Gelder Group have sponsored ‘tree ring dating’ to timber within Guildhall which is situated above the Stonebow on the pedestrian High Street with has been site of a gateway into Lincoln since Roman times.

Analysis was completed by the Nottingham Tree-ring Dating Laboratory who carried out analysis of 12 samples.  Whilst the building itself dates back to the later 15^th Century the earliest piece (taken from under the stair cupboard) showed it was felled in the late 12^th or early 13^th century with the ring sample showing that it began growing in the late 10^th Century.

The fascinating report of 12 samples taken shows timber ranging in age from 1160 to 1780 and copies are available by emailing dawn.peel@gelder.co.uk

The Guildhall and Stonebow, Lincoln, has been the meeting place of the Lincoln City Council from Medieval times to the present.

The 13^th of September 2020 marked the fifth Annual Commemoration of Rick Paton. A capacity crowd of anglers, family and staff were in good spirits, even those clearly carrying Hangover Pain! Gavin, Andy and Simon were fishing the match with their children George, Harry and Alesha.

Bacon and Sausage butties greeted the attendees and further heightened the anticipation for the 9.00am peg draw!

Alesha Blaydes, our youngest ever Match attendee at 7 years old was kindly invited to pull the first peg out of Gary’s ever fragrant ground bait bucket; quickly followed by a much less angelic, jostling, rampant, shoulder barging, badly shaved Motley Crew of other entrants!

The ever steadfast and super fresh Jim Smith drew Ricks Golden Peg number 12 to an eruption of banter and mild expletives. It was hard to say what was more shiny; Jim’s ecstatic expression or the Prestigious Cup itself. Such is the understandable desire to draw this very special peg!

Everybody then quickly descended excitedly upon the Lake that was windswept with a brisk south westerly under bright skies.

The match started fairly slow with only the odd flash of silver fish being swung to hand here and there. Adi on Peg 4 was making good use of the right hand Reeds and Bulrush; skilfully presenting his pole rig with accuracy. Phil Middleton was well settled in to favoured Peg 3 and wouldn’t have looked out of place on the front cover of Angling Times fishing against a beautiful back drop of lush green reeds, Iris Bulrush and newly planted White Lillies. The Lake looked stunning from all angles and continues to mature beautifully.

A nice place to just sit you could say, which was a good job as it appeared that all the fish were hiding. Alas, 11.30 am struck and Andy and son Harry Wrights margin pole could be heard creaking under huge load as Oscar the Giant Carp decided to make his annual reign of Terror on yet another pair of poor hapless souls. Troopy shouted did he need the Garage Engine winch, Gavin recommended chasing behind in the boat. Adi Potter shouted in panic “you’re gunna need a bigger one!” Yet again Oscar escaped with a free meal, leaving the Wright Team exhausted and in mild shock. The true size of the scaly brute still remains unknown. Who knows how big and grumpy he will be next year!

Dave Wass was quietly chipping away in rock hard Peg 8 and was managing to keep a steady flurry of fish coming; mainly small fish but they all count! Gavin and George following suit enthusiastically and making a great start in what was their first fishing match.

Alesha and Simon (Blaydsey) worked as a tight team and were building a slow but sure rhythm of small fish on the long pole. Plenty of fish escaped, bounced and were juggled to accidental freedom to the sound of “Whoop’s we’ve lost another Dad.”

Between completing two crosswords and updating his LV Job Files, Gary managed to put together some nice Perch and also caught some of the newly stocked Mirror Carp which was great to see.

Dave Troop finally broke the silence and brought the match to a close just after 1.00pm.

It’s fair to say the Lake fished hard with the fish seeming to completely disappear. Whilst it makes for a level playing field on Match Day. In reality the Lake has never fished so well with several record bags of fish caught over the recent summer period. Furthermore the Lake is literally teaming with this years offspring of all tiny fish species which is very promising.

By the weigh in,  the iced bottles of lager and Fanta were crispy cold and well received.

Dave Wass was King for the Day and won the match with 6lb 6oz. Although the catch included a small Carp, the rest of the bag was based upon a very respectable amount of small silver fish. Dave’s tactical change mid match to fish close in for the small fish proved invaluable and a sensible reaction to the slow conditions.

The ever consistent Phil Middleton swooped in with second place , with another respectable bag of hard earnt small fish for 3lb and another placing for the History books.

Amidst all the Lego and Barbie Dolls ,Alesha and Simon had managed to catch something, mainly medium sized skimmer bream and a few Perch for a Third placing 1lb.10oz.

Match Winner veterans Dave Troop and Gary “Big Pimping Cox” shared fourth place.

Alesha Blaydes went on to win the Cake Raffle and was over the moon at the thought of three meals of Cake a day for the next week !

Alisha Blaydes (and very proud dad Simon Blaydes) winner of the cake raffle.

The Rick Paton memorial Match made in excess of £100.00p Charity Money (exact amount details to follow as we continue to receive kind donations)

Especial thanks to the Xeric Team for helping prepare the Grounds ready for Match Day, Jon and Louise Cook for providing Breakfast for everyone and more  –  each Sandwich complete with labelled inspirational words for the day ahead! Jane and John Blaydes for providing the Cake Raffle again. All the Gelder Staff and Jim Smith who helped clear reeds and weed, and the Gelder Staff who provided great support on the day. Without this support our annual Commemoration for Rick Paton would not have been possible.

We hope to see you all next year !

David Wass 1st Prize catch!!

Gelder Living has secured detailed planning permission for the development of 9 properties on land off Littleborough Lane, Marton.

The development consists of four 2 bed bungalows and five 4 bed houses. Works will commence during the Spring of 2021 with the site being completed during 2021.

For further information on Gelder Living Developments call us on 01427 788 837 or email on info@gelder.co.uk

Proposed site plan for the Marton Development.

The £1.6m project at Boston College has been awarded ‘Performance Beyond Compliance’ certificate from Considerate Constructors.  The certificate is awarded to sites is intended to provide an additional level of reward to companies whose performance is in excess of compliance.

Site Manager Matt Turner commented:

I’m delighted we’ve achieved this award, following the two visits by assessors we were confident we’d achieved a high score against the criteria.

On Completion, the new building will welcome students, focusing on port skills such as crane operations, forklift truck driving, leadership and management, as well as improving their digital skills.

The COVID-19 lockdown has delivered a sales surge for Gelder Group’s online business ‘LoveDIY’ but amongst the thousands of tins of emulsion, 844 tins of shed & fence paint, 367 tins of doorstep paint and 402 hanging basket brackets however one item, above all others stands out, 52 ‘Gold Pans’!

LoveDIY Manager Martin Ward comments:

We started stocking gold pans as part of a manufacturing deal for tools, not expecting to sell many, if any at all. This all changed during lockdown when 52 where dispatched, mainly to customers from Wales.

Like many online businesses, LoveDIY has seen sales in various home improvement lines rocket during the COVID-19 pandemic but even with the gold price rising by over 50% since April a surge in Gold pans wasn’t predicted.

For more details on LoveDIY, the services offered or to reserve a gold pan visit www.loveDIY.com or call 08443 351 262.

Buy a gold pan online with at LoveDIY.

A back log of delayed property claims caused by the Covid-19 lockdown coupled with a surge of February flood claims still in the system has seen a spike in instructions to Gelder Group’s Insurance Repair and Renovation Division.

On the spike, Head of the Division and Group Director Louisa Sharpe comments:

Despite working throughout the lockdown period many claims were put on hold either by insurers, loss adjusters or where policyholders were shielding, but over the past two weeks these claims have started to resurface. These together with new instructions and existing flood claims still in the system has seen our forward order-book jump by a very healthy 85% up to a level not seen since the December 2015 flooding in Cumbria and has led us to bring resources in from other areas of the Group.

Operating across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, Gelder Group’s Insurance Repair and Renovation Division completes fulfilment, validation and cash settlements services on approximately 6,000 separate insurance property claims annually for all well-known loss adjusters, insurers, insurance brokers and individual policyholders.

Around 25% of Gelder Group sales are derived from insurance claims so in times of high demand resources from other areas of the Group are redeployed ensuring the high standards of service are maintained.

Over the course of 32 years in business Gelder Group has raised a significant amount of money for charitable causes including £33,000 raised to celebrate the company’s 25 years in business, which was donated to St Barnabas and the Alzheimer’s Society.

More recently the Group has been focused on supporting its own staff and their endeavours in raising money for charities and following the sudden and sad passing of a member of staff the group has been supporting his family through a financially and emotionally difficult period. With this in mind the Group decided to set up a charitable fund which could be accessed by staff and families who were in need of financial support through bereavement or ill health. The trust has now been formally recognised by the Charity commission and a team will be established to run the charity.

Steve Gelder, Chief Executive Officer comments on the Trust:

A big part of our 20:20 Vision is to champion community initiatives and build strong communities, gaining official charity status will not only help us achieve our Vision, it will enable us to continue to contribute to support our local community going forward. I am absolutely delighted that we now have our own charitable trust.

The team at Gelder Group’s Insurance Repair and Renovation department have been working to restore properties for policy holders who are desperately trying to get back to normal, and in the case of Mr & Mrs Clancy who are urgently trying to get back to work in their hairdressers. Work was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic but the team worked tirelessly to resume work and get the property back open for the 4th July when hairdressers are officially allowed to open to the public.

Chris Kent, Contract Manager commented:

I’m so happy we could get the work completed for Mr & Mrs Clancy, myself and the team just wanted to get them back open in time for the 4th July and I’m so pleased we were able to achieve with a couple of days to spare.

As staff return to work we have been interested to learn what they have all been up to during furlough, and two staff have shared their remarkable stories.

Lisa Mumby, Accounts Assistant joined a Facebook group shortly after being furloughed called ‘For the Love of Scrubs’ which was set up by a Lincolnshire nurse and quickly became national. As we all know the national shortage of PPE was in the news often and thousands of sewists across the UK got together through this group and others to sew scrubs, face masks, laundry bags etc. for the NHS workers.  Lisa was assigned to the Nottinghamshire group and made scrubs and laundry bags which ended up in GP surgeries in Nottingham. Lisa also sewed an additional 60 masks for friends and family.

Philip Newborough, Web Developer lives in the small village of Swinderby where members club together to purchase heating oil, with the idea that they purchase in bulk and receive a cheaper rate. The person who managed this system (manually) wrote an article in the local parish magazine and asked villagers if they would collectively contribute a couple of thousand pounds to have a custom system developed to aid in the administration of the scheme.

Membership to the scheme is free and it’s a non-profit, so whilst Phillip was furloughed, he offered to undertake the work and develop the system for free, saving the villagers some money.

 Philip developed a custom website with a registration system and member accounts area. All members can login to the website and request an amount of oil. The system keeps track of the total amount of oil that has been requested by members and when the amount reaches 18,000 litres, a purchase order is raised with the cheapest supplier. All members are then automatically emailed with details of the oil delivery, supplier, date and price etc. The system has been running successfully for the last few months and the villagers have already benefited from the savings.

Arran Fullwood, Finance Director who manages both Lisa and Philip commented:

I was inspired and humbled when I spoke to Lisa and Philip and discovered what they had achieved during the period they were furloughed.  I’m equally overwhelmed by the staff who kept working during the entire period doing essential work at Lincoln hospital.  We have a fantastic team at Gelder Group and I’m very proud to be a part of it.

Pictured: Home made PPE

The Swinderby CHOPS website.

Gelder Group’s Insurance Repair and Renovation department have yet again achieved FSQS certification from Hellios.

FSQS (Financial Services Qualification System) is a community of financial institutions including banks, building societies, insurance companies and investment services, collaborating to agree a single standard for collecting the increasing amount and complexity of third party information needed to demonstrate compliance to regulators, internal policies and governance controls.

Gelder Group fulfil over 2000 insurance claims per annum and have three regional offices within the East Midlands.

FSQS Certificate