Chesworths DIY and Timber Merchants: Urmston’s Independent Specialists Since 1936

Tucked away on Gloucester Road, Chesworth’s DIY and Timber Merchants is a perfect example of the top quality service customers can expect when dealing with an independent Urmston business.  You may assume Chesworths is a lot more expensive than the big chains such as B&Q or Homebase but the fact is that Chesworths’ prices are often lower, or low enough to be competitive when you factor in the price of petrol required to get to a big chain.

Chesworth’s DIY and Timber Merchants is conveniently located in Urmston Town Centre.

Friendly and welcoming

If, like me, you don’t know much about DIY you may sometimes feel intimidated by the atmosphere in some DIY stores or timber yards, but Chesworths has a friendly, welcoming feel and I’ve never felt daft for asking questions in there.Skilled, convenient service

Chesworths DIY and Timber Merchants stock most timber and sheet materials, which they will cut to size while you wait – a big selling point, in my opinion. This makes your DIY projects so much more manageable because you know your materials will be cut accurately.

Customers can purchase most timber sections in lengths per 30cm (0.3m,0.6m,0.9m etc., up to as long as 5.4m).  Sheet materials can be purchased either as full sheets – 2440mm x 1220mm – or as an individual cut piece charged to the nearest square inch.

Chesworths DIY on Gloucester Rd.

Chesworths supply made to measure radiator cabinets as well as made to size garden gates and meter cupboards.  They also do standard 4mm clear window glass, cut to size from stock, or toughened/safety glass and double glazed units to order.   Made to measure kitchen/bedroom vinyl wrapped cupboard doors are available on a 14 day turn around.

Bespoke, environmentally-friendly DIY solutions

A bespoke cutting service is something that the big chains seldom offer – you generally buy the length they want to sell you, rather than the length you need.  By allowing the customer to buy the amount they need, Chesworth’s often works out cheaper and more environmentally friendly than the big chains, whose inflexible selling policies encourage waste.

Other products

Other keenly priced products from Chesworths include:- worktops, stairparts, decking, internal and external doors, decorative plastic tongue & groove wall/ceiling paneling, kichen units, laminate/engineered/solid flooring, door furniture, fixings, adhesives, timber mouldings, architraves/ skirtings, tools, varnish, oils, wax, preservatives, etc.  You can also buy paint from Chesworths – primer, undercoat and white and black gloss, as well as fun little pots of chalkboard paint.

Chesworths literally go the extra mile

There’s something reassuringly old-fashioned about Chesworths: a family business with real concern for the customer.    This is the kind of independent business that has a relationship with the community it serves: they will even arrange a home visit to measure up. Try getting that level of customer service from the Chief Executive Officer of B&Q (Kevin O’Byrne, estimated earnings of £1.8m per annum – source)! 

Reiki Healing in Urmston – a guest post from Gabby Mottershead

Gabby Mottershead from Urmston is a Level 3 Reiki Healer (Master and Trainer). From Monday 17^th March she has been offering treatments at Esteem Salon, 58 Gloucester Road, Urmston, M41 9AE. Appointments must be pre booked.

Gabby Mottershead offers Reiki healing from Esteem Salon in Urmston.

What is Reiki?

Reiki is a tremendously powerful holistic healing system that can help someone to deal with problems of any kind, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual and often succeeds where other treatments have failed. Reiki is safe to use anytime and anywhere.

So who can benefit from Reiki?

The answer is anyone, It can be given to adults, children. Babies even whilst in the mother womb. Family pets and plants can also benefit.

What happens in a Reiki session?

A Reiki treatment will normally last about an hour. The Reiki treatment is carried out fully clothed, as Reiki channels through to the person’s energy field with or without obstruction. 

The therapist will stand behind you and place their hands on you, starting at your head; this will last for several minutes at a time. There are various positions on your face, head and shoulders. Depending on the length of the treatment, they will then move position and lay their hands on your torso (avoiding any private areas), and then move on to the feet.

What you feel may differ from person to person, you may feel heat, sometimes, Reiki can also be experienced as quite cold, emanating from the therapist’s hands. Both theses feeling are noticeably different to someone simply having cold or hot hands. Most often during a treatment the energy is experienced as warmth. Others feel a mild tingle, throbbing, or pulsing sensation. A Reiki treatment is a spiritual practice because it works directly with energy or “spirit.” There is no pressure applied.

A Reiki session may sometimes bring up emotions or memories of experiences from your past, some of which you may have forgotten about. This is part of the Reiki healing process and is there to allow you to release and grow. We are only reminded of these feelings and events because we are strong enough and ready to face them again.

For Reiki to work, it is not necessary for you to feel the energy. The energy goes where it is needed and will work on whatever energy level is needed. Reiki heals on your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels to bring harmony and balance into your life.

Some people may fall asleep during a Reiki treatment, or they may feel the effects a couple of days later when things start to change and fall into place.

For further information – check out Gabby’s website www.gabbymottershead.com.

 

Urmston Market: some dates for your diary

Craft and Vintage on the last Saturday of every month at Urmston Market – photo courtesy of Urmston Market

Urmston Market is undergoing a remarkable renaissance this spring with many new events and stalls as well as all the excellent regulars.

Following last month’s promising debut, the Vintage and Crafts market will now run on the last Saturday of every month.

Spring Fair at Urmston Market on 12th April – photo courtesy of Urmston Market.

On Saturday 12th April, Urmston Market is holding a spectacular Spring Fair which promises an array of treasures, treats and live music.

Urmston Market will host an artisan market on the first Saturday of every month – beginning May 3rd. Photo courtesy of Urmston Market.

Finally, beginning in May, the first Saturday of every month will see Urmston Market hosting an artisan market.

Would you like to book a stall at one of these events?  It costs just £12, so make contact quickly before they are all booked.

World Book Day 2014: Why We Need Independent Bookshops

World Book Day at Urmston Bookshop

World Book Day 2014 falls this coming Thursday, 6th March and, in celebration of this special day, every school-aged child will receive a token for a free book.  Here are five reasons why you should use your token at Urmston Bookshop on Flixton Road.

1.  Independent bookshops champion reading.  Peter and Frances Hopkins of Urmston Bookshop bring beautiful books and stories into the community with school visits and many events both in the shop and at Urmston Library.  They run creative writing workshops, a book group and engaging events for children in the school holidays and at weekends.

2.  Independent bookshops bring writers and illustrators into the heart of the community.  In the past year, Urmston Bookshop has played host to Johnny Vegas, Ann Widdecombe and children’s author Steve Hartley among many other luminaries.  They even held a book launch for a cat!  This Thursday they have organised an evening with literary legend Joanna Trollope at Urmston Library.

3.  Independent bookshops are run by people who love books, rather than big companies who see books as units to be shifted at maximum profit, no more special than a tin of beans or a tube of toothpaste.  Frances and Peter Hopkins at Urmston Bookshop know and love books and they give fabulously apt recommendations – and not in a robotic, Amazon-esque ‘people who bought X also bought Y’ kind of way.

4.  Independent bookshops pay their taxes.  There are approximately 1,028 bookshops in the UK.  If they each pay tax of £10,000 (and it really isn’t worth all their hard work if they are paying less than this, so this estimate is very conservative) that’s £10 million per year.  Did you know that on-line bookselling behemoth Amazon paid just £2.4 million in UK corporation tax in 2012?  On top of that, more of the money you spend in an independent bookshop stays in the community: the Centre for Local Economic Strategies says that for every £1 that is spent with a local, independent business, between 50p-70p circulates back into that local economy.  Independent bookshops are good for our local economy.  Amazon does nothing for our local economy and pays disproportionately into our greater economy: that’s why their books are cheaper.

5.  Independent bookshops encourage other interesting businesses to open up in the same area.  Flixton Road in Urmston now boasts an utterly charming vintage shop, a specialist dancewear shop, a clothing boutique, a sweet shop, a tattoo parlour and many other quaint, quirky or useful little businesses that keep Urmston interesting.

Buying from your local independent bookshop is a much nicer experience than purchasing online.  This World Book Day, take a wander in to Urmston Bookshop and see for yourself how special it is.

World Book Day 2014: How to Dress

“There’s more to life than books you know but not much more …”

The Highway Rat buys all his hats in Bon Fabrics at Davyhulme Circle.

World Book Day 2014 is on Thursday, 6th March (that’s this Thursday – came around quickly, didn’t it?).  Many schools invite children and/ or teachers to dress as their favourite book character.  If you need a costume for Thursday for yourself or a child, look no further than Urmston’s two independent fancy dress emporia.

Bon Fabrics at Davyhulme Circle sells costumes, accessories and fabric.

Affordable Fancy Dress on Church Road sells costumes, accessories and joke shop items such as fake sugar cubes or itching powder.

Both shops are good for complete outfits or finishing touches such as wigs, spectacles and hats.  They also afford the opportunity of using the word ’emporium’ which is never a bad thing.

Adults searching for an easy, fast World Book Day costume, visit it my other blog for some ideas.

This is the first of two posts about World Book Day – the next one will focus on (drum roll …) books.