Brentwood School continue with Grassform
Brentwood School was founded in 1557 and is firmly established to this day with well over 1400 day pupils and 70 boarding in its pre-prep, prep and senior sections. The school is particularly noted for its sporting achievements, both in outdoor sports such as football and cricket and indoor sports too where many young athletes have been developed. The school invests heavily into its 65 acre sports field area, which comes under the remit of Steve Francis, head of the Grounds Department. Steve is proud of the facilities that he has and part of this has been down to Grassform Ltd. who have worked on the outdoor facilities over the past eight years. The company has dealt with many aspects of maintenance, drainage and earthworks around the site which lies between Brentwood and Shenfield town centres in south Essex, maintaining the high standards that the school set.
Easy choice of contractor
Location would seem an obvious reason as to why Grassform have been chosen as a contractor at the school, given that they are based only a few miles away. This is one aspect, but not the main reason states Steve. It is their quality of work, attitude and ultimately a competitive quotation which means that the work comes back to the Ingatestone based company on a regular basis. He said "I like the fact that Grassform do exactly what they say they will do, and all of their staff are very knowledgeable and able to consult with me on any minor changes in specification that are required as each job goes on. Plus, they leave the site as they found it which for a school of our standing is significant - it's important to me to have as little disruption as possible." The school have experienced excellent work over their eight year working relationship with Grassform and Steve sees this continuing into the future. The company have completed sand slit drainage work, spread sand carpets, over seeded and verti-drained on most of the site which includes 12 football, 4 rugby and 5 cricket pitches, all of which need regular attention to ensure a high standard.
Recent wet weather tasks
Grassform were recently working at Brentwood School over the Easter holidays to complete some remedial works, and Steve Francis was as ever impressed with the attitude shown by the company's staff. "We asked Grassform to dress a sand loam 60/40 mix carpet and carry out overseeding on some of our 12 football pitches, something we do in a 4 year cycle with 3.5 pitches at a time. Grassform's staff were very careful so as not to damage the grass as they traversed with materials during the inclement wet weather that we experienced over Easter, which may not seem significant but it shows that they think about their work as contractors to leave the site as best they can."
Summing up Grassform's work at the school, Steve Francis said "Grassform offer a package, which is not always the cheapest option, but what it does offer is outstanding quality and value for money." Mark Dunning, Grassform's managing director said of the works at the school: "We have had a very good working relationship with Brentwood School over the last few years and have made, in conjunction with the Steve Francis and his ground staff, some significant improvements to the playing surfaces on the sports fields. Steve has to provide the best possible surfaces for the school's demanding sporting schedules and that is why he has contracted Grassform to work alongside his own staff to help maintain the high standards required from Brentwood School's management."