelwright – that is, a person who makes or repairs
wooden wheels – but a genuinely nice person who is
not only proud of his heritage but is quick of wit and
full of stories. His family’s business is all about heritage and tradition. And its longevity is a most interesting story.
Mike Rowland & Son Wheelwrights and Coachbuilders
Mike Rowland, Greg’s father, opened the wheelwright shop within which he and Greg have worked in 1964. But the family can trace its work in and around Colyton, Devon, to 1331, when an ancestor built the wheels for great wagons that carried stone from a nearby quarry to the site of Exeter Cathedral, which opened in 1400. It is also a history that continues to reveal itself. Greg said a stone wall was discovered maybe a hundred yards or so from the current shop, which they believe marked the site of his great-grandfather’s shop dating to 1720.
Opposite from Left:
Mike Rowland,
Greg Rowland,
Sam Rowland
Above
Greg Rowland,
MBE
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