Ten years well-seasoned – new sapling planted


Ten years ago, family-run Woodgate Sawmills of Coleford, Gloucestershire, took delivery of a new Volvo L50E wheeled loader. Now, after giving the company a decade’s worth of service, the machine has been retired from frontline operations in favour of the latest H version – an L50H. The VOICE went along to see what’s happened since then.


Situated in the Forest of Dean, Woodgate Sawmills has been run as a family business since it was set up in 1953 by Directors, Brian and Ken Humphries’ late father. Back then, the sawmill’s main activity was supplying the NCB with pit props for the many hundreds of deep coal mines around the country. In those early days, the company operated a Fordson Major and other ex-army 4x4’s but in 1963, Woodgate Sawmills purchased a BM Volvo 620 from the then dealer in Essex. “The original machine was purchased complete with an attachment bracket, a bucket, a set of pallet forks and a log grapple,” explains


52 THE VOICE MAGAZINE No 34 2018


Director, Andrew Humphries. “It revolutionised our business working very reliably and so consequently, it prompted the purchase of a second machine in 1976.” Since then, Volvo shovels have been part of the day-to-day business at Woodgate Sawmills who specialise in crosscut timber in a variety of lengths for fencing and pallet making. A decade ago, the company purchased a new Volvo L50E from


Volvo and, at the same time, privately acquired an older, second hand L50D as part of an ongoing investment at the mill. “Ten years ago, it became time to stand our old 621 and 622 loaders down in favour of


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