A historic move

Visitors to Winchester Cathedral this summer will have spotted modern materials handling technology at work amongst the historic surroundings, as a Combilift was drafted in to help Inwood Developments out of a tight spot during the construction of the framework for a new building.  

Inwood specialises in the manufacture of structures using high quality timber components in home grown & European certified sustainable timber. Since it was established in 1999 it has been involved in some high profile projects across the country such as the Scottish Parliament and the Treetop Walkway at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

The first green oak structure to be built within the precincts of Winchester Cathedral for over 100 years – a new addition to the Education Centre – posed a particular challenge for Inwood when it came to moving long lengths of timber around the site and in particular into the walled area which will house the 26m x 9m new structure. Director Edward Stenhouse explains: “For similar projects we previously used a telehandler but its limited manoeuvrability and the extremely confined spaces we had to negotiate in this case made this impossible.”

Inwood has a Combilift C4000 at its manufacturing site in Lewes, East Sussex, but as this is permanently in use Combilift loaned a demo machine for a short period to ensure that the company could complete its part of this prestigious project on schedule. The truck was used to transport tie posts and cross beams of up to 9m in length through the archway into the Cathedral grounds, along narrow lanes to a storage area and then to ease them into their final position.

The 4t capacity enabled multiple beams to be carried in one go for quicker transportation, and the machine was able to fit underneath the relatively low roof rafters thanks to its closed mast height of 2855mm with just centimetres to spare.

“The site is a scheduled ancient monument so extra care also needed to be taken when moving around to avoid any damage,” said Edward Stenhouse. “The multi-directional abilities of the Combilift have been absolutely perfect for the job in terms of speed, precise manoeuvrability and accessing all areas – we couldn’t have done without it.”