TEP’s Market Harborough Office Celebrates its 10th Year

Our Market Harborough office recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary, after first opening its doors on 27th May 2014. 

The office opened with just 3 staff in 2014 and has grown to over 20 staff members, with more new starters set to join over the coming months. To celebrate and to mark the occasion, the staff took part in 10 separate events running throughout the year, ranging from sports events, to quiz nights, to craft-making.

To kick off the series of events, the Market Harborough team travelled to Haygates Farm in Great Bowden to volunteer at ‘Wellness in the Wild’, a wildlife retreat for veterans and the general public. The team spent the day helping to plant 900 hawthorn tree whips, a worthwhile way to launch the celebration event schedule!

For event number 2, the Market Harborough Office hosted “The Great TEP Bake Off”. The event was supported by TEP’s other offices across the UK, who held additional bake sales and bake offs in support of our chosen CSR charities. We clearly have quite a few unsung culinary heroes TEP and choosing a Star Baker from each office was no piece of cake! Congratulations to Star Bakers Maggie Fennell, Darren Bennett, Elin Roberts and Eddie Chandler, who won the coveted ‘Star Baker’ trophies at each of our offices.

For event number 3, our Market Harborough team organised a sponsored walk in support of our chosen CSR charities. The adventure began with a challenging climb up Beacon Hill, Leicestershire’s second-highest point. From there, the team navigated beautiful countryside trails to Bradgate Park, a historic site recently awarded National Nature Reserve status, recognising it as one of the most important natural sites in the country.

Covering 439 hectares, Bradgate Park is home to some of England’s oldest fossils and rocks, and boasts a rich variety of species including fallow and red deer, kingfishers, the rare ‘Charnwood spider,’ and 800-year-old ancient oaks. The park was also the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days’ Queen” who briefly claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10th-19th July 1553. This status will help protect the park’s natural assets and ensure sustainable management for the future. Once at Bradgate Park, the team rewarded themselves with ice creams and a closer look at Old John Tower, an 18th-century Georgian folly and one of Leicestershire’s most iconic landmarks.

Collectively, the team walked 100km, with an extra 30km contributed by their four-legged companions. Well done team!

Event number 4 was another sporting event: a 10k carnival race through the streets and surrounding areas of Market Harborough town. Fortunately, the weather held up, making it a fabulous day for both runners and supporters, who came along to cheer everyone on. Hats off to everyone who took part and congrats to David Miller, who was the first TEP’er across the finish line!

Our Market Harborough team had a fantastic time at their Family Sports Day and Picnic, which was event 5 out of our total 10 across the year.

Thankfully, we didn’t need our rainy-day contingency plan, and had a great time playing fun games and activities for the majority if the afternoon, before relaxing with an amazing picnic spread. We couldn’t let the day end without a Euro24-inspired game of football, with Technical Director Francis Hesketh showcasing his goalkeeping skills and cementing his status as TEP’s leading goalie by pulling off a save that Jordan Pickford would be proud of!

For the 6th in our series of 10 events, the team volunteered at the Market Harborough Junior Parkrun in Welland Park. The day was a great success, with over 100 runners joining in, including one of our own mini-TEP’ers!

Event number 7 brought some midday excitement as our Market Harborough team hosted a live lunchtime online quiz for TEP staff. The quiz was all about Market Harborough, featuring rounds on the town’s history, fun facts about the office, and, of course, some trivia about the team themselves. A standout highlight was the baby photo round, which had everyone guessing as they tried to match colleagues to their childhood snapshots. It was a fantastic way to bring the team together and celebrate everything Market Harborough!

Event number 8 on our calendar was a Pizza and Games Night, organised and hosted by our Market Harborough team. It was a fun evening that brought staff from multiple offices together for some friendly competition.

For the penultimate event, the Market Harborough team hosted a festive (and sustainable!) Christmas Crafts workshop.

Using recycled paper, the team created beautiful snowflakes to decorate the office and the Christmas tree. In true snowflake fashion, each one they created was most certainly unique… and some were most definitely more symmetrical than others! Senior Historic Environment Consultant Steph Dalby added an extra touch of festive charm by crafting baubles from recycled materials, which took pride of place at the top of the tree.

For the 10th and final event, the team volunteered at Smeeton Westerby in Harborough, where they contributed to a significant tree planting project led by Harborough Woodland. The aim of the project is to transform a permanent pasture field alongside Langton Brook into a flourishing native woodland ecosystem. This initiative is part of a joint effort by the landowner, East Mercia River Trust, and the Environment Agency to reverse historical modifications to the river. By reinstating meanders, adding riffles, and creating ponds, the project will not only improve the area’s biodiversity but also enhance flood resilience for Market Harborough, a town highly vulnerable to flooding.

The team prepared the site for a public volunteer planting day by hammering in tree stakes, sorting whips, bagging up trees and organising approximately 1,600 trees and 525 shrubs for planting across two fields along the re-engineered river. A big thank you to everyone involved for your hard work and commitment!

Associate Director Stuart Burke commented, “ I am very proud of the evolution of the Market Harborough office over the last 10 years. From 3 staff in 2014 to 24 staff by the end of 2024 (due to increase further in 2025), the office is truly multi-disciplinary, with Arboriculture, Ecology, GIS, Heritage and Land Management all represented within the office. We now have 4 Associate Directors within the office – 3 of whom were employed directly into the Market Harborough office and have worked incredibly hard over the years to secure well deserved promotions.

“ All the staff contribute to the friendly and hard-working attitude of the office and are willing to support each other and help each other to develop new skills and qualifications. When the concept of ten events to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the office was first discussed, the level of enthusiasm to join in was great to see. Special thanks need to go to Dave Miller, Meg Brocklebank, and Maggie Fennell Wells who were all instrumental in arranging a number of the events. We had a good turnout for all of the events, and it was great to have special guest appearances from Francis Hesketh at the Sports Day in July, and from Liz Seal at the Games Night in December.”

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