Avant Loader Hire in Melksham, Wiltshire
Groundwork for a fete, a churchyard tidy-up or a parish event needs a machine small enough for the gate and gentle enough for the grass. Our Avant loaders do both.
A standard digger is often too wide for a village gate and too heavy for turf that has to recover within days. An Avant loader fits through, works cleanly, and leaves the ground in good shape.
Community Events Need a Gentler Machine
A parish fete, a churchyard clean-up or a cricket club groundwork day all share the same problem: the ground has to be ready for people within days, sometimes hours, of the work finishing.
A heavy digger can rut turf badly enough that it takes weeks to recover, and many village gates and churchyard gaps are too narrow for a full-size machine to pass through in the first place.
Coppard supplies the Avant loader for exactly this kind of job across the Melksham area, from parish councils to private landowners hosting a one-off event. A churchyard path lined by old gravestones leaves even less room for error than an open village green, since the margin either side of the stones is often only a few inches.
Our Avant Loader Range
Full details sit on our Melksham Forklift Rental Service page, with every attachment option set out on our Avant Loaders collection.
Models in the Melksham fleet cover light groundwork, levelling and material shifting, all built narrow enough to pass through a standard pedestrian gate or a gap between two headstones without widening it first.
Call 01380 828988 and describe the gate or gap width available, and a model confirmed to fit gets sent out rather than one that might just squeeze through. A track option is also available where the ground has been wet for a stretch, since even a light wheeled machine can mark turf that has not had time to firm back up.
Avant Loaders for Melksham Villages and Churchyards
Parish events across the Melksham catchment often run on tight turnaround: a green used for Sunday cricket on the weekend before a fete still has to look presentable by Saturday morning.
A churchyard path lined with old gravestones leaves very little margin either, so a machine that clips a stone edge can cause damage that is far harder to put right than a scuff on open ground.
Let the depot know the access width and how close the work runs to anything fragile, and the right model gets chosen with both details in mind from the start. A quick call to the depot ahead of the event date, even a rough one, usually settles whether the standard gate width applies or whether something narrower needs factoring in.
What's Included With Every Avant Loader
A walk-round, a fuel check and a short safety briefing happen before every machine leaves our yard, whatever event it is heading to. Call 01380 828988 to confirm a delivery slot that fits the event programme.
A bucket, forks and a brush head are available depending on the task, and ordinary wear through a short community hire is never charged for.
Collection is arranged for straight after the event wherever possible, so the machine is not left sitting on the green any longer than it needs to be. This matters most on a weekend fete, where the green has to look presentable again well before the public arrives the next morning.
Why Choose Coppard
Coppard has been trading across Wiltshire for 54 years, with CPA membership and Constructionline accreditation behind every booking made from this depot.
Parish councils and community groups book this machine regularly for exactly this kind of short, tight-turnaround groundwork, and our drivers know what a quiet village lane on event morning looks like.
Leaving turf in poor shape after an event reflects on whoever organised it, so getting a machine that fits the gate and treats the ground carefully matters more here than on an open building site. Call 01380 828988 to book ahead of a known busy parish calendar, since several events often land close together through spring and summer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will an Avant loader fit through a standard village gate?
Most Avant models fit through a standard pedestrian gate without widening it, but an old gate post or a narrow churchyard gap can still catch out an estimate made from memory. Measure the actual gap and give that figure when booking, and the depot will confirm the model against it rather than against a guess. Our team can talk through typical gate widths over the phone where an exact figure is not yet known, and confirm once someone has had a chance to measure on site.
Can an Avant loader be used on wet turf without leaving ruts?
A tracked Avant option spreads weight over a wider area than a wheeled one, which matters on ground that has been soft for a few weeks. Describe how wet the ground has been recently, and the depot can suggest tracks over wheels where that extra care is worth the difference on the day. This matters most in the weeks after a wet spring, when turf across much of the Melksham area can still be recovering from standing water.
How soon can an Avant loader be delivered for an event?
Most Melksham bookings for event groundwork are confirmed within the week, sooner where a suitable model is already on the yard. Give the depot the event date as early as possible, even provisionally, since parish diaries often book several events close together in the spring and summer season. A firm date confirmed early also means the right attachments travel out alongside the machine, rather than being arranged separately closer to the event.
Can different attachments be fitted during the same booking?
Yes. A bucket for levelling, forks for shifting pallets and a brush head for final tidy-up all fit the same Avant loader, so a single booking can cover several stages of the same event without a second machine arriving. Ask about hiring more than one attachment together when the booking is made. This flexibility tends to matter most on a single-day event, where levelling, shifting and tidy-up all have to happen within one short working window.
What UK rules cover using an Avant loader at work?
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 set out duties for equipment used at work, compact loaders included, whatever the setting. Coppard checks and records every machine before it leaves the yard, so that part is handled before the event ever starts. Supervising anyone working near the machine stays the responsibility of whoever is running the event. This check applies to every Avant loader hired from the Melksham depot, whatever size of event it is booked for.
Looking for Avant Loader Hire near me?
Call Coppard at 01380 828988 to discuss which Avant loader fits your event, and to book a delivery date.
