Timber Merchants

Vastern Timber

Get in touch

Telephone: 01793 853281
Email: sales@vastern.co.uk
Website: https://www.vastern.co.uk
Location: All UK & Northern Ireland

Vastern Timber is one of the UK’s largest British hardwood sawmills and timber merchants, specialising in cutting and manufacturing native grown timber, including British oak, sweet chestnut, ash, sycamore and larch for the construction and joinery markets.

A family business established in High Wycombe in 1904 by Leonard Barnes, the company began life under the name of Barnes Branch & Co and primarily focused on the manufacture of furniture. Specialising in the production of traditional beech furniture, the company gradually evolved into a producer of components servicing other local manufacturers. Barnes Branch & Co was particularly well known for its beech and ash ‘Windsor back bends’ which gave the Windsor chair its distinctive shape and the company was commandeered to produce wings for the legendary de Havilland Mosquito aircraft in the Second World War.

In 1974, increasing demand for timber products led to the acquisition of the Vastern Timber Sawmill in Wootton Bassett, followed by a second sawmill at Studley near Chippenham in 1982.

Today, Vastern Timber continues to trade from two sites in Wiltshire and is owned and run by three members of the Barnes family - Peter, Jon and Tom, who represent the third and fourth generations of family in the company. The sites have four log-converting bandmills, computer-controlled drying kilns, and well-equipped machining facilities enabling Vastern Timber to process both hardwoods and softwoods for a wide range of uses. These uses span the specialist production of British oak in internal joinery, creating solid hardwood flooring, skirting and architraves. Structural beams and joists in oak and Douglas fir are produced for traditional building projects, with the addition of an extensive range of external timber cladding, including larch, cedar and various hardwoods. Vastern Timber also caters for the garden with large stocks of decking and fencing.

Vastern Timber cuts and processes British logs to offer a wide range of species, grades and specifications that are not widely available from other merchants. The company has large stocks available to ensure it can offer short lead times with the security of knowing that it will not run out of stock.

Vastern Timber provides a professional yet personal service tailored to the unique needs and wishes of its clients, which include architects, builders, joiners, furniture makers and timber framers.

Vastern Timber offers FSC certified timber from well managed British Forests and offers strength grading of structural timber to BS5756 and BS4976.

Vastern Timber has also recently launched Brimstone, the first commercially available British thermally modified timber. Sourced exclusively from English and Welsh woodlands, the Brimstone range is ideal for cladding, decking, external joinery and furniture, and includes thermally modified ash, sycamore and poplar.