COMMERCIAL PLUMBING & HEATING SERVICES BASED IN HEXHAM, NORTHUMBERLAND

MOWDEN HALL SCHOOL

Mowden Hall is a prestigious private school situated in the Tyne Valley near Corbridge. It provides a first-class education to children from nursery age to year 8, and of its 170 students, 85 are boarders. The property was a stately home until the school relocated here in 1945, having been evacuated from their original site in Darlington during the Second World War.

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J P Westall have serviced and maintained the heating system at Mowden Hall for many years, but in 2017 a decision was made to replace the 50-year old boiler in the main building in order to ensure heating provision would be uninterrupted during the following winter, and to enhance the provision of domestic hot water. The Trust, which operates the school, selected Westall to replace the ageing boiler with two new state of the art Viessmann boilers and to improve the efficiency of the heating system by dividing the distribution system into three zones and installing a new control system, with Westall designing and installing the whole project.

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​Caretaker Simon said “Westall have worked here for over 20 years. We have occasionally called in other local plumbing firms but always end up coming back to Westall as the other companies always ended up leaving us with issues, whereas we have never had any such problems with Westall.”

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When asked if there were any problems or issues during the installation, Simon described the biggest challenge – getting the large new boilers into the boiler room, given the limitations of the old building, including some very steep stairs. He went on to explain how in the face of the challenge, the two lead team members on the delivery phase of the project devised a ramp system and described how they skilfully managed the delivery and siting of the boilers – which resulted in no damage to the building or the boilers.

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Simon goes on to explain how successful he believes the project to have been, a notable benefit being the ability to deliver much greater quantities of hot water (very important when you have 80+ children having daily showers!), as this was a problem they used to contend with on a daily basis. He is also over the moon with the reduction in maintenance – the old system requiring daily attention from him to keep it performing adequately. Finally, he commented on how smoothly the project ran, ‘considering how big a job it was’, how delighted he has been by the results, and how smart and organised the new plant room looks.

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Oil consumption for the school has reduced significantly – Simon reports savings of around 27%, and this is in addition to the school being noticeably warmer and now having more than enough hot water to keep everyone happy! Simon recommends Westall to anyone who asks (both domestic and commercial) and is firm in his view that he would do so time and time again.

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​Another successful project for the J P Westall team and a happy customer, just what we like to hear! If you have any upcoming projects, large or small, don’t hesitate to get in touch.