A new home for Pith®: Renovation scrapbook 01.

Over the last year, we have quietly been working on a new home for Pith, which will house our production, warehouse, distribution and design studio.

Since launching Pith® 4 years ago, we have grown organically to a small production team of 5 (and counting), and our production capacity has grown steadily yearly. We have slowly outgrown our current space and have been exploring alternative sites and options for the last two years. The solution just so happens to have presented itself across the courtyard from our current home at Sea View Works in Berwick upon Tweed.

Sitting just twenty metres from the seafront in Spittal, Berwick upon Tweed, the 18th-century building tucked behind a row of houses was originally the Assembly shop for the Agricultural Tool Works on this site since 1855. The Agricultural Tool Works produced a variety of garden and work tools. When the site eventually became Martin’s the Printers and Stationers around 1955, the building housed the pre-press department until around 2005. Since then, the space has been utilised for storage and a short stint as a carpenter's workshop.

We aim to bring life and functionality back to this historical building and start a new chapter in its manufacturing history. The building is a bare shell with original solid stone walls, exposed timber beams and original floorboards. All of these are things we plan to protect and restore sensitively. The roof was replaced a few years ago after storm Arwen ripped most of the original tiles away. Our primary task was to insulate this new roof to retain as much heat as possible in the old building. 

As with all Pith projects, materials are a primary consideration for the renovation and restoration. Aiming to source as many materials as locally as possible that cause minimal environmental harm compared to typical building materials (A much more significant challenge than we initially expected). In this first of a handful of progress posts, we would like to highlight one material and company, pioneering the use of natural fibres in building materials, creating an exceptional product without causing mass harm to the environment.

When seeking a solution to insulate the vast apex ceiling upstairs of the building, we discovered local company IndiNature, an innovative leader in bio-based materials and construction products. Based in the Scottish borders just 35 miles from our new site, IndiNature emerged as the best local solution and a far superior product.

IndiNature reviewed our project and recommended IndiTherm® - a flexible thermal insulation ‘batt’ made from UK-grown industrial hemp. IndiTherm® offers significant net negative embodied carbon savings, exceptional vapour transport, and natural regulation of temperatures and humidity. Manufactured in Jedburgh in the Scottish borders, IndiTherm® can also be reused or reprocessed into new material. We have utilised IndiTherm® throughout the roof structure, which has then been clad with raw wood wool board for additional insulation and soundproofing.

We will keep you posted as the project progresses, with more updates highlighting materials and how the new space will be used.

Read more about IndiTherm® here.

This project is part funded by the North East Combined Authority Investment Fund and by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund with the North East Combined Authority as the lead authority.