Stockport has always been well-known for its industrial heritage, and in places such as Illingworth Ingham, Portwood, the pulse of that local industry continues unabated.

This site, just off Carrington Road, has been a timber yard for years; it now forms part of Illingworth Ingham - a family-run, North West timber company founded in 1929.

Although technically a 'branch' of Illingworth Ingham, Portwood Timber still very much retains a distinct local feel.

This much is clear in its approach to customers and its product.

A wide range of timber and mouldings is available at Portwood Timber (Image - Alasdair Perry)

As branch manager Tony Davies explains: "We trade a little bit differently. In some merchants, it's one in and one out - here, we go the extra mile to look after people and offer a good service delivery-wise. We care about the customers."

Tony is proud of the fact that he knows 80 percent of his customers; their name, orders, and projects. That said, Portwood Timber is equally welcoming to newcomers - and once they discover Portwood, they don't tend to go anywhere else.

"We give people great service - that's why they come back", Tony said.

"One of the biggest things that sets us apart is the quality of the timber. We have people who come from all over for that reason - for a lot of people we're the only place they come to."

Illingworth Ingham Portwood is based at 1 Mersey St, Stockport SK1 2HX (Image - Alasdair Perry)

Tony described one instance where a customer chose Portwood for the first time. The customer said: "'The reason I've given you the order is because you've acknowledged me, you've made conversation with me, you've included my family in the conversation - the whole atmosphere of coming in here has been perfect.'"

Illingworth Ingham Portwood stocks a wide range of timber and timber mouldings, with wood coming from as far afield as Scandinavia, the Baltics, the Far East, and more.

The wide range of timber is used for a correspondingly wide range of projects - furniture, extensions, gadgets, and more. An ongoing project has even seen the team involved in some restoration work at Lyme Park.

Portwood Timber also stocks a wide range of tools and hardware (Image - Alasdair Perry)

Complimenting all of this is the team's experience and the provenance of the site. Not only has timber been an industry on this site for decades, but the current brochure even contains some mouldings from the old Portwood days, which the modern team has carried on machining.

Further still, the close-knit team have decades of experience between them; to the point where identifying dimensions and wood types can be done by eye in a split second.

If you are, then, thinking of redoing some of that skirting board, if the garage roof needs a bit of an overhaul, or if you have another grand project in mind - Illingworth Ingham Portwood is the place to start.

Find more information on the Portwood Timber website HERE.

And, as a bonus to Stockport Nub News readers, Portwood Timber has provided a discount code. Speak to Tony in store at 1 Mersey Street and mention the code PORT24.

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