Westbury plc was a British housebuilding company based in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. It was listed on the

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and was a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septemb ...

but was acquired by

Persimmon plc Persimmon plc is a British housebuilding company, headquartered in York, England. The company is named after a horse which won the 1896 Derby and St. Leger for the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII). It is listed on the London Stock Ex ...

in 2005.

History

Westbury was established by the Joiner family in Gloucestershire in 1964. Westbury remained a very small operation until 1971 when Geoff Hester was recruited to run the business: from then on Westbury was managed by professional housebuilders from outside the Joiner family. After the 1974 housing recession, there was a period of regional expansion and by the early 1980s there were three regions, Gloucester, Bristol and south Wales, building around 1500 units a year between them. By now, the Joiner family wanted to realise their equity in the Company and it was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1986. This was almost immediately followed by the acquisition of the midlands division of Whelmar and the opening of a southern region.Wellings, Fred: ''Dictionary of British Housebuilders'' (2006) Troubador. , Although Westbury lost money for three years in the 1990 housing recession, it had maintained its volumes. By the mid-1990s, the expansion programme resumed and a series of substantial acquisitions were made.

Clarke Homes Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name. Irish surname origin Clarke is a popular surname in ...

was bought from BICC in 1995; the Manchester-based Maunders in 1998; and the southern Prowting in 2002. At the same time, Westbury moved into prefabricated housing with the construction of a factory capable of producing 5,000 units a year, and diversified into financial services: both ventures lost money. In November 2005, Westbury received a £643 million takeover approach from

, a larger British housebuilding company, which was accepted by the shareholders.UK housebuilders announce tie-up
BBC News, 24 November 2005

References

{{Authority control Housebuilding companies of the United Kingdom Construction and civil engineering companies of England Companies based in Cheltenham Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1965 1965 establishments in England British companies established in 1965