About Us
The Art Memorial Company was established in 1946 by a Mr John Knowles on a site in Dorset that appears to have been used for the manufacture of stone products since the early 1900’s. John Knowles was a sculptor and monumental mason. He occupied the existing premises at 260 Bournemouth Road, Parkstone.
From workshops there he manufactured by hand memorials, statues and fountains in marble, granite and local stones. John Knowles worked alone moving heavy materials manually until his death at the age of 84 in 2000. In his latter years, the main premises in Parkstone became dilapidated and run down. He was only able to concentrate on his immediate monumental work in hand. Over a fifty year period John Knowles created many prestigious monuments and was both well known and well liked throughout the area of Bournemouth and Poole.
After his death his son John Robert Knowles (who had worked with his father thirty five years earlier) returned to England and gradually refurbished the premises and revamped the business. Diversifying the range of products available to include ceramics and chimeneas from Mexico; decorative bronzes from Thailand; water features and fountains from the USA.
John Robert Knowles has a background of marketing and sales and in the late 1970’s established one of the first UPVC window manufacturing companies in the UK. This successful company was after 10 years trading throughout the South of England eventually sold and JR Knowles left the UK for early retirement.
On his return following the death of his father JR Knowles met up with one of his former customers a Mr Chris Gale who owned a local UPVC window company. They decided to pool their wealth of knowledge of UPVC products and form a new company specialising in conservatory design and construction. Conservatories Complete was born, the business concept of Conservatories Complete was not just to sell and fit conservatories but also to supply all the products that might be required by the customer both in and around the conservatory area.