Uncategorized

Meet Jason Downes one of our Contracts Managers. Starting in the business in 2011 his journey from Operative to Contracts Manager was driven by his commitment and dedication to his own development – supported by the opportunities and training available within Tamdown.

From a young age Jason was around heavy plant machinery, including agricultural machines, so when the time came to select a career path, working in the construction industry seemed a logical first step.

During his early career, he gained tickets for driving and operating various plant and equipment, he also developed an interest in the larger infrastructure elements of a project such as drainage, roads and sewers.

In 2013 he had the opportunity to continue his learning, from our team of skilled Site Managers, and moved into a Site Supervisor position, helping to oversee the site/s he worked on. Then after a few years in this role, in 2016 he was promoted to be a Site Manager himself where he led sites and their teams, from delivery of projects to customer relationships and Health & Safety.

As his skills and experience grew, Tamdown was in the position to help Jason in the next step of his career and promoted Jason into a Contracts Manager role in 2021. He now oversees between 5-7 sites and works closely with both Site and Office teams.

Anthony Davis, our Estimating Director, was featured in the latest issue of Housebuilder Magazine’s ‘Movers and Shakers’.

This follows Ant’s promotion to Estimating Director when he formerly joined the Tamdown Board.

Commenting on his appointment as Estimating Director, Anthony added:

“I have always been customer-focused, and I enjoy working closely with Housebuilders to find the right solutions for their individual developments.

My team is my other primary focus, helping them deliver great service and develop their careers. Recent years have seen some unsettled market conditions, and I am proud that our team has worked together, and in partnership with our customers, to get the best results.”

You can view the piece below or on page 38 here

Meet Elliot Harrison one of our Engineers, who works across five of our Essex and Suffolk sites, ensuring that works are scheduled and built following our and our customer’s plans and programmes. Before he joined Tamdown, Elliot worked for another groundworks business and when he was looking for a new role, he received a lot of recommendations of Tamdown from his contacts.

When he joined us in 2022, Tamdown then paid for Elliot to complete his Construction and the Built Environment / Civil Engineering qualification. This involved four days on site and one day at college each week to develop all his skills in areas including; Science of building materials, Civil Engineering techniques, Net Zero, CAD Design, and Project Management.

We are pleased to say that Elliot recently passed the course, gained his qualification, and is now continuing to deliver on-site alongside our Site Managers.

All fifteen members of our Tamdown Trekkers team completed the Housebuilder Challenge on Friday through the epic and challenging terrain of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park.

They took on the devils kitchen, a steep scree slope, huge bolder fields, damp moorland and much more – all while supporting each other to keep going and stay safe.

Everyone pushed themselves and helped the Youth Adventure Trust raise nearly £85,000 from the event, to support vulnerable young people build their own resilience.

As sponsors of the event, we helped ensure that all funds raised went to the charity and as an added extra this year we also provided finish-line drinks to all the 30+ teams who took part in the challenge.

Which after such a long and challenging hike was very welcomed by all the participants!

We are always looking to encourage the next generation of workers into our industry, and last week we welcomed our newest group of apprentices into the business.

All apprentices will gain valuable experience from our expert teams, while also achieving a formal qualification through their college-based learning while on day-release.

Our new starters are joining on a variety of apprenticeships including; Engineering, Groundworks, H&S Administration and Quantity Surveying.

Rob Kendal, Tamdown Managing Director commented:
“I am thrilled to be welcoming our newest apprentices at Tamdown and to be able to offer such a range of apprenticeships. On their first day I and other members of the team met with them to welcome them and explain more about the various areas of the business and their new roles. All our teams look forward to working with them as they start their career journey.”

Meet Gary Ross who is a Site Manager with Tamdown and his focus on both his own and his team’s development, support our purpose of ‘Building Bright Futures’.

Before joining Tamdown, he worked for various Groundworks businesses; he started on the tools and then worked as a digger and dumper driver before he became an Assistant Supervisor and then moved into his first Site Manager role around 2013. 

When Gary joined us around two years ago in 2021, he was looking for a business where he could continue to develop and where the team who worked with him could also grow.

In those two short years with Tamdown he has been supported to complete the NVQ Level 3 SMSTS (Site Management Safety Training Scheme), get his forklift ticket, and complete first aid renewals. He is now working through his Level 6 Diploma in Construction Management.

Last week some of our Construction Team spent time volunteering at St Mary’s Primary School in Hatfield Broad Oak.

The school has just 53 children on the register meaning funding from the local authority is minimal, and they are heavily dependent on support from the local community. As a small community school, they are able to provide a caring and nurturing environment for children with complex needs. However, like many village schools, the budget they have is always spread thin, which means simple groundwork, redecoration and repairs are often only completed when donations and volunteers come forward.

It was a very busy couple of days with two classrooms to completely redecorate, a pond area to clear and bring up to date with levelling work and a path, as well as various other fixes.

Well done to the team for volunteering to help the school with these tasks; the teachers and volunteers were extremely grateful for all our hard work.

Ruth Baugh, Headteacher said:

“Thank you so much for the works carried out – the classrooms look bright, clean and airy ready for the children to return to school, and the pond area has been transformed! A completely overrun space the children were unable to enter due to safety issues will now be used everyday by the children and staff to enhance our curriculum and outdoor provision.

We are so thrilled, and would never have managed it without your help!

Thank you to all the workers and to Tamdown for your time, efforts and energy.”

We recently welcomed Ronny Trivett, a Year 11 student, to complete his work experience with us at Tamdown on our Beaulieu site in Chelmsford, Essex.

Ronny worked with our Site Manager Andy Orme and shadowed and assisted our Site Operatives across the development on various tasks, including kerbing and property footings.

Following his work experience, where he proved himself to be a willing and hard worker, we are pleased to have been able to offer Ronny a role as an apprentice; now he has finished school. He will be joining the Tamdown Team in September as well as studying Level 2 Groundworks at college as part of his apprenticeship course.

Ronny told us:
“I really enjoyed my work experience on-site with Tamdown; it helped me understand what working in construction was like and the sort of tasks it involved. I’m really glad I’ve been offered a job as an apprentice operative now, and I am looking forward to getting back on site and learning more.”