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2023 – The round up! Happy Christmas to one and all….

by | Dec 2023 | Journal

Directors Christmas

It’s been a busy year at Castellum and there is much to look forward to…
Victoria, Ben, Chris and Jon look back at 2023 and would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a Very Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Prosperous 2024.

There is no doubting that 2023 has been interesting and has presented many challenges. The national and international news has been bleak, the economic pundits have been similarly gloomy and the construction industry as a whole has suffered from extreme inflation over the past three years with some building materials doubling over the period, linked both to lack of supply following Covid and huge increases in energy and transport costs. Despite all this, here at Castellum we have many reasons to remain positive and, as inflation shows signs of stabilisation, we look forward to an exciting 2024.

Firstly, we are so proud and want to thank all of our staff and a few others who responded with incredible velocity and generosity when Dorcas, from our Cotswold office, put a little note on our Whatsapp group asking if anyone would like to buy a present for a local child that would not otherwise be getting one. Dorcas was supporting The Churn Project who had 149 children in their care to get gifts for. The incredible response she got restores one’s faith in humanity and we are delighted to share that the Castellum team has provided over 30 gifts now – and still rising!

Christmas elves
Present pile

Happily staff turnover at Castellum is extremely low and we have welcomed both Jim Coleman and Ben Haskins back into the fold along with a number of other new appointments. Miguel Dos Santos has joined our Surrey Team as a Project Manager on one of our prestigious Wentworth Estate Projects and he is joined by Florencia Rica as an Assistant Site Manager. Tim Enright has joined the London team as a QS along with Yusef Idris as Assistant QS. We are delighted to welcome them all and will soon be announcing three further new appointments as our teams grow from strength to strength.

We have been delighted to receive two awards for Lowater, in Marlow, this year and we have another incredible property in Buckinghamshire that is nearing completion; which we are sure will be just as worthy of accolades next year. Please read last month’s newsletter to hear all about our Retrofit activity and, since then, Lee Boileau has gained further qualifications in this field. In London our first major retrofit project has just started with The Grosvenor Estate and we are now well into another new prestigious project on Hyde Park Gate. Our Surrey team have been working on a number of incredible properties on The Wentworth Estate and we have our own development of mews houses nearing completion in Effingham that will come to the market early in 2024. Meanwhile, in The Cotswolds, works are underway on a beautiful stone country house, a series of barn conversions close to Stow-on-the-Wold and a further barn conversion in the North Cotswolds on The Great Tew Estate. Across the board we are looking at some very exciting prospects for the year ahead.

As we approach Christmas we are looking forward to time with families and friends and to recharge the batteries. We wish you and your loved ones every happiness over the festive period and health and prosperity for the year ahead.

With all best wishes,

Victoria, Ben, Chris and Jon