Award winning dreams - transforming a family workshop into a national brand

The founder of Dersingham's Wrought Iron and Brass Bed Company recently won Inspiring Leader of the Year - Amanda's determination continues to shape its ongoing success

Amanda Oldfield and her son Harry greet me at the company’s showroom in Dersingham. The family run business started in 2003 - an idea that came from good old nostalgia.

“My grandparents’ bed,” Amanda tells me, “I can remember it was tall, grandad had us a step so we climbed into it. But you never lay on it you lay in it, that is the feeling that I’ve always wanted to create.

“When you go to bed you feel safe, you’re comfy, you’re supported - to me, when I lie on these mattresses, in these beds, it’s a blast from the past.”

When her sons were younger, she couldn’t find beds that ‘possessed the same soul’, so along with her husband Steven, they decided to create their own - the Wrought Iron and Brass Bed Company began.

And for the past two decades, through hard work and determination, she’s guided the company into a nationally recognised brand, with quality British craftsmanship at the heart.

“I never actually thought further than the month ahead when we first started, and I never imagined it would grow like it did. But it still is how it was - we try to source everything locally, we are part of Made in Britain, that is so important to us.

“We can’t get our wood from this country, because our wood grows too quick, so they’re Scandinavian slats, but they come into King’s Lynn. So everything is as local as it can be.”

For the last few years they’ve made their own mattresses too, something she’s 'quietly dreamed about for years’ - filled with British wool, sourced directly from sheep farmers.

If you haven’t realised, these aren’t just beds for Amanda, “To make something that it going to be such an important part of people’s lives - that in itself is a privilege.”

And each one, once it’s put together in the workshop, is lovingly given a name by the team.

“Well this bed - it wasn’t long after I’d lost my beautiful black Labrador Willow, and Sarah who does all our powder coating at the workshop, just said it’s such a beautiful bed, it’s so delicate - there’s only one name - it’s Willow.”

Amanda with John Pearce, CEO of Made in Britain

It’s the focus on sustainability and local craftsmanship that won Amanda Made in Britain’s Inspiring Leader of the Year Award (2025).

“I have to say I was very emotional, because to be recognised for that, when you just think - well you just are who you are, you just do your job.

“When you actually stop and you recount where you started, where you are and what you’ve achieved, you think oh my goodness, I’ve done that,” she smiles.

Her and Steven are thinking of retiring soon, and sons Jack (who oversees production) and Harry (head of brand development and marketing) say they’ll have ‘huge shoes to fill’.

Harry and Amanda on a Willow bed frame

“I’m hugely inspired by mum and privileged to have her as a mentor,” says Harry, “Mum winning the award was amazing, but for me, what I’m impressed by is the legacy that mum’s created.

“We’re not here for world domination, we’re not here for mass production - we’re here for quality. We’re happy being our small family company, that’s what we want to be, we don’t want to lose our identity.”

I’ve only met Amanda for a short period of time, but what a worthy winner of the Inspiring Leader Award. And having passed all that love and passion for the company onto her sons - it’ll no doubt be in safe hands.