Family firm celebrates 50 golden years

Family firm celebrates 50 golden years Brothers Tom and Jim Fowler set up their firm of plasterers from a yard off Senhouse Street in Workington on June 18, 1962, which meant surviving a first winter during the notorious big freeze of 1963. Sub-contracting has been carried out regularly for award-winning Cumbrian house-builders Lattimer Homes and many other reputable construction firms. Arthur's wife, Mary, was also involved in running the business and handling the books, helped by Neil's wife Lesley. Recalling those early days, Jim said: "We basically just had a little van and a bag of cement. So the standard-bearers now working out of a yard behind Jim's home in Distington are his sons Neil, 45, who lives at Wilton, Egremont, and Jeff, 37, who lives just round the corner from the business base, together with Arthur's son Steven, 34, who lives at Camerton. Jim, 78, and Arthur, 73, are both retired while older brother Tom is sadly no longer with us - and neither is their original yard, which was a victim of town centre development. "I remember our first winter. Now based in Distington, Fowler Brothers has been a limited company since 2003 and is a founder member of the Federation of Master Builders' Whitehaven branch, handling both domestic and commercial jobs. It wasn't easy. We didn't foresee that. During their half-century, the Fowlers have worked on many well-known buildings in the county, including schools, shops, hospitals and sports facilities. Fowler Brothers' current workforce of eight also includes a third generation represented by nephew Robert Latham, 24, who lives next-door to his grandfather in Distington. "When I came out, it was 1957 and I started back at work with the same firm. A bloke from Seascale got on to us to do a couple of jobs and it just went on from there. Fowler Brothers have also worked on lots of different housing estates across West Cumbria at locations including Whitehaven, Seascale, Cleator Moor, Hensingham, Cockermouth, High Harrington and Dearham, and into South West Scotland and Furness. We had to have gas heaters in houses where we were working to keep the frost out. Family firm celebrates 50 golden years Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 09/06/2012