A forest manager has started a sawmill in Cornwall with the aim of creating a rural timber industry and eventually a tourist attraction.
Mike Mann, who has run Mann Forestry for 25 years, has made a ‘significant’ personal investment in the past two years converting redundant farm buildings into the sawmill and constructing a 700m access road to the A388 at St Mellion in the Tamar Valley.
Crocadon Sawmills produces garden furniture, fencing, flooring and timber for house restoration.
Mr Mann, who has scaled down his forestry work, changed direction because he believes ‘sawmilling can be more efficient by using mills nearer to the raw material and producing a diverse range of products’.
He has installed a range of used machinery, including three saws, joinery equipment and kilning facilities.The current staff of four is set to growt, with Mr Mann currently looking for someone to take over the joinery operation.
He added : ‘The emphasis of the business is to use timber from local sources in the south-west and come up with a range of products using the whole tree.’
Long-term plans include bringing other producers on to the sawmill site to make items like wooden toys.
