The best time to sell your property is between the two bank holidays say property experts Carter Jonas. And the 18th May is the optimum date according to their survey of 79 agents.

Stephen Holland, head of property at Carter Jonas Kendal office said: “People always ask us when it is best to sell a property. So rather than saying ‘Spring’, we set out to find the exact date.

“And it is the 18th May, midway between the two Bank Holidays. It fits in neatly with buyers looking to move during the summer holiday, allowing for between eight to ten weeks from offer to completion, and at this time houses are often looking picture perfect.”

“Of course this won’t fit in with everyone’s plans but for those who want to know when they are most likely to attract the best price, our research shows it’s the 18th May”.

Ends

Notes to editors

Research background
The research was carried out in February 2013 amongst Carter Jonas’ 79 country residential property consultants who work across its 25 UK residential offices ranging from Kendal to Winchester.

About Carter Jonas
Carter Jonas is a multi-disciplined property consultancy with a network of offices across England and Wales. The firm employs more than 550 partners and staff and advises on all aspects of residential, rural and commercial property. As well as residential and commercial agency, the firm specialises in rural land management and professional services such as planning, architecture and building consultancy, renewable energy and mineral and waste management.

We post our news releases on our media page to give you a sense of what we cover and the standard to which we do that.

However, a new client recently pointed out that we don’t then tell you where they end up being used. The reason for this is that media monitoring is now incredibly expensive and complex due to the increasingly viral and digital nature of news. Long gone are the days of clipping and sticking print mentions into a portfolio. Which also means that it is harder to monitor the tone of the coverage and to quantify the AVE (advertising value equivalent, ie how much would the space have cost to buy if we hadn’t secured free editorial).

That said, setting a google alert can help track news release coverage, and when you get decent mentions in glossy magazines or key national newspapers they are not hard to spot. And we certainly get plenty of those…

For example, our client Jo Thompson’s new website has a long list of all the coverage that we have secured for her in the last 18 months. The combination of what she does, great photography, the speed at which she responds to media requests, her networking abilities, engaging personality and professionalism play a major part in turning our news releases and pitches into great editorial.

We have recently been given several images from clients following staff photo shoots. And those taken outside definitely get a thumbs up from us.

Somehow the breeze, plain old fresh air, and interesting backdrops seem to bring out the best in everyone.

Way back in the mists of time when Emma used to organise annual shots of each member of staff at the Lake District National Park Authority, the ones taken outside definitely made them seem more human.

Top tip: Abandon your desks and bring your staff shots to life.

We’re proud to announce that Ten Stories High now has it’s own part time apprentice.

Emma’s son Adam (14) gets pressed into action to take pictures for our clients when budgets for professional photographers don’t exist.

A cracking photograph not only increases the editorial value of a story but can literally double the space your news gets. Here are examples of pictures Adam’s taken recently to help us tell a client’s story:

The organisers behind a successful taster Quaker Tapestry display in the centre of town are hoping people will want to follow it home to see the rest of it in its new and improved setting.

Since Easter, over 3,000 people have visited a small display in Kendal’s Elephant Yard. It was set up by enterprising exhibition staff who decided to find temporary lodgings for part of the display when last minute major renovations forced the closure of the main exhibition space at the start of the season. It’s staffed by a small army of new and existing volunteers including those from groups like the Rotary Club, the Embroiderers Guild as well as visiting volunteers.

The unexpected renovation work has now been completed at the Quaker Tapestry Museum on Stramongate. And major changes have also been made to the way the whole exhibition space, which includes the tapestry, model railway, Barrett counterpane, shop and film, is laid out.

“We’ve spent the last two years getting feedback from visitors which we have now acted upon” explains centre manager Bridget Guest.

“We have a much more dynamic exhibition space with lots of information available in different formats from audio guides, captions, and even a digital album with all 77 panels detailed.”

“Anyone who bought a one year pass from us at our temporary town centre exhibition should definitely pop-back to see the rest of it now we are fully open.”

Those who haven’t yet seen the free temporary exhibition in Elephant Yard are urged to visit it before it finally closes at 5pm on Saturday 11 May.

For opening times and ticket details for the Quaker Tapestry Visitor Centre please visit their website.

Ends

For all media queries please contact either:
Emma Dewhurst on 015395 64193 or 07964 686682 or
Bridget Guest 01539 814860

Notes to editors

Picture shows new look exhibition space at the Quaker Tapestry Museum which is now open following unexpected refurbishment work

The Tapestry’s permanent home is the Grade II* listed Georgian Friends Meeting House on Stramongate in Kendal. Designed in 1816 by local architect Francis Webster for the Quakers, it is claimed to be one of the finest Georgian buildings in Cumbria.

Fondly referred to as the ‘Kendal Tapestry’, it is in fact a colourful, modern textile story set out on 77 panels size 25” (635mm) x 21” (533mm). Likened to the Bayeux Tapestry it celebrates life, people and events across the centuries from a Quaker perspective. It was made by 4,000 men, women and children, aged from 4 to 90 from 15 different countries. Created between 1981 and 1996, it came into being as a result of a chance remark by an 11 year old boy to his teacher, Anne Wynn-Wilson.

The countdown to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show starts tomorrow (2 May) for designer Jo Thompson and her team from the Outdoor Room. In just under three weeks she will create a space to inspire a nation of garden lovers to help preserve their horticultural heritage on behalf of the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera).

By Monday 20 May 11 acres of the Chelsea Hospital grounds will become the world’s most famous flower show visited by the royal family, celebrities, 157,000 visitors and the world’s media.

There is a serious message behind the 10m x 12m Main Avenue “Stop the Spread” garden for Fera. It is that we can all work together to help prevent the introduction and spread of damaging plant pests, diseases and invasive non-native species.

“We are a nation of garden lovers, we have some of the most famous green spaces in the world and more than 18.5 million people garden. We are a hopeful, resourceful and resilient lot and I want this garden to provoke discussion, inspire action and give hope” says its designer Jo Thompson.

A symbolic avenue of bare and lifeless trees, leading to a dark pool of water surrounding an island holding a single oak sapling, contrasts with a sunken garden filled with blue, white and yellow planting bordered by towering trees. Concrete panels, pressed with magnified images of the serious tree diseases, Chalara and Phytophthora, and the leaves of a highly invasive non-native plant species, partly surround the space. A two metre high sculpture by Tom Stogdon provides two views, one which looks towards a beautiful silver birch and the other to a lifeless tree.

Six living trees, oak, elm, horse chestnut, silver birch, field maple and London plane will be the first to be placed in the garden. Three of the trees have stories to tell. The horse chestnut was grown from a Buckingham Palace conker; the plane tree was propagated from one felled to make way for London’s Hungerford Bridge; and the elm is a special disease resistant US cultivar (Ulmus ‘New Horizon’) grown in Germany and raised by Hillier nurseries under a special license complete with micro-chip.

Once the trees are in the boundary walls go up. The twenty two panels of two metre tall, 60 kilo walls will need to be brought carefully through the busy build site before being placed. The team from the Outdoor Room will then tackle the excavation of the sunken area where the sculpture will sit.

Discussing her pre-show nerves, Jo adds: “This is my fourth show garden at Chelsea and so I should know better. But each time, at this stage, it’s the plants that I worry about. The exceptionally cold winter means that many of the taller plants I want to use, like the Umbellifers, are short. I will have a dynamic plan ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ up my sleeves to get the look I want.

“I will also need to find time to keep an eye on my other ‘show garden’. I am thrilled to have been asked by Peter Jones to do their Chelsea in bloom window.”

Tipped as the ‘designer of the moment’, Jo’s previous Chelsea show gardens have won silver gilt and gold medals and a ‘Best Urban Garden in Show’.

Ends
Caption for picture (available hi res too): Jo Thompson and the team from Outdoor Room, pictured here at Chelsea 2012.

For more information and more images please contact:
Emma Dewhurst (emma@tenstories.co.uk) or Jo Thompson direct on 07834 196193

“The outcomes for boarders are outstanding” is Ofsted’s verdict of boarding at Dallam School in Heversham.

“Boarders are confident and thrive in the boarding environment. Their well-being is paramount and their personal development is successfully enhanced by the outstanding level of care they receive. Equality and diversity is exceptionally well promoted to meet individual needs.”

These are just some of the conclusions of Ofsted’s report which finds the provision for the 120 boys and girls, who call the school home, outstanding in all four judgment categories.

Only a handful of the 36 state boarding schools in England and Wales have achieved this.

Responding to the news, head teacher, Steve Holdup, said: “These are highly unusual scores from experienced inspectors. It shows that we provide well and that the young people appreciate it. Boarders had a major part to play in getting their experience here recognised as being truly outstanding”.

During the three day inspection, the inspectors spoke to many of the 11-18 year old pupils, to boarding and other staff as well as hearing from parents, a governor and the head teacher. They looked at every aspect of a boarding pupil’s life including their accommodation, leisure facilities, food provision, medical care and welfare.

The glowing report comes as head teacher Steve Holdup marks ten years in post. In that time he has seen boarding house numbers increase from 45 to 120 boarders who come from as many as 10 different countries.

The secondary state school, serving pupils from South Cumbria and North Lancashire currently has 968 pupils on roll and is celebrating 400 years at Heversham this year.

Ends

For more information please contact: Steve Holdup at Dallam School 015395 65165

Pictures – a photograph of all the current boarders will be available by Tues/Weds this week (it’s being taken on Monday). Smaller group images of boarders are also available now.

A school that’s served pupils from Westmorland, and then later North Lancashire, for the last four centuries is celebrating its anniversary with a project to safeguard its past.

Heversham Grammar School merged with Milnthorpe Modern School to become Dallam School in 1984. It was established in 1613 by Edward Wilson of Dallam Tower whose descendent is still involved with the school today.

Dallam now provides an education for approximately 1,000 pupils, including boarders, in state of the art facilities at Heversham and Milnthorpe. Its alumni include media moguls, corporation chiefs, polymaths, clergy and Times cartoonist.

To mark its anniversary, the school’s history is being given a permanent home at its Heversham site. Displays as diverse as school films from the 1960s, recordings, old uniforms, photographs from the early days of photography, school books and medals won at Arnhem by a former pupil will be on show. Also on display is a mysterious box from a Kendal bank vault. It held three silver cycling cups dating from the 1920s which were left at the bank over 40 years ago.

Information will be provided to introduce current boarders to a game that was popular with their predecessors right up until the 1980s. The school has one of only a handful of working Victorian Fives Courts, a game played with leather gloves and hard ball and similar to squash.

This new curated archive will be used by the school to develop history projects including those which will link to pupils and staff remembered on the school’s war memorials.

“Making the early school’s history available to the current school is one of the best ways to connect past and present pupils” said Chris Milne from the Heversham Grammar School Old Pupils’ Society. “It is a fantastic record of scholarship that extends back into the time of King James I and continues in Dallam School today”

Displays will be available to the public from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday 15th June; a celebration dinner is being held for old pupils and staff from 7pm. Details of the event and a booking form can be found on Heversham Grammar School Old Pupils’ Society website www.hevershamgrammar.co.uk

Anyone with items for the archive should email heversham400th@yahoo.co.uk

ends

For any media enquiries please contact either Emma Dewhurst (emma@tenstories.co.uk) or the Society secretary Chris Milne on 07921 492853

Picture caption: A year seven pupil, Sam Dewhurst, with a portrait of the founder, Edward Wilson of Dallam Tower. Edward Wilson was 93 years old when he sat for the portrait.

Notes to editors on alumni:

Distinguished eighteenth century scholars were:
Richard Watson who became Bishop of Llandaff and also Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge; William Preston who became Bishop of Ferns in Ireland; Ephraim Chambers who became a printer and brought out ‘Chamber’s Encyclopaedia’.

From the nineteenth century there is: William Whewell one of the most important and influential figures in nineteenth-century Britain who wrote extensively on numerous subjects including educational reform the philosophy of science, history of science, and moral philosophy. He was one of the founding members and a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Royal Society, president of the Geological Society, and longtime Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Whewell invented the English word ‘scientist’ in response to a challenge by the poet S.T. Coleridge in 1833.

Alumni of note from this century include:
Peter Brookes political cartoonist for The Times since 1992 (and multiple winner of the Cartoonist of Year at the British Press Awards). Richard Taylor Senior Vice President and Director of Human Resources at Intel. Kim Fletcher a partner at international corporate communications firm Brunswick and previous deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph, editor of The Independent on Sunday and editorial director of the Telegraph Group. He is Chairman of the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

The team charged with taking forward the legacy of its charismatic owner is holding its first Garden Fair this Sunday (5th May) in Wenhaston.

Michael Loftus, the owner of specialist plant nursery Woottens of Wenhaston, sadly passed away last year. Michael’s wife Elizabeth Loftus and a dedicated team of twelve staff members now run the nursery. It’s known for its unique collections of historic Irises, Pelargoniums and Auriculas as well as an extensive and diverse range of hardy perennials.

“This is an event Michael would have approved of. We are involving other local and like minded nurseries who grow complimentary plants, shrubs and trees and who are also specialists in their field” commented assistant nursery manager Luci Skinner.

“We have also invited local crafts people, artists and garden designers to take part in recognition that our gardens are now about so much more than just plants. It’s about creating a vital and personal out door living space” added Luci.

A leading nursery from Woodbridge in Suffolk and a specialist rose grower from Metfield, Norfolk will be there. One of the best culinary herb and edible plant nurseries in East Anglia, from Saxmundham in Suffolk, is also attending.

Norwich based Peter Dibble, a willow worker from Suffolk who harvests and uses willow from a bed planted by his father-in-law will be demonstrating his craft. And local Halesworth potter Mark Titchner whose work can be found in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge will be there.

There will also be a propagation demonstration taking place in the nursery’s display garden. “Woottens has always been a teaching nursery, Michael was keen to share his knowledge and passion with staff and customers and we will continue to do so” explained Luci.

The event takes place between 10am and 4pm on Sunday 5th May. Entry is free and parking is plentiful. Tea and cakes will be served in the courtyard.

For more information please visit: www.woottensplants.com

Photograph details:
Pictured left to right are eight of the twelve strong nursery team: Sandra Sutton (auricula expert), Rosalyn Boyce (nursery worker), Jo Kerridge (mail order manager), Viv Kemp (border designer), Stuart Kellett (assistant manager), Lizzy Loftus (nursery owner), Gillian Morris (field manager) and Luci Skinner (assistant manager).

The arrival of six new full time members of staff, including a partner and head of residential, has almost doubled the size of Carter Jonas’ most northerly team based in Kendal.

The expansion reflects the firm’s confidence in the region’s property market, its natural resources, land and estates. It also means the team will be able to serve more clients across Cumbria, North Lancashire and the Western fringe of the Yorkshire Dales.

Carter Jonas, a centuries old national firm specialising in land and property management as well as house sales, has had a Kendal base since it acquired Fisher Hoggarth in 1989. Hoggarth’s roots date back to the mid 1800’s when ‘old Henry Hoggarth’ became a practising surveyor.

Over the last six months the posts have been filled with the last recruit joining the company this week (22 April). Two of the new appointees are from Cumbria.

Head of residential sales Stephen Holland and partner Oliver Bateman took up their management posts at the end of last year as did sales negotiator Aaron Cook. Graduates Fergus Russell and Rachel Watson arrived in January and April this year respectively. Associate surveyor Helen Lancaster started this week.

Westmerian Oliver Bateman, who spent the last ten years working for Penrith Farmers’ and Kidd’s, heads up the rural services and infrastructure division. He is joined by Rachel Watson. Helen Lancaster who is from Keswick and Fergus Russell are the new members of the rural estate management team.

Stephen Holland, who previously worked in the Derbyshire Dales, is in charge of property sales. And Aaron Cook assists him by supporting the residential sales team.

The work of the new team will include managing estates at Witherslack, Rydal, Coniston, Sedbergh, Kirkby Stephen and Burneside. As well as advising land owning bodies like the Quakers, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on the running of their estates. They will sell some of the area’s finest houses, carry out market appraisals and formal valuations of land and property.

“It’s been a bit of a squeeze to fit us all into our office here on Kirkland opposite the parish church” said Stephen. “At some point we may need to move into larger premises. But for now it is great to be fully staffed and working as a team improving and growing the services Carter Jonas offer in this wonderful part of the world.”

A total of 13 full time staff now work in the office, including senior assistant surveyor Morgan Robinson, rural surveyor Sarah Stewart and partner and office head, Julian Lambton. Julian has been with Carter Jonas for over 23 years. There are also five, part-time viewing assistants.

Ends

For further information please contact Emma Dewhurst 015395 64193 or Stephen Holland 01539 814908

Notes to editors
The attached image shows five of the six new starters:
L-R: Fergus Russell, Oliver Bateman, Stephen Holland, Aaron Cook
Front Row: Rachel Watson
Not shown is Helen Lancaster.

Carter Jonas has 26 offices in England and Wales.