John Brash Western Red Cedar shingles have been used on the new Booths supermarket in Hesketh Bank near Preston, helping to create a building which sits comfortably in its semi-rural location.
John Brash’s Western Red Cedar shingles were specified by Wilson Mason Partners architects because of their lightweight nature, enabling the design to feature a column-free central sales area. The architects also preferred the aesthetics offered by the Western Red Cedar, which is an exceptionally beautiful timber that has natural colouring in mellow ambers, reddish cinnamons and rich browns.
Western Red Cedar shingles from John Brash are extremely durable, having a minimum 40-year service life, resistance to decay and a high strength to weight ratio that provides flexibility in design. This was demonstrated by the internal layout on this project. Its natural thermal qualities have also led to it being specified extensively by architects and building designers.
There was a long span structure over the store – around 40m – and traditional materials such as slate would have made it difficult to keep the retail space column free. The shingles are also a ‘soft’ material which fitted with the client outlook as the building is in a semi-rural location. They are complemented by another natural material, a facing of random rubble York stone.
