Welsh wood products created at Clifford Jones Timber in Ruthin are finding a new lease of life high in the trees of the gardens of the rich and famous.

Specially laminated timber from the ground-breaking family firm in Denbighshire are proving a popular choice with bespoke treehouse designer Paul Cameron whose clients include the likes of superstars Elton John and Gary Barlow.

Paul has used the products in his creations for the past 12 months and they are currently being suspended 12 metres up as a viewing platform for the RSPB in Staffordshire.

It is yet another cutting edge step from the company that introduced Wales’s first timber laminating plant and has developed the country’s only wooden framed solar panels.

Paul’s made-to-measure ‘glulam’ orders are made in the company’s £1.2 million state-of-the-art laminating plant at Ruthin with pieces of wood glued together under high pressure using the same glue that aviation giants Airbus use to manufacture their A380 wing sections.

Alan Jones, Chairman of Clifford Jones Timber, said: “Our laminated timber is perfect for Paul because it is much stronger than ordinary timber and has a smooth finish but still has the attractiveness of wood.

“These treehouses will still be standing and doing their job in 30 years’ time and will still look good and they are part of a sustainable and eco-friendly process.”

Paul, who launched Treehouse Life 10 years ago after creating a treetop hideout for his own sons, explained why the products worked so well with his unique and magical designs.

He said: “I’m not a carpenter and I’m not a tradesman. My background was as a session musician but I’ve got two boys, Elliott and Charlie, and I had knocked something up for them that was getting a lot of comments from friends and neighbours.

“I went along to the Ideal Home Exhibition one day and saw that there was no-one doing treehouses so I vowed to be back there with a stand the following year.”

Paul, aged 52, kept his promise and Treehouse Life was born, quickly expanding and filling Paul’s order book for build projects with an average cost of £8,500.

He said: “I’d spent 20 years in the music business, and been very successful – working with George Lucas, being musical director of the Globe Theatre and playing on the soundtrack for Shakespeare in Love which won an Oscar for its music – but this just seemed a wonderful thing to do.”

Paul quickly changed tack and focussed on the high-end designs so he could afford to spend more time with each client and fulfil the most demanding of design briefs.

He said: “Our treehouses now tend to cost between £20,000 and £30,000 so it is all very bespoke, made to order, built on site and the client is very involved.

“For that reason the timber has to be right. Clifford Jones makes our glulam pieces specifically for us, to precise sizes and deliver it direct on to site.

“It is very strong, structurally it’s great but it also looks good which is vital for us. Our designs mean it has to look the part and be very smooth for little hands.

“Often you will try to hide structural elements of a build but with the wood we get from Clifford Jones we don’t need to do that. It’s there to be seen and touched.”

Paul’s designs have been constructed all over the country and abroad and he is clocking up a number of celebrity customers.

He said: “We created a treehouse for Elton John’s son Zachary which was a first birthday present. They were wonderful clients and it was pretty awesome but we had to completely wrap it once it was done. It was finished off with a huge red bow and I think there was more debate about that than the actual treehouse design.”

Clifford Jones’s timbers have also been part of a structure for Gary Barlow’s family and in the build for the children of Walt Disney’s financial director.

Unsurprisingly that brief demanded a particularly fairytale design but Paul describes his work and current lifestyle as quite a magical existence altogether.

He said: “It was certainly a bit of a fantasy build. But they all are really. As a musician I worked with some pretty well known people and everyone asks me how I can go from being a drummer to building treehouses but to me the creative output is the same.”

Clifford Jones Timber, founded in 1948 by Alan Jones’s father, are the UK’s largest manufacturer of fence posts – they make over four million a year – but they also make laminated timber and recently supplied hundreds of laminated timber lampposts and bollards for the massive new Center Parcs holiday village at Woburn.

They employ over 80 people at their bases at Ruthin, in Denbighshire, and at Gretna, in Scotland and handle over 100,000 tons of timber from UK forests every year.

Alan Jones added: “Every piece of timber that comes through these gates is used. There isn’t any wasted and there aren’t many industries that can say that.

“Our glulam laminated timber is very, very strong, lighter and much more attractive than concrete, ideal for the construction industry or for specialised clients like Paul and it is all from sustainable woodland.”

The range of other wood products they supply includes garden furniture, gates, bedding for horses and even cat litter, and a range of wood fuels, from dried logs and wood briquettes to wood pellets for biomass boilers.

Artisan producers from across North Wales are celebrating after landing a deal to supply a luxury hamper company taking on Harrods and Fortnum and Mason.

Apples from Anglesey, honey from hives on the Clwydian Range, fruits from orchards in Flintshire and Wrexham, Gwynedd-made sweets and coffee roasted in Llandudno are among the goodies packed inside Bodnant Welsh Food Centre’s £250 hamper of Welsh produce.

The wicker baskets, which also feature Bodnant cheese, pies and pates, sparkling wine, brandy, whiskey, chocolate and biscuits, are proving popular for those searching for a taste of North Wales.

They have already been snapped up by companies as Christmas gifts, plus Welsh expats across the UK and food lovers seeking a festive treat.

One of the producers is Brian Dacre of Celtic Woodsmith of Penymynydd and Nantclwyd near Ruthin, whose honey-based conserves are also on sale at Bodnant Welsh Food Centre’s farm shop in the Conwy valley.

“This is a great way to get our produce known to a wider audience. To be included in such a prestigious hamper is a real boost to a small business like ours,” said Brian, who set up his business with wife Vivienne after working as a cabinet maker for Parker Knoll and G Plan, and then re-training as a molecular biologist researching DNA.

“We are very much a family business, collecting the honey from our hives across the Clwydian Range – we bottle about 500lb of honey a month, plus we also make preserves with it, like the strawberry one that’s in the Bodnant hamper. My favourite, though, is the lemon and lime marmalade.”

For Tara and Malcom Klose, who run now Heartland Coffi from their roasting base in Llandudno, the luxury hampers are a chance to show off their produce.

“We are very proud to be suppliers to Bodnant. We now supply a number of delis and cafes in North Wales, and in London through our other company in the capital, but getting to work with such a well-respected name as Bodnant been a real achievement,” said Tara, who set up the coffee roasting business with her husband after the couple moved to the UK from their native New Zealand.

Nick Lipson of Treflach, on the border near Wrexham, is supplying jewelled fruits in Madeira and a summer berry coulis.

“This is an excellent way for us as a business to reach more people. There is a real, growing interest in locally produced foods, made with the best ingredients possible,” said Nick who uses family recipes in his preserves.

Other suppliers include Sue Cooper, who makes bottled juices from the 700-plus trees growing in her orchards, containing 25 varieties, at Dwyran, Anglesey. Fudges and vanilla sauces in the Bodnant hamper come from Eboni ac Eifori of Pwllheli, set up by Matthew Robertson, who now also employs his parents Andrew and Linda plus brother Ben in the business.

Lime and lemon curd created by Flintshire Food Award winner Brian Horwich of Pant Glas Bach Preserves at Axton, near Llanasa, is also in the hamper, along with the shell-shaped Aberffraw Biscuits, baked by James Shepherd of Llansannan.

Bodnant Welsh Food Centre Managing Director Chris Morton believes that by challenging established suppliers with its own high quality packages they are enabling artisan food producers to reach a whole new group of discerning customers.

Bodnant Welsh Food, set in the beautiful Conwy Valley, is located in a building dating from the 18^th century which has been lovingly restored and includes a farm shop, tea room, restaurant, cookery school and farmhouse accommodation.

The centre was officially opened by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2012.

Chris said: “I’m well aware that the hamper market is one which isn’t short of competition.

“In fact, it’s very hard-fought by the likes of Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and a whole wealth of other suppliers, including some very well-known farm shops.

“But as overcrowded as the market is, we do not believe that anyone at the moment is effectively promoting Welsh food in the form of hampers.

“Bodnant is in an area which is rich in artisan producers and we all deserve a share of the hamper market.

“We believe that we can help many of the producers who supply Bodnant to reach new customers through the development and growth of the hamper business.

“Our aim is to promote the best in Wales and we have been in contact with a number of our key suppliers and asked them to prepare unique products based on local Welsh produce which will enable us to sell the very best that is available throughout the UK.”

Bodnant Hampers range in price from £20 to over £250 and come in a wide range of presentations based on different themes, such as chocolate, champagne and chocolate, gourmet, lovers, Christmas and Easter.

The hampers also contain an assortment of products all hand crafted on site at Bodnant, either in the dairy, the bakery or the butchery.

Amongst the most popular of the hampers, which are available at the farm shop or online, is the Taste of Wales Hamper at £50, which includes such hand-made treats as elderflower cordial, Bodnant Lemon Curd, Bodnant Aberwen Cheese, apple blossom honey, Welsh teabags and Eboni ac Eifori Fudge.

For more information about Bodnant Welsh Food, go to www.bodnant-welshfood.co.uk/