How to choose the right garden bench. A case study.

Posted on April 25, 2023

We appreciate more than most that when it comes to our customers enquiring about a bench that they may not be an authority on every style, every option and every conceivable consideration. Why would you be? That's our job. Not every case, but generally speaking, you as a customer would probably benefit from us asking you the right questions and / or a little friendly advice from us in terms of what you could consider. That way we can produce a garden bench specific to the place where it would be installed, specific to your personal requirements, to your budget and most of all to your liking.

Quite often as a starting point we would point a prospective customer to our core range of garden benches to see if there is a style of bench that would suit their needs and it would be easy to reiterate those styles on this post but rather than this post being a retread of all of our benches, I thought I would show you how one style of bench can spawn a multitude of variations.

The York garden bench is without a doubt our most requested memorial bench by our customers over the last thirty years. We have developed it in a variety of ways including two types of chair (with and without armrests) as well as four foot, five foot, six foot and eight foot benches and also in different colours.

We have also developed four different types of top rail - standard, extra deep, raised and curved rails, as well as two types of armrests - standard curved and flat.

But the options do not stop there....

Consistent in design throughout this range of benches are the upright sections on the backrest and horizontal slats on the seat. This is the trademark of the York bench but what is remarkable about this design is how it has lent itself to a variety of customisations to meet our customers' requirements.

A simple tweak leads to a whole new range

Initially we added a new armrest option to the York bench, this proved so popular that we thought it deserved a name all to itself and so the Mendip bench was born.

Essentially it's a York bench but the rather regal armrest with the flourish at the end creates a perfect blend of classic and modern and has played an important part in extending our core range for many years.

Adding wheels for ease of manoeuvre

We were asked to add wheels to this York garden bench so that it could be easily brought in undercover during the winter months protecting it from the incumbent weather and ensuring a longer lasting bench.

A small modification but ingenious nonetheless and allowed for ease of manoeuvrability.

Back to back York benches

More recently we were asked by Royal Parks London to produce five back to back seats. Based wholly on the York design these seats are both quirky and extremely versatile as it is able to take in multiple views.

You can see these benches installed in St James' Park in London.

A garden companion seat

Utilising the flat armrest option and the raised top rail option we joined two York garden chairs together with a small table to create this perfect companion garden bench.

The smaller chair version also became part of our core range and was named the Helmsley companion seat. As you can see the same upright slats across the backrests and horizontal slats across the seats are the same as the original York design. The Helmsley was then further developed to create the final bench in this set which utilises the larger York benches and includes a larger table similar to our Standard Garden Table.

Bespoke corner bench

This bespoke corner bench was crafted from the York bench style, however with one big quirky feature. The customer requested an angled corner section to better fit the area that it was to be installed.

We created a 3D representation of it so that our customer could see exactly what they had requested before we proceeded with the manufacture of the bench. It was really fun to make and we're glad they are happy with it!

York bench sections joined together to make tree seets

As you can see the basic design of the York bench lends itself well to a tree bench style, both hexagonal and circular.

We often get asked for tree benches to be made for cemeteries and church yards. Due to their many sides this makes them ideal for displaying a longer tribute, multiple tributes, poem or passage from a book. And from hexagonal benches to circular benches as we developed the basic York design even further.

Curved benches

Once we had started developing circular tree benches we were able to create a wealth of curved benches that fit the natural borders of gardens and lakes sides.

Still following the York bench design, we were able to break free from the constraints of a standard rectangular bench and manufacture some really stylish creations.

Even bigger curved benches

We extended the curved theme to the York benches in a modular way so that we could create much larger curved benches as well as forming various irregular shapes.

Out in the wild these benches have proved very popular with both public and organisations alike and now we get more requests for curved benches than we do for the original York bench.

As you can see from the humble York bench to all of these wild and wonderful variations, there is something for everyone and while we are always on hand to help and guide we hope that this post may be helpful in giving you a better picture of what is achievable. Now go and look at our other benches and let your imagination run with them!

If you need any help with choosing the kind of bench you need then don't hesitate to get in touch. We'll be only too happy help!