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This family business now looks back over three generations of the Larkham family; they are the founder (grandfather Charles Frederick), the father Frederick Charles known as "Fred") and the son, Darren Clive. After World War 2, grandfather relocated to this area. As a builder & property developer he had a keenly developed entrepeneurial side which has passed on to his son Fred. After leaving school Fred served a time on the fishing boats fishing in Icelandic waters, and this gave him his love of all things nautical. He continued his career on the tankers running up from Sharpness to Gloucester and beyond. He started a one man company undertaking specialist land based work, and at a later date, bought and fitted out a canal barge. Now came the co-incidence that was to change the course of his life. One weekend he was watching work in progress putting a new pipeline across the River Severn. He fell into conversation with the Contractor and Fred discussed how he would tackle the job using his ship. This resulted in his first contract, and set up Fred Larkham in the specialist field of working on ships undertaking specialist jobs. He combined a natural flare for innovated thinking; the ability to come up with a fresh way of tacking a job to do it better, quicker, cheaper........... As the company grew, his wife Patricia took on the role of overall planning, Company Secretary and Financial Controller. Their son Darren worked with his father from the age of four, learning to drive diggers, tractors,cranes,ships etc just as other children play with toy cars. Now aged 28 years, Darren has taken running FCL for the last 8 years as his father moved on to other ship centred businesses of his own. Bringing FCL Ltd into the 21st centuary, Darren is a qualified Skipper with over 12 years of water based experience. He knows the Severn Estuary like the back of his hand and has expanded the company's fleet of vessels to include dredgers for PLOUGH, SUCTION AND BACK HOE types. With the main vessel "in class" the working range has been extended, and there is little that the combination of Darren Larkham and his ships cannot achieve. As one of the last family based businesses serving the upper reaches of the River Severn, FCL is preparing to go into the fourth generation.
e-mail: fcl2000@btopenworld.com