Gray's of Norwich Limited evolved from a background that is both comprehensive and enduring

In The Beginning ...

Mr Les Gray (Controlling Director), completed his apprenticeship with R G Carter (Drayton) in 1974, gaining advanced City and Guilds qualifications in carpentry and joinery. Since that time he has been involved in the construction industry in varying capacities.

Leaving R G Carter he went into partnership with his brother in 1982, who had taken on the family business, started by his father over 30 years before. From this partnership Grays Fitted Furniture was borne, supplying and fitting quality kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms to homeowners and builders throughout East Anglia. The company thrived mainly on recommendations from satisfied customers and continues to maintain a buoyant trade today under it's current owners. Why not visit their website, click on the following link : http://www.graysfittedfurniture.co.uk

In the late 1980's Les recognised the need for additional purpose built care homes for the elderly and set about developing Eastlands at Taverham and St. Mary's  at Crostwick, both of which he went on to control and establish as extremely popular care homes, earning an excellent reputation in the Norfolk area.

In February 1998 the company decided to sell the care homes in order to concentrate efforts on more development. Ironically the initial major project undertaken by the company, was Olive House, another purpose built care home for the elderly, in the Norfolk village of Newton Flotman, which was then run (and later owned) by Les' brother and his wife, once again building an excellent reputation. The company also developed its offices at Taverham in 1997 and then moved on to develop many high quality residential properties in Norfolk, obtaining sites in North Walsham, Watton, Reedham, Erpingham, Northrepps, Cawston and two in Drayton. 

With Norfolk becoming an ever increasingly popular place to live and work, Grays of Norwich Limited were continually looking for pleasant sites to carry on their quality developments and eventually moved more into developing commercial premises, creating high quality business parks at both Taverham and Cawston, which they successfully let out. In order to concentrate more on "hands off" investments and allow the director's to have more of a home life, the company decided to sell the two business parks in July 2013 to another local family run company.

In, 2017, the company gained planning permission for a site they had owned for many years in Spixworth, adjacent St. Mary's Care Home. Having identified the need for smaller retirement bungalows, featuring the latest technology (Telecare) they gained planning approval for the development, which was much needed in the area, allowing family and friends to keep an eye on elderly relatives, and saving considerable amounts on home care. 

Over the years Gray's of Norwich Ltd have been heavily involved in secured lending to many businesses and developers, both directly and via P2P platforms. The company hase recently been concentrating on our large  (c.6.75 acres) development site off Richard Oakes Road in Aylsham, known as Aylsham Business Park, where we completed Phase 1, a smart development of 12no. business units of varying sizes. We also obtained outline planning consent for the wider site, which included the remainder of the estate road and initial infrastructure and 24no. serviced plots for business units of varying sizes.

The estate road (to base course level) and initial infrastructure are now complete and we have recently sold this development, including four of the business units in Phase 1 to another local company (Aylsham Developments and Construction Ltd) who are planning to build out the remainder of the site for commercial use, for which they are receiving a good level of interest.

Aylsham is a rapidly expanding market town and benefits from the new Norwich northern distributor road making it easily accessible for Norwich and North Norfolk.

Please contact us if you are interested in purchasing commercial property in the Aylsham area. Please see our Current Projects for further details.

To view some of the previous projects (Previous Projects) developed by the company, please click on the link in brackets. 

Yvonne Diver (formerly Howes), who has worked alongside Les Gray for over 40 years, dealing with the day to day running of the office, would be delighted to discuss any matters with you. We are now looking forward to retirement but we will continue to show great interest in the Aylsham development watching it come to fruition.

Please see our Privacy Policy  here

Please Contact Us if you think you have any investment opportunities we may be interested in or if you are considering a commercial investment property.