Stenner began in 1875 as an agricultural business making implement for the local farmers.
The first recorded instance of saw making was in 1875 when a circular saw bench was made. At that time the business was owned by the Stenner family, later it became Messrs Stenner and Gunn, Ltd. when another local engineer joined the business.
Mr Gunn then left to create Messrs Gunn Bros. at a workshop in Castle Street in Tiverton.
The company was, up to then, building circular saw machinery, in the early part of the 20th century the first bandsaw was produced, this was a great advance on circular saws as they offered much smaller kerfs and so improved the yield from logs. Early machines had spoked pulleys and were exclusively hand fed, this made saw milling a very strenuous job.
The company continued as Stenners of Tiverton Ltd.
At around that time, just before the second world war, the company was bought by Messrs Heathcoat and Co., Ltd. and formed part of the Heathcoat engineering division.
After the war several engineers joined the company having spent the war years on engineering research and development, this enabled Stenner to implement many of the new technologies developed during the war in the fields of hydraulics, pneumatics, electrics and electronics to become world leaders in the manufacture of saw milling machinery.
The name was changed to Stenner of Tiverton, Ltd. in the 1960's.
In the late 1980's the industry was contracting due to the importation of foreign machinery and Stenner was the subject of a management buy-out and became Stenner Ltd.
In 2009 as a result of the economic recession the company went into administration and after negotiations with the administrators the company was purchased by a group of investors comprising some of the directors, a major component supplier and our major UK distributor.
The company continues to use the name Stenner Ltd.
Stenner is a modern, dynamic company with proven capability in all areas of primary and secondary timber processing and added-value production.
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