| Buildings
Bedfordshire farm delighted with its Poundfield
concrete retaining wall
In 2012 Andrew and Sam Phillips, the father and son
owners of Northwood End Farm in Haynes near Bedford,
replaced some old wooden retaining walls with 14 2.4m
high reinforced concrete Alfablocs supplied by Poundfield
Products of Ipswich in Suffolk.
reviously, the
metal braces
holding the
wooden sections
in place had
obstructed the use
of machinery when removing grain
from storage, resulting in a great
deal of laborious hand work.
However, once the freestanding
Alfablocs had been installed, not
only could machines easily work
right up to the walling but overall
grain capacity was also usefully
increased.
Northwood End is a largely
arable farm covering some 980
acres and, because the owners
were so impressed with the
versatility and ease of installation
of the Alfablocs - having had a
further batch of 15 in 2015 - they
had no hesitation in recently
contacting Poundfield yet again to
order a total of 28 pre-stressed,
interlocking concrete panels.
These have been used, mainly two
high, to protect some brick walls in
the grain storage sheds that were
showing signs of movement.
P
44 | Farming Monthly | June 2016
Poundfield has manufactured
the panels to the precise lengths
requested by Messrs. Phillips,
ranging from 4 m to 5.8 m, each
being 1 m high and 150 mm thick
with cast-in fixing points for ease of
handling. Once on site, these
panels have either been lowered
into metal channels bolted to the
framework of the sheds or held in
place using purpose-made metal
brackets.
Commenting on the choice of
Poundfield, Mr. Phillips senior said:
"We have been very happy with
the help and support provided by
the team at Poundfield and their
ability to supply us with our exact
requirements, including some
special pieces to enable us to link
the new vertical panel walls to the
existing sloping faces of the
Alfablocs. We have also
appreciated the ease with which
everything has gone together, with
only a minimal amount of fettling
required to achieve a perfect end
result."
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