Started in a garage in Knebworth.
Still small. Still deliberate.
James Whittle started Herts & Essex Gates in 2008, from a rented unit on the edge of Knebworth village. The first commission was a pair of wrought-iron swing gates for a farmhouse on the B656 — the client still rings every spring for the annual service.
Sixteen years and forty-seven projects later, we've moved to a larger workshop in Hatfield, taken on three colleagues, and turned down about twice as many jobs as we've accepted. We've never grown faster than we could maintain.
We don't advertise. Every commission comes from a referral, a sign on a gate, or a Google search at two in the morning from someone who's just moved into a house with a broken motor.
We work across Hertfordshire and Essex, occasionally further when the commission warrants it. We have one forge, one drawing wall, and one rule: if we can't do it properly, we say so before we start.