If you have visited our self storage facility near Dorchester, you will know that we are based on a farm, one of the tidiest farms you will have ever seen! But you might not know much about its history; where we started Hogleaze Storage was a dairy farm.
So how did we go from a fully functioning dairy farm, to a personal storage facility? In this article we share the history of Hogleaze Storage.
The end of the dairy farm
Hogleaze Storage is located at Town Hill Farm and Hogleaze Farm. Hogleaze Farm used to be a family run dairy farm that produced milk between 1945 and 2000.
Economics was the main reason we stopped milking cows. Without wishing to sound like a despondent farmer, there was a shift in the selling of milk in supermarkets as, knowing that milk is a weekly purchase, they started dropping prices to attract customers into their stores. The price change made it difficult to make a profit in any farm production.
Making the most of our surroundings
With plenty of land and redundant farm buildings, we started to realise just how many caravan and camping sites were close by… but very few places had adequate areas to store the caravans and motorhomes out of season. We had plenty of outdoor space that would be perfect to turn into caravan and motorhome storage space, which is exactly what we did.
Knowing the proximity to Weymouth, we also started thinking about boat storage. We knew that our outdoor space would also be suitable for boat storage, and we knew that people would need places to store their boats over winter when they were used less frequently.
So, we created a specific space for outdoor boat storage and outdoor motorhome and caravan storage.
We also turned to our surroundings when looking for inspiration for our logo. Being surrounded by trees, squirrels were part of that habitat. When we thought about it, having a squirrel as part of our logo made more and more sense because squirrels represent our business… they store their winter food to keep it safe, we store your personal belongings to keep them safe.
As you might have worked out, we kept the farm name Hogleaze when we started our self-storage company. The word has a fascinating background as it literally translates to “pigs in the field”; “hog” being an old fashioned term for pigs, and “leaze” meaning a tract of open ground.
Adding self-storage units
On a trip to Brighton back in 2005 we realised how popular personal self storage was, the further east we drove the more roadside signs advertising self storage appeared. It felt like every other sign was pointing to another self-storage facility.
On top of this realisation, we were receiving quite a lot of enquiries from people looking for self storage units. Our little boat, caravan and motorhome storage facility was being found in the search for personal self storage units. We were constantly getting phone calls asking about our units… but we didn’t have any.
These two things made us realise that there was a market for self storage units. We had an entire farm’s worth of space, so all we needed to do was build the units, with the right permissions of course. Luckily we had a few barns that we were able to convert into storage spaces to get started.
Our first units filled pretty quickly! So, over the years we have built more units across our farm, varying the sizes of the units so that there is the perfect self storage solution for everyone.
Self storage units for everything
With the expansion of our facility at our Dorchester site, came the realisation that there was a need for more than just household storage or furniture storage.
As our storage units are completely empty, we were able to be flexible with what we stored in them and how it was all stored. We started offering storage for business papers, office furniture, sports equipment and even wine!
Expanding to Weymouth
Having noticed that there was no storage facility of size in Weymouth, in 2016 we built self-storage units in Weymouth. We built a modern 3 storey storage facility, with a lift, that has over 250 units of varying sizes, from 25sq ft up to 200sq ft, that can store just about anything in them.
When we expanded to Weymouth, we wanted to make sure that our core values were still at the forefront of our business. It was important that we were able to offer an efficient service and the best pricing. Using a large building on the Granby Industrial Estate meant that we were able to do this. The storage units are easily accessible, and we can provide reassurance of safe keeping as the store is alarmed and managed by David Matthews.
Future for Hogleaze
And we are not stopping there. During 2022, we are building a new classic car storage unit at our Dorchester facility. This will be a 2 storey building designed specifically to hold classic cars. This space will be bigger than the one we currently have, meaning that we will be able to store more classic cars.
In moving the classic cars to this new building, we will create more indoor motorhome and caravan storage spaces. So if you are looking for caravan or motorhome storage, keep an eye out for further news on this development!
Why store with Hogleaze Storage?
In the 22 years we have been running Hogleaze Storage, our priority has always been to provide excellent customer service and a trusted, safe place to leave your belongings. We don’t take our responsibility of looking after your things lightly.
We know that your belongings are precious which is why we have put such high security features in place. Not only do we require each of our storage units to have a padlock on the door when in use, but we also provide you with your own fob to enter the building. You will notice CCTV cameras around the premises, and we also have number plate recognition cameras allowing only our customers to get to their belongings.
To make sure that we were providing the highest standards for self storage and motorhome and caravan storage, we worked hard to be able to become a member of the Self Storage Association and the Caravan Storage Site Owners Association.
“Immaculately clean storage, easy access and still very secure. Friendly and helpful staff.”
Sheila Cornwall
Looking for a self storage unit?
If you are looking for a safe place to keep your belongings get in touch with us today. To talk to someone at our Dorchester facility, call 01305 889777 or email info@hogleazestorage.co.uk, or to talk to someone at our Weymouth facility, call 01305 830000 or email info@weymouthselfstorage.co.uk.
Follow us on Facebook to keep updated on the developments of our new classic car storage.