Job Earnshaw and Bros has celebrated 150 years in business with snarling chainsaws, a brass band and a “party in the woods”.
The company, better known as Earnshaws Fencing Centres, also had a shed-building competition, tree sculpting and a museum tent with exhibits and displays charting the company’s history back to 1860 when Job Earnshaw set up his sawmilling and timber business.
The museum will be open six days a week until the end of August.
The celebration was designed to thank loyal customers, staff and suppliers.
“I think my great, great grandfather would have liked it,” said director Daniel Earnshaw.
Three fifth generation cousins – Daniel, Peter and John Earnshaw – currently run the business, one of Yorkshire’s longest established companies, which employs 65 people and is spread across three sites.
The original company operated from Midgley as a sawmill, providing timber for construction and local mining. Over time the business acquired forestry land and embraced emerging technologies – moving from horse and carts to steam and then to electricity and the internal combustion engine.
Now its sites at Midgley, Brigg and Wentworth provide a retail business arm, while Earnshaws also provides a range of woodland management services, sawmilling, tree surgery and trade timber supplies.
