11/09/2026
As we head into our 40th Celebration weekend, we thought we would share with you all our story ✨✨✨
40 Years of British Craftsmanship
From a cabinetmaker working in his mum’s front room to an award-winning British fireplace manufacturer, OER’s story is one of family, craftsmanship and a belief that good design should never stand still.
Every business has a beginning. Ours was more modest than most.
In 1986, with a passion for quality materials, distinctive design and traditional cabinetmaking, John founded Olde Englande Reproductions from his mum’s front room.
There was no grand factory or expansive showroom in those early days. Just skilled hands, good ideas and a determination to make things properly.
It didn’t stay in the front room for long.
As demand grew, the fledgling business moved into its first factory. John’s wife, Lynn, soon joined him full-time, helping to build what was becoming very much a family enterprise. In 1990 Richard—today OER’s Production Director—joined the growing team, his dedication. commitment and passion for the business has ensured that he is not only a valued team member but also part of our family.
Together with a skilled workforce of craftsmen and time-served joiners, they began establishing a reputation for fireplaces and furniture that were a little different from everything else on the market.
OER designs started appearing in fireplace and furniture showrooms across the UK. A network of approved dealers followed, as did a dedicated showroom and further factory expansion.
But behind that growth was something much simpler: people who knew how to make things well.
Made by Skilled Hands
Craftsmanship has been part of OER from the beginning.
Traditional woodworking knowledge, accumulated over years at the bench, was combined with a willingness to experiment with new ideas. It was this meeting of old skills and new thinking that helped give OER its identity.
The aim was never simply to follow what everybody else was doing. It was to create fireplaces and furniture with a character of their own.
From Timber Fireplaces to Media Walls
Walk through the OER showroom today and the evolution of the fireplace is all around you.
The solid timber surrounds on which the company built its name remain an important part of the collection, but they now sit alongside tiled interiors, electric fireplaces, stoves and contemporary media walls.
Homes have changed. Interiors have changed. And the way we think about the fireplace has changed with them.
OER has changed too.
What was once principally a piece of finely made furniture surrounding a fire has become, in many contemporary homes, the architectural focus of an entire living space. New technologies have created possibilities that could scarcely have been imagined when John made those first pieces in 1986.
Yet the thinking behind them remains familiar.
Good proportions matter. Materials matter. Details matter. And whatever its style, a fireplace should feel as though it belongs in the room.
A Heritage of Design. A History of Innovation.
That combination of craftsmanship and new ideas has brought OER considerable recognition from within the fireplace industry.
Over the years, the company has received more than fifteen industry awards, including numerous honours for innovative fireplace design.
There have also been awards recognising the people and entrepreneurial spirit behind the business. In 2006, OER received the prestigious Wise Owl Award for Lifetime Achievement and Dedication to the Fireplace Industry, followed by the Horizon Award in 2009.
Nearly two decades later, the awards are still coming.
In 2024, OER was named Fireplace & Stove Manufacturer of the Year—a particularly fitting achievement for a business approaching its 40th anniversary.
But awards tell only part of the story.
Still a Family Business
Perhaps the more meaningful achievement is that the principles established in that front room in 1986 are still recognisable in the business today.
OER remains a family business,
That continuity has allowed something valuable to happen: knowledge has been passed from one generation to another, not simply written down in manuals or preserved as company history, but shared at the bench, on the factory floor and in conversations with customers.
Four decades of experience become part of how you look at a design, how you choose a material and how you solve a problem.
It is difficult to manufacture that kind of knowledge. It has to be accumulated.
Today, OER’s 4,000 sq ft Midlands showroom brings those four decades together under one roof. Traditional fireplaces sit alongside contemporary designs, stoves, interiors and the latest media wall concepts, giving customers the opportunity to explore just how much the fireplace has evolved.
Some arrive knowing precisely what they want. Others arrive with little more than an idea.
Both are welcome.
Because while the products have changed considerably since 1986, the purpose of OER hasn’t.
It is still about taking an idea, combining it with good materials, skilled craftsmanship and thoughtful design, and creating something that deserves to become part of someone’s home.
Forty years of knowledge. Award-winning British design. A family business built on craftsmanship.
And it all started in a front room.
Our open days in our showroom start tomorrow at 9.30am
