Restaurant milestone at Monkton Elm

The new restaurant at Monkton Elm took a big and exciting step further forward this week (August 26, 2014) with construction starting on the main steel structure of the building.

This milestone follows weeks of hard work by the team including site clearance and preparation, levelling and demolishing of the old structure.

The size of the excavated site that will be home to the new restaurant building with a footprint of nearly 1000sqm is impressive and it is hard to believe that it will soon be filled with families and visitors of all ages feasting on freshly prepared meals cooked on-site by our team of catering specialists.

The facility will also be home to a coffee house that will offer wonderful coffee and freshly brewed tea, including fruit and speciality teas that will complement an expanded range of delicious cakes and biscuits from our new bakery.

Mike Lind, Managing Director at Monkton Elm Garden & Pet Centre, explained: “There is a great deal of excitement around the garden centre with this important phase of the project starting. As is so often the case with building projects the preparatory work that takes place before the main building is erected is hard and unglamorous work mostly covered up with stone. It is rewarding for the site construction team, staff and customers to see visual progress above the ground.

“It is also a case of fast then slow. For two months a lot of work has been down underground with pipes and foundations, and it probably appeared to be very slow progress. But we were ahead of our building schedule. We will now see the building itself being constructed over the next four weeks, which will make quite a dramatic change to the site in a fairly short space of time.

“Then the building will be worked on by electrical and mechanical contractors before the main kitchen and front of house work takes place. All of this takes time to get right and externally it will look like not a lot is going on – but I can assure there is.”

“Monkton Elm is also very proud of the role it plays in the local community and the selection of local contractors and suppliers where possible has been very high on our agenda. We feel it is important to work with and support local businesses in the delivery of this major project in Somerset. It is a continuation of our commitment to support local communities where possible for the benefit of all individuals in our local communities.

“Two of the main contractors appointed are from Taunton - REF Electrics Ltd are the electrical contractors and Heat Radiation Ltd are the mechanical contractors. We have also worked extensively on-site with MBH Industrial Services Ltd on all gas works. These appointments confirm our commitment to work with local businesses.”

The main steel structure is being provided by Newspan Construction Ltd, a Hampshire based company, which specialises in buildings of this nature.

We will keep you updated with progress as the building develops and extend a very warm welcome to you to join us in our new restaurant when it opens in early 2015.