garden centre in haslingden
 

Has anyone ever been to that big new garden centre over in haslingden - lancashire homes & gardens ??

was thinking of taking a look at it this weekend as its quite big and hopefully have decent plants and stuff in it but was curious to know if anyone has been and what it was like..

thanks

hi glasgow, ive been to that garden center, it reminds me of ossy mills a lot, plants not too badly priced, try gordon riggs at todmorden, or the garden center on the haslingden old rd ossy, or even the one in ossy mills, depends wot your looking for, but that should give you a weekends running round, good hunting :thumbsup:

if you want a proper garden centre then gordon riggs is lots better but if you want a shop to browse round then it's worth a trip.

nah , have been to gordon riggs before - buy it cheap and stack it high - thats Mr Riggs policy - whatever you do when you go there - DONT buy the fruit - a lot of it is out of date and the staff clean them so they look fresh for the customers - I know ex staff & managers who used to work there & have told me of the working practices that are in place there.
I have been to ossy mills before and I cant imagine that place in haslingden being like it - it looks way to big and new.
But I will find out on saturday.
I do like Hansons towards Clitheroe though - there is a guy there called peter -he knows everything about pesticides & weedkillers - the guys is a walking encyclopedia regarding those kinda things - very helpful !
I also like the small place at the back of atlas street - (road end garden centre ??) very handy at times.

wot did you think of the haslingden garden center then? you never did tell us :wave:

Very swish I thought, I have left them my CV as one of the mangers told me they are looking for certain staff, been told I will hear shortly -
they have some very expensive garden furniture but then again the quality of the stuff justifies it - alot of their stuff is burmese teak which is the most dense wood you could use for outdoor furniture & the companies they have got them from are the UK leaders so they are certainley aiming at a certain bracket of shoppers - mainly rich ones!!!!!! - rules me out !
They were in the middle of clearing christmas away but they had 20% off plants so I bought a few things - seems to be all the staff know what they are talking about so that helps - its also very clean for a garden centre - its more like a department store though - which isnt bad in some ways -
I went up to the cafe and was ripped off though £4.90 for tea & a cake !!
apart from that its quite a good place - I wouldnt mind working there as they pay good money from what I was told and it seemed quite relaxed - but on the flip side I still and always will prefer the small garden centres where you get the bargains !
will let you know about the job thing.

oops i forgot to tell you not to eat or drink there we got ripped off too wen i went cost me £5 odd wen i went, not dissapointed with any of the plants ive bought there though, neither have i been dissapointed with the ones ive bought at ossy mills , good luck with the job.

[-Quote:
- alot of their stuff is burmese teak which is the most dense wood you could use for outdoor furniture & the companies they have got them from are the UK leaders

Unquote...

Are you sure it's Burmese teak? I though this stuff was banned from the Common market because the Burmese are destroying their rainforests....if the stuff is Burmese, the shops breaking the law & and it's not Burmese they're breaking the law by saying it is...

now I do know a bit about this - you can only get the teak(burmese)from forests that are foundation planted and legal - no other way, you are right in what you say but I doubt very much that the companys (Neptune, Alexander Rose, Barlow Tyrie ) who supply stores nationwide would be breaking the law in that respect - you wouldnt be the uks main suppliers of Burmese teak if it wasnt the genuine artical and also if you were doing it from illegal forests - you would be quickly found out due to the amount you would be shipping to the UK I am sure of it

(follow on from the above post)
it is not illegal to import burmese teak if you have permission from the Burmese government, and if you agree to pay them a certain percentage in return - but you are limited in what you can import at any one time.
Alot of companys are now making furninture from Indonesian teak - which is not controlled in its felling and is slowly running out - that will soon be illegal within 5 years or so when it becomes a reality that there is very little left.
Hope this clears things up.

Ok........
 

...Makes sense...but how do you check on the scource of a plank of wood? Policing what is legit. timber & what is'nt must be pretty difficult.

yes & no, because certain timbers are felled from controlled forests so they know what is cut down and what it would weigh to a certain extent, they would also know what you are exporting too.
and they would then know what to charge you - a bit like strawberry picking - its all controlled in the one area, and you are charged per weight.

The new house and garden centre in Haslingden is not worth the trip for the plants. Try Gordon Riggs (I haven't yet found a website link) in Todmorden, they have been established for years and have a massive range of plants.

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Lancashire Homes & Gardens has now closed. I heard a rumour that Tesco's have aquired the site with the intention of turning it into a store. Can anyone confirm this?

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yes, this is right, they are on with the conversion now

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Closed already? I was only saying recently that we should have a look there!

Would you lot believe that although I've heard plenty of talk about it I have never actually been to Gordon Riggs. Yes, I know it's in Todmorden but where exactly? Is it easy to find? I heard they have interesting things at Christmas.

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I'm not talking "garden" I'm talking "Christmas"

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its brilliant there willow, ive been a few times, especially for xmas. no its not hard to find just follow the rd to todmrden then ask . oooo i cant remember , YES BUSMAN YOUR WALLET WILL BE VERY SICK , after youve been there he he he

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Oh don't tell him that. We'll never get there now. He already has a morbid fear of me going anywhere near PC World! Now he'll start trembling every time he hears the name "Todmorden" :D

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ooer but it is a brill place mabe she could buy you a SPADE FOR XMAS you can then prepare yourself for the summer, just looking at it ready to dig the garden? :rolleyes:

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but i must say in its defence that gordon riggs IS CHEAPER than the X haslingden garden center

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yeah it is now closed - it closed on august the 26th - they gave us all 3 minutes to gather our stuff and sacked us all (240 workers) on the spot, tesco bought it the next day for £6m.
the reason that we were all sacked was that it was not in the deal for tesco to buy the site - the deal was we buy the site on its own - no staff included so by 2pm on the 26th of august we were all out of a job - as I said we were given 3 minutes notice - all very underhand (but legal) and nobody got any redundancy money cos you have to be with a company for 2 years before you qualify - that place had only been open for 16 months - they knew what they were doing and it was all worked out very well if you look at it from a business sense - but from normal working persons sense it was utter crap - alot of tears that afternoon - not very nice at all, there were a few people from the one household that worked there thus wiping out entire income, wasnt nice seeing good friends that upset, wouldnt wish it on anyone.
It opens as a tesco next year - I know that quite a few of the garden centre staff have got jobs in that tesco when it opens next year - tesco gave all the staff members interviews before they officially advertise next year for workers - which was a nice gesture.
I am still owed over £1600 in wages from them as probably are majority of the staff from that place - it officialy wound up as a company on November 1st 2004 and its only now we can claim back monies owed - when we get it is another story though but we shall get it - money in the bank so to speak.
You live and learn !!

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ooooooooo you poor s*d thats cruel, mind you ive seen it done with my own eyes at a company i used to work for its disgusting but legal. glad your back with us too :wave:

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Now your talking :) Gordon Riggs is best ever, Interesting, varied, very good prices :)

Willow you will need Hours and Hours to scrape the surface..... And allow time on the way to visit "Tony's Chippy" 1/4 mile before you arrive at Riggs.. Real home made pies and really good fish+chips, and tony is a real character, You can even eat them on there converted bus round back..:)

Head to bacup, Take todmorden rd out to "Tod" Keep going until you go under a railway bridge/viaduct and come to T-junction immediatly(?) Turn RIGHT Riggs is 1mile on left you cannot miss it:) (huge chimney,lit up at night)

Tony's is just before on left at Pelican crossing..:)

Sorry Busman but it is good, I hate shopping but love Riggs;)

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What about you Glasgowman? Did you manage to stay in similar employment or did you go for an interview with Tesco's?

That was a nasty way of treating employees but more and more firms are now taking the easiest route to make a profit whilst "selling up!" Assuming you all had a contract, surely they must give so many weeks notice..or pay you in lieu of notice?

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What an appalling way to treat people. Presumably it wasn't a going concern and unable to survive financially?

I had only noticed it in passing on the road to Manchester and said we must work out where the entrance is!

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Now we have got to go for that Busman!!

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when a company goes bust/liquidates (call it what you want) they do not have legal obligation to pay a penny to anyone - all they do is claim they have no maney to pay anyone and thats that & I know for a fact that quite a few companys were/are owed £10's of thousands of pounds in unpaid bills due to that garden centre closing - the only thing we could do was get an RP1 ( a form for claiming back money owed ) fill it in & send it off and wait.... thats it - all you can do.
And yes I do have a new job - on more money than before & for less hours ! -
I didnt want to do retail again so I gave Tesco a miss - my new job has nothing to do with plants/horticulture but its great - I am toying with the idea of doing my own thing landscaping/gardening in and around Hyndurn/lancashire -
I have the contacts/customers/name of company/website/business plan/knowledge/experience (over 15 years worth) and the qualifications to go with it - I would be quite happy to challenge the already established companys out there for business ! - but for now its in a file on the shelf as christmas is coming !

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oops forgot about the chippy mmmmmmm (he he he he )



you can pay me later willow ha ha ha ha

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Good luck with your new venture Glascow guy, We wish you every success when you start it up.:D .....and you can always plug your company on the Accy web:) )

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Yes good luck with whatever you are doing glasgow guy. Unfortunately I can't say come and do our garden because we haven't got one according to HBC.