How one Yorkshire company is helping Glastonbury revelers sleep well

“It doesn’t start until the Friday and I come back on Saturday. I like to go and see what is going on; how they are developing the site,” he says.

It was back in 2012 that Bradford company BCT Outdoors, founded as Bradford Cover and Twine by Fawcett’s late grandfather, Clifford, was approached by the Glastonbury organisers. Fawcett recalls receiving a brief email saying they were seeking a British tent manufacturer.

“When we decided to supply our own tents to people who came to the festival, I was very keen to buy British-built tents,” says Glastonbury co-founder Michael Eavis.

“We arranged a visit to the company to check them out and learned that they could supply us with enough tents of good quality material.

“I was suitably impressed with the set-up and placed our first order then and there.

“Having worked with BCT for a decade now, we are pleased not only to support UK manufacturing but also innovative design, which has led to the development of tents which are robust, practical and visually appealing.

“When the festival was unable to go ahead in 2021, we were even able to put the tents centre stage, when we hosted a campsite on Worthy Farm for the six weeks of the school holidays.”

Established over a century ago, Bradford Cover and Twine, as it was originally known, has a fascinating history.

“It was bought by my grandfather at auction during the First World War,” says Fawcett.

During those early years of the business, it was mainly producing cart covers and wool bags to meet the then demand of Bradford’s textile trade – the city once known as the wool capital of the world.

When the baton was eventually passed on to Fawcett’s father, the company was forced to evolve with rapidly changing times – something it continues to do with the growth of the camping scene.

Fawcett recalls that BCT began producing wagon tarpaulins until switching to curtain-sided coverings for haulage vehicles.

Gradually the company moved into marquees – providing waterproof coverings for every occasion – and tents.

Such is BCT’s reputation for technical innovation and quality, it is an international supplier of tents to the Scouting Movement.

The growth in the glamping scene around 2012 – when it secured the Glastonbury gig – prompted the company to move with the times once again.

The initial run was for an array of 1,000 colourful tents. “And we have been supplying them ever since,” says Fawcett.

Proudly brandishing an aerial photograph taken at this year’s event, he points out the rows of tents created in Bradford and providing a vibrant splash of colour within the festival site.

The tents occupy the festival’s Worthy View and recently launched Sticklinch campsites, which also offers podpads, yurts and bell tents alongside the festival’s signature scout-style tents manufactured by BCT, providing accommodation for music lovers during the Glastonbury weekend.

“They have five different styles of tents in a multitude of colours,” adds Fawcett.

These include two to three-berth and three to four-berth ridge tents, while BCT also produced six-berth and eight-berth family tents and four to six-berth bell tents.

Each tent has an internal guy and is created using stainless steel frames produced in the UK.

“There is traceability of where our materials come from and they aren’t disposable tents,” says BCT director Grant Hinchliffe.

As well as manufacturing the tents, the company provides a specialist cleaning service. “That goes hand in hand with the non-disposable mindset,” adds Hinchliffe.

Other high-profile events that BCT has been involved with include producing tents for the Womad (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival, and manufacturing and supplying tents for the Scouting Movement’s centenary camp celebrations on Brownsea Island, Dorset.

Hinchcliffe is carrying on the baton after taking over the company from Fawcett, who still keeps a hand in.

His introduction to BCT Outdoors came through the camping, caravanning and glamping site that he runs in the Wharfedale village of Appletreewick which is the perfect showcase for the range of tents the firm produces.

Hinchcliffe reveals that the company has also designed and manufactured tents for television – more recently some colourful retro tents for the BBC drama series Killing Eve and The Crimson Field, which is based on a field hospital during the First World War.

Operations manager Pat Hammond adds that BCT also produced a tent for the Aunt Bessie’s commercial shown during I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

Testifying to the company’s ability to adapt over the years, Hinchcliffe says that during lockdown BCT scrambled into action, with a scaled-down workforce creating awning walls for Covid testing units.

Touring the Windsor Street factory with Hammond, I get the feel of a traditional firm which is very much part of the family.

Tables of machinists sit busy with swathes of fabric at their feet as they stitch the heavy-duty waterproof fabric which will soon be providing shelter.

Ifzal Akhtar is one of the company’s few male machinists and was just 20 when he joined the company more than 40 years ago. Factory manager Terry Starkey was a teenager when he started working there 36 years ago.

Hammond says many of the staff, like her, have been there for more than 30 years, demonstrating not just the loyalty but also that all important knowledge and expertise.

It is, after all, a skilled and technical job producing tents which, contrary to the throw-away mentality, are made to last.

The company often receives phone calls from people who have bought tents from it in the past who are now looking for new parts, which, from the racks of neatly arranged steel and wood poles, BCT can always provide. “It’s 35 years old and they are still using their tent,” says Fawcett proudly.

In light of this year’s already turbulent travel situation with airport queues and staff shortages, could camping provide the alternative summer staycation in the future?

“You can see the British market opening up for the home-stay populus,” says Hinchliffe, who believes more people are now exploring the ease and convenience of camping.

He says demand has always been high, with glamping helping to increase popularity along with the impact on travel caused by the pandemic.

“People have seen it as a real alternative,” he adds. “The whole home leisure market is booming from caravanners to campers.

The weather has also helped over the last few years and BCT is keen to showcase this alternative staycation.

“It gets into you and you want to move on to the next step all the time,” says Fawcett, referring to the way that the business evolves.

Of course, working in the leisure industry there is always time for pleasure.

“It is a family atmosphere and it’s a nice work life balance – hence why people have been working here more than 30 years,” says Hinchcliffe.

www.bctoutdoors.com.