Arthur Hollis built his first wall in Bisley with a borrowed mixer. Fifty-five years later his granddaughters run the firm from the same valley — and the phone still rings in the same office.
Our story
A family firm, on purpose.
We could have grown bigger. We decided to stay close instead: twenty-eight people, eight-ish jobs a year, and every one of them within twelve miles of the yard.
Arthur’s son Graham moved the business into the Old Sawmill in 1984 and set up the joinery workshop in the saw shed. Ruth and Kate took over in 2019 — Ruth runs the sites and the money, Kate draws and prices every scheme. Graham still turns up on Tuesdays to tell everyone how he’d have done it.
The Old Sawmill — office, joinery and tea urn since 1984.
Three generations
From one van to twenty-eight of us.
Found in a biscuit tin in the office. The captions are Graham’s.
Dad & the first van, Bisley ’711971
Arthur starts with a wall
A drystone wall for a farmer in Bisley, paid partly in cash and partly in eggs. By Christmas he had two lads and a second-hand flatbed lorry.
Me, looking busy, 19981998
Graham opens the workshop
Our own joiners meant our own windows, stairs and doors — made to fit old walls that aren’t square. It’s still the thing clients mention first.
The girls take the keys, 20192019
& Daughters
Ruth and Kate add the “& Daughters”, the fixed-price promise in writing and an apprenticeship scheme. The phone number stays exactly the same.
28people on the payroll
9joiners & masons in-house
4apprentices every year
1tea urn, never empty
The team
The people on your site.
No subcontracted strangers. These are the faces you’ll see from the first cuppa to the last sweep.
3rd generation
Ruth Hollis
Managing director
Knows the price of a tonne of lime off by heart.
3rd generation
Kate Hollis
Design, planning & estimates
Has drawn every scheme we’ve built since 2016.
2nd generation
Graham Hollis
Chairman, Tuesdays only
“Semi-retired”. Still the best plasterer in the valley.
31 years with us
Dennis Fairley
Head joiner
Makes staircases in the yard and carries them in whole.
Master mason
Marek Nowak
Stone, lime & drystone
Can tell which quarry a stone came from by tapping it.
Site lead
Jess Okafor
Project manager & site lead
Rings every client every Friday. Never misses one.
How we work
Four things Arthur would still recognise.
i.
Say what it costs
A fixed price, itemised room by room, before anyone digs a hole. If it changes, you’ll know why — in writing, before the work.
ii.
Leave it tidier than we found it
Every Friday at three, the brooms come out. Skips are covered, mud is hosed off the lane and the neighbours get a note about next week.
iii.
Use local hands
Our own joiners and masons, plus a handful of local electricians and plumbers we’ve worked with for decades. No anonymous gangs.
iv.
Build to be lived in
Lime where walls need to breathe, oak where it will last, and heat pumps and insulation so the bills stay small for the next fifty years.
Apprentices
Four apprentices a year, because someone trained Arthur.
Every September we take on two joiners and two masons from the valleys’ schools and colleges. They spend three years with us, paid properly from day one, with a named mentor and a full set of tools that’s theirs to keep.
Ask to see any of these certificates — we keep copies in the van.
CBGsince 1979
Cotswold Builders’ Guild
Members for 47 years, with an independent dispute scheme if anything ever goes wrong.
10years
Structural warranty
Insurer-backed on every new home and conversion — it transfers if you sell.
£10mcover
Insurance
£10m public liability, £5m employer’s liability and full contract-works cover on every site.
ISO9001 45001
Quality & safety
Certified quality and health & safety systems, audited every year.
1,412 days without a reportable accident
Toolbox talk every Monday at 7:30
First-aider & defibrillator on every site
Every scaffold inspected weekly
Currently building in
Where you’ll find our vans this month.
SheepscombeSnagging · barn
MiserdenOn site · new home
BisleyOn site · renovation
SladOn site · extension
AmberleyOn site · extension
NailsworthOn site · retrofit
PainswickFrom November
ChalfordFrom January
★★★★★
“Marek rebuilt forty metres of our garden wall and it looks like it’s been there for two hundred years. He wouldn’t take a cup of tea until it was finished.”
ABAlison BrightThe Old Forge, Bisley
★★★★★
“Graham did our first extension in 1994. Ruth did the second one in 2024. Same phone number, same tidy site, slightly better biscuits.”
3rd generation
3rd generation
2nd generation
31 years with us
Master mason
Site lead