01603 430650 Ask for a Fee Proposal
Inside the East Anglian Air Ambulance hangar in Norwich: the tail of a yellow helicopter under the steel roof, with the hangar door open to the airfield
East Anglian Air Ambulance, Norwich. Photograph: Sophie Toon.

Structural, Civil and Building Engineers in Norwich Up, Down and
Next Door.

What holds it up, what’s underneath it and how it gets on with the neighbours. We work out all three, in one office on Thorpe Road.

Ask for a Fee Proposal 01603 430650
  • Since 1976
  • Employee Owned
  • Chartered Engineers on the Board
  • £45m Crown Place student scheme, Norwich. Our subframe carried its scaffold.
  • 120 or so hardwood piles under Ha’penny Pier, Harwich, inspected from a boat.
  • 3 m of very soft peat at Wicken Fen, so the platform sits on piles.
  • 80+ years of combined conservation experience on listed buildings.

Clients and contractors in our case studies

  • Willmott Dixon
  • RG Carter
  • East Coast College
  • Sheringham Lifeboat Trust
  • Lind Trust
  • Elm Contracts
  • Brineflow
  • Suez

Our Three Teams

Which Way Is Your Job?

Most jobs go one way. Plenty go two. Each way has its own team, led by a director.

  • The new steel frame of the Gresham’s School sports pavilion standing on site
    Gresham’s School pavilion, Holt, autumn 2026: the steel frame is up.

    Up: structural engineering

    Loft Beams to Lookout Towers

    Calculations, drawings and 3D models, from a knocked-through wall to a winery with a 7.5 m deep basement.

    • Beams, extensions and loft conversions
    • Steel, concrete, masonry and timber frames
    • Scaffold, propping and temporary works
    • Energy and defence sites, including Sizewell and Bradwell
    Bradley Collins

    Bradley Collins MEng CEng MIStructE, Director (Structures)

  • A grassed attenuation basin holding rainwater on a finished site
    A grassed basin that holds storm water and lets it go slowly.

    Down: civil engineering

    Where Does the Rain Go?

    When the ground won’t take the rain, a new roof or car park has to hold it back and let it out slowly.

    • Flood risk assessments and drainage strategies
    • Foul and surface water drainage, with SuDS
    • Roads, S38 and S278 agreements, transport statements
    • Earthworks, 3D ground models and contamination reports
    Matthew Herring

    Matthew Herring MEng CEng MICE, Director (Civil Engineering)

  • A storm-felled tree lying across the roof of Beech Tree Farm cottage
    Beech Tree Farm, a Grade II listed cottage, after the storm. We specified the rebuild.

    Next door: building surveying

    Neighbours, Notices and Old Walls

    The surveys, repairs and paperwork that keep a job on good terms with the people next door.

    • Party wall notices, schedules and awards
    • Fire, flood and impact repairs for owners and insurers
    • Condition surveys and listed building applications
    • Principal designer, contract administration and project management
    Chris Dewick

    Chris Dewick MFPWS ACABE, Director (Building), with Canham since 2001

Projects

Piled, Propped,
Drained, Reopened.

Five jobs, from a new school in Bedfordshire to a pub put back after a fire.

The Pix Brook name in tall letters on the brick wall of the new academy building

Stotfold, Bedfordshire

Pix Brook Academy

A £24.6m secondary school for over 1,000 students, finished in 52 weeks.

Client
Willmott Dixon
Our role
Steel frame and foundations with the modular maker, below-ground drainage and most of the temporary works
The ground
It wouldn’t take the rain, so we held it below ground and let it out slowly
Teams
Up Down
  • The Mo in Sheringham: a round brick tower with a glazed lookout above the museum

    Sheringham

    The Mo

    Old tower, new steel, a substation underneath and a pub next door, for the Sheringham Lifeboat Trust.

  • The flint and brick arches of Hadley House, the former Thetford bus station

    Thetford

    Hadley House

    A Grade II listed bus station turned into micro-flats over four storeys, on augured piles that missed the old fabric.

  • A corner shop in Horsford with its brick front torn open by a vehicle

    Horsford

    Holt Road

    A vehicle hit a shop with a flat above. We were on site within hours, the road reopened the same day, then we ran the rebuild.

  • The Marsham Arms in Hevingham under a green protective sheet after the fire

    Hevingham

    The Marsham Arms

    After the autumn 2010 fire: safety inspections, a scaffold enclosure for the winter and the repair contract. Open again in May 2011.

Regent Road, Great Yarmouth

One Fire. Three Ways Back.

A fire destroyed forty-two stalls and a bowling alley. We were there from the demolition to the new shops, flats and townhouses that Elm Contracts built.

  1. Scaffolding and props holding the fire-damaged front of the next bay on Regent Road

    Next door

    Make It Safe

    As principal designer for the council’s enforcement team: propping, temporary works and facade scaffold, then the demolition and asbestos plan.

  2. Canham’s section drawing through the new Regent Road building, from the roof trusses down to the footings

    Down Up

    Fix the Ground

    Loose, windblown sand. We designed vibro-stone columns so strip and pad footings could carry two storeys, and the pre-planning and sustainable drainage.

  3. New steel columns and beams rising on the cleared Regent Road site

    Up Next door

    Build It Back

    Insulating concrete formwork with steel framing for a 70 m run of glazed shopfronts, flats above, and party wall advice all the way through.

Proudly employee owned: member of the Employee Ownership AssociationEmployee Owned Since 28 April 2023

Owned by the People You’ll Deal With.

The shareholders looked at a management buyout and a trade sale, then passed the company to an Employee Ownership Trust instead. Everyone who works here shares in the ownership.

The Canham Consulting team standing together outside under a brick arch
The Canham team.
  1. 1976 Tony Canham and Richard Thomas start out in a terraced house in Norwich.
  2. 2003 A move to The Old School in Thorpe St Andrew, and a building surveying team starts.
  3. 2023 Staff elect the first Employee Council, and the office moves to Thorpe Road.
  4. 2024 The People and Culture award at the Constructing Excellence Norfolk Club.
Nigel Evans

“Bricks and mortar are tangible, 25 years of knowledge and experience are not.”

Nigel Evans Managing Director, writing in 2021
The Canham Three Peaks team by their minibus
The Three Peaks in 23 hours 50 minutes, for MensCraft.

Repeat Clients

The Extra Mile, in Writing.

East Coast College appointed us again after its Energy Skills Centre. The Nest made us a partner for its next phase in December 2025.

Students at work benches in the Energy Skills Centre workshop at East Coast College

“Canham Consulting really understood our needs as a client and the constraints and challenges of the project… always prepared to go the extra mile to find workable solutions to inevitable problems.”

Adri van der Colff Project Manager, East Coast College, on the Energy Skills Centre

“Their technical know-how, experience and shared commitment to sustainable, community-centred development make them the ideal team to help us deliver the next phase of The Nest.”

Jackie Thornton Director of Strategy and Development, Norwich City Community Sports Foundation

“They are solutions based, they understand the cost challenges, and are flexible and adaptable.”

Dominic Google review

Questions

Worth Knowing Before You Ring.

Emily Harcourt

Emily Harcourt leads our client service team. Call 01603 430650, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm.

My mate used this beam for his extension. Would it do for mine?

Almost never, and our managing director, Nigel, has taken that call more than once. A beam is sized for the load above it, the span and what it sits on, and a shared wall can bring the Party Wall Act in. We do the calculations and drawings your builder and building control need.

When does the Party Wall Act apply?

When you build a new wall on the boundary, work on a wall you share with next door, or dig foundations near theirs: within 3 m and deeper than their foundations, or within 6 m and below a line drawn down at 45 degrees from them. Notice comes first: two months for work to a shared wall, one month for the other two. Next door then has 14 days to reply.

What does a flood risk assessment look at?

Every source of water that could reach the site: rivers, the sea, groundwater, overland flow, drains and sewers. It shows how the scheme stays safe without passing the risk on, and we keep it practical rather than academic, with the SuDS to match.

Can you help after a fire, flood or vehicle impact?

Yes. We report on what’s left, arrange temporary works to keep it safe, then design the reinstatement and run the contract for the owner, insurer or loss adjuster through to final certification.

Do you work outside Norfolk?

Most of our work is in East Anglia, but we take on jobs across the UK: Pix Brook Academy is in Bedfordshire, Reliance Street in Manchester and Salisbury Gateway in Wiltshire.

How are your fees worked out?

By the job. Ask for a fee proposal with whatever you have, such as drawings, photos and the site address, so we can price it properly before you appoint us.

Do you run CPD for other firms?

Yes. Canham Training Services runs one-hour sessions, remote or in person, on subjects from foundation design and temporary works to conservation engineering and building failures.

Get in Touch

Ask for a Fee Proposal.

Point us the right way, tell us about the job and attach anything useful. Prefer to talk? Call us.

Office
Second Floor, 69-75 Thorpe Road, Norwich NR1 1UA
Open
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm

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