INSPIRE
JOHN MELMOE
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME… AT WILLERBY LANDSCAPES As landscaping pioneer John Melmoe steps down after 32 years as managing director of Willerby Landscapes, he looks back on an incredible career On the evening of 27 July 2012, I sat in the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremony with my wife at my side. I looked around and reflected on what Willerby Landscapes had achieved in creating the sensational wildflower meadows, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park South Park and soft landscape backdrop for the stadium. For many, this would be the highlight of their career, but for Willerby it was a stepping stone for the next five years. I have been managing director for 32 years and on 31 March this year, I retired. In doing so, I handed the reins over to Rick Davies. Willerby Landscapes has a philosophy that you should always look forward and not waste time looking over your shoulder. However, it’s
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not possible to understand where Willerby Landscapes could end up in the next five years without understanding the platform on which it is built. There is a common misperception that it was I that formed Willerby Landscapes – the true founders were Roger Willicott and Graham Larby. The combination of their surnames gave the company its name.
ONE OF THE MANY THINGS I ENJOY ABOUT THIS INDUSTRY IS THE ECLECTIC MIX OF INDIVIDUALS YOU ENCOUNTER The hands-on approach In 1977, I joined Comtec UK from Merrist Wood College, where my first exposure to commercial landscaping was repairing bomb damaged sites in the East End of London. My London office was a red public telephone box from where I
would order materials and arrange meetings. There were no mobile phones, no fax machines and certainly no PCs. Amazingly, the hands-on approach worked and the projects got finished on time. I moved on within Comtec and became involved with overseas erosion control works; we communicated with remote projects in Tanzania, Kenya and Gabon with the aid of a vast telex machine which was then state-of-the-art. In June 1983, Willerby Landscapes was formed to complete the contractual liabilities of Comtec, which decided to close its landscape
1 Granary Square, King’s Cross 2 The Sky Garden, 20 Fenchurch Street 3 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Wildflower Meadows
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