Independent Sussex movers based at our Lower Dicker depot — full-service house and office moves, packing, prestige steel storage rooms, and worldwide door-to-door international removals.
Our story
Mark Ratcliffe Moving & Storage was founded in 2017 to bring no-nonsense, fixed-price removals to households across Sussex. The principles have been the same since day one: a personal survey, a written fixed quote, pad-wrapped furniture, and a uniformed crew who turn up on time and treat your home like their own.
Mark Ratcliffe Moving & Storage opens in East Sussex with a focus on careful, fixed-price local moves, full pad-wrap as standard and an in-house packing service. Survey personally, quote honestly, move carefully — the founding promise still on the side of every lorry.
We operate from a purpose-built depot on the A22 at Lower Dicker, just north of Hailsham. A secure mezzanine strong-room holds moves-in-storage; the ground floor is a fully fitted self-storage facility with individual digital-entry doors and 24-hour access.
Beyond local Sussex moves, we run a full international service — European removals, worldwide household shipping and our specialist UK ↔ Thailand route. Every overseas job is overseen personally; nothing is sub-contracted to a third-party broker.
Today
Our headquarters on the A22 at Lower Dicker is the largest single removals depot in this part of East Sussex. The mezzanine floor is fitted as a secure strong-room for goods we hold in our care; the ground floor is a fully kitted self-storage facility with individual digital-entry doors and 24-hour access.
The depot lets us hold loads overnight if a chain slips, store furniture between sales, and run separate domestic, commercial and international shipments without the bottlenecks a smaller yard would create. It also means our crews start and finish from the same site every day — lorries serviced on-site, blankets laundered in-house, no agency labour cycled through.
Mark Ratcliffe Moving also operates a Worldwide service for small baggage shipments and complete household moves to over 200 countries and territories. Every overseas job is overseen personally — nothing is sub-contracted to a third-party broker.
What sets us apart
Registered with the British Association of Removers and bound by their Code of Practice — meaning deposits are protected under the Advance Payment Guarantee.
One consistent ethos from quote to completion. Survey by Mark personally on every overseas and white-glove job, a crew that has worked here for years, and the phone answered by name.
Every freestanding piece of furniture is wrapped in heavy quilted blankets before it leaves the room — included on every full removal, not a premium add-on.
A 30–45 minute in-home or video survey, then a written, itemised quote with the price locked. No move-day surcharges if the inventory is what we surveyed.
Loads can be held overnight, between sales or for longer periods at the A22 Lower Dicker site. No outsourced storage, no third-party handovers.
Independently audited to the British Standard for moving services, FHIO accredited for international shipping, and members of the UK–Thai Movers Group.
Our crews
A removal is only as good as the four people lifting the sofa. We run a small, permanent crew model rather than a casual day-rate pool, and there’s a reason for it — pad-wrap, fragile handling, careful stacking and the calm professionalism customers comment on in our reviews aren’t skills you pick up on the morning of a job. They’re built over months of training and years of repetition.
We’re one of a handful of UK removers with our own staff training centre, on-site at the Lower Dicker depot. Every new crew member — whether they’ve moved furniture before or not — goes through a structured programme covering the pad-wrap method, antique handling, piano lifting and stair-clears, customer-facing communication, and the paperwork that supports a BAR-accredited move. New starters pair with senior crew on every job for their first six weeks before they ever lead a section of a move themselves.
Crews work in fixed teams of two to four. A typical week might include three local Sussex moves, a long-distance run to the Midlands or West Country, and a packing day for a larger move scheduled for the following week. Saturdays are common — many customers prefer a weekend move — and Sundays are kept for genuine emergencies. Lorries are washed, inventoried and re-stocked at the end of every day so the next morning’s crew starts at 8 am with a vehicle that’s ready to load.
We’re honest that this is hard work — furniture is heavy, stairs are unforgiving, and the weather doesn’t care. But it’s also surprisingly rewarding work, and the crew turnover we see is far lower than the removals industry average: several of our team have been with us for years, and our supervisors all started on the lorries. If you’re interested in joining, see the careers page for current openings — we prefer character and reliability over removal experience, since we train every new starter from scratch anyway.
Common questions
Yes. Mark surveys every overseas job, every white-glove relocation, every antique-heavy move and every storage handover above a 3-bed volume. Routine local moves are surveyed by senior crew leads who’ve been with the firm long enough that their judgement matches his. The phone number on the lorry is the same one Mark answers when the office is closed — this isn’t a franchise, a holding company, or a private-equity rollup.
Independent. Mark Ratcliffe Moving & Storage is a Sussex-based business operating from one depot, with one team, one set of standards and one phone number. We’re not part of a national franchise, a holding group or a private-equity rollup — the name on the lorry is the name accountable to you.
We run two-, three- and four-person crews depending on volume, and our fleet covers Luton vans for the smallest local moves, 7.5-tonne lorries for typical family homes, 18-tonne rigid lorries for larger houses, and articulated lorries for the biggest jobs and overseas containers. Crew and vehicle size are matched to your surveyed cubic-foot volume — you’ll see the same figures on your written quote. Our storage calculator shows the same volume-to-vehicle relationship the office uses internally.
Yes, by appointment. Many customers booking storage want to see the steel strong rooms first — we’ll show you the layout, the CCTV setup, and the antiques tier if you’re storing anything high-value. We’re at Unit J12 Swallow Business Park, Diamond Drive, Lower Dicker, East Sussex BN27 4EL. Mon–Fri 8:00–17:30, Sat 9:00–13:00 by appointment. Get in touch to book a slot.
Accredited & insured
Every accreditation below is a real, externally-audited body — not a self-issued badge.
From the blog
An 8-week countdown to move day. Week-by-week tasks, what to expect, and the first-night box that saves you.
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Every task from 8 weeks before to one week after move day. The same list we give every customer at survey.
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What to check before you sign — BAR membership, insurance, written quotes, reviews. Plus the red flags that mean "walk away".
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