Full pad-wrap protection
Every piece of furniture is individually wrapped in heavy quilted blankets in your home, then only unwrapped once placed in its final position. Far fewer chips and scratches than any standard remover delivers.
Managed storage in Eastbourne — clean, dry, steel strong-rooms in our purpose-built Lower Dicker depot. Short or long term, full inventory, pad-wrapped storage as standard. BS 8564 accredited.
Mark Ratcliffe Moving runs a dedicated Prestige steel storage facility at our Lower Dicker depot, just outside Hailsham and a short drive from Eastbourne. Unlike communal self-storage warehouses where everyone's possessions sit on open shelves or in shared cages, every customer here has their own individual steel-walled room — sealed, alarmed and CCTV-monitored. It is the same level of security we give our own family's possessions.
Most self-storage facilities you see advertised are huge warehouses where customers rent a unit inside a large open space — sometimes a shelf, sometimes a cage, sometimes a metal box with a roll-up door. They work fine for many people, but they have downsides: shared air, shared corridors, shared access codes, and a feeling of being inside a busy industrial estate.
Our Prestige steel rooms are different. Each is a self-contained, individual steel-walled room with its own door, its own lock and its own internal volume. When your possessions go into one, you are the only person who accesses it. It is closer to a private vault than a warehouse cage. For people storing antiques, art, family heirlooms or business stock, the difference matters.
Every entry and exit is logged. CCTV covers the perimeter, the depot yard and the storage corridors. The site is alarmed out of hours.
Rooms run from 30 sq ft (one room of furniture and boxes) through 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 sq ft up to 250 sq ft and more for a five-bedroom house or business stock. We measure your inventory and recommend the right size — we do not oversell.
The building is dry, ventilated and pest-controlled. We do not store food, hazardous goods or anything that creates moisture. Your possessions come out the same condition they went in.
Our depot has direct vehicle access to the storage rooms — no long carries down narrow corridors. That makes both loading and unloading faster and gentler on your furniture.
Our storage customers fall into a few clear groups:
One of the biggest advantages of using Mark Ratcliffe for both your removal and your storage is that everything is handled by one team using the same pad-wrap method, all the way through. We pad-wrap and load at your origin property, drive to our Lower Dicker depot, transfer directly into your individual storage room (no double-handling, no extra carries), and when you are ready we reverse the process to deliver into your new home. Compare this with using a remover for the move and a separate self-storage facility for the storage: every transfer is an extra handling opportunity, and every handling is an opportunity for damage.
We bill monthly with a four-week minimum. After your first four weeks you can extend month-by-month for as long as you need, with no long contract and no early-exit fees. As a guide, a 30 sq ft room (one room of boxes) is £18 per week including VAT; a 100 sq ft room (2-bed house contents) is £45 per week including VAT. Those are the Sussex rates in full, and every room size we run at Lower Dicker is listed below rather than quoted on request.
| Room | Typically holds | Per week | Per week nett | Per 4 weeks | Collection or delivery, each way |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 sq ft | One room, boxes | £18 | £15.00 | £72 | £240 |
| 50 sq ft | Studio or 1-bed flat | £27 | £22.50 | £108 | £390 |
| 75 sq ft | 2-bed flat | £36 | £30.00 | £144 | £550 |
| 100 sq ft | 2-bed house | £45 | £37.50 | £180 | £720 |
| 150 sq ft | 3-bed house | £63 | £52.50 | £252 | £990 |
| 200 sq ft | 4-bed house | £80 | £66.67 | £320 | £1,290 |
| 250 sq ft | 5-bed house or business stock | from £95 | from £79.17 | from £380 | Quoted on survey |
All prices include VAT (the nett column is what a VAT-registered business reclaims against). £5,000 of cover is included in every price. First 4 weeks half price when we collect for you.
Collection and delivery are charged each way rather than buried in the weekly rate, and the 250 sq ft rooms are quoted on survey because the loads that need one vary too much for a single figure. Availability at any given size moves through the year — call for a same-day confirmation of what is free.
That cover is included rather than sold as an add-on, so there is no separate premium to arrange for an ordinary household load. If your inventory is worth more than £5,000 — art, antiques, a collection, business stock — tell us at the survey and we will extend the cover through our broker, or you can check whether your existing household contents policy follows goods into a professional remover’s store.
Two routes. If your storage is part of a removal we are handling, your survey will include the storage inventory and we will recommend a room size and pricing. If you are storage-only, call us or use the form — we can usually arrange a room within a few days. Visit our depot at Lower Dicker any time during business hours; we are happy to show you the facility before you commit.
If you have only ever seen the chain-warehouse self-storage facilities advertised on the side of trunk-road billboards, our Prestige facility is genuinely different. From the outside it looks like a modern industrial unit; inside it is divided into a corridor of individual, sealed steel rooms ranging from the size of a single wardrobe up to the volume of an entire 4-bedroom house.
Each room has its own steel door, its own internal volume, and its own access. When you sign up for a room, you receive a unique reference. Your possessions go into that room, the door is sealed, and your reference is the only way back in. CCTV covers the perimeter, the yard and every corridor. The site is alarmed out of hours and inspected daily.
Inside the building, the rooms are kept dry and ventilated. We do not store food, fuels, hazardous materials or anything that creates moisture — so you do not get the damp, musty environment that affects some communal facilities. We also pest-control the building monthly, which is more than most facilities advertise.
For viewing, we are happy to show you around in person before you commit. Many customers come to see the facility once and never return until they collect — they trust the security and prefer not to access the contents until the new property is ready.
Why choose Mark Ratcliffe Moving
Every piece of furniture is individually wrapped in heavy quilted blankets in your home, then only unwrapped once placed in its final position. Far fewer chips and scratches than any standard remover delivers.
A 25% deposit locks your chosen date in. No bumping, no rescheduling for bigger jobs. We hold the slot and we keep it.
No fees for date changes, key waits, cancellations or moves running long. Your quote is your final price — we eat any overrun.
One of only a handful of UK removers with our own staff training facility. Every crew member trains here — including the pad-wrap method, fragile handling and customer service standards.
Individual steel strong rooms at our Lower Dicker depot with 24-hour CCTV. Climate-stable, accessible by appointment, with an antiques tier for high-value contents.
The same name on the lorry as the name on the paperwork. Mark personally surveys every overseas job and every white-glove relocation. Started 2017. Still here.
This page covers the rooms themselves. If you are working out which storage service you actually need, start with our overview of removals and storage as a single service. The three situations we are asked about most are storage while moving house when a chain slips, collection and storage where we do the loading, and long-term storage for stays past six months.
Each customer has their own individual steel-walled room, not a shelf or a cage inside a shared warehouse. You sign in at our depot and your possessions are sealed inside your room with 24-hour CCTV and alarmed access.
Seven sizes: 30, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200 and 250 sq ft or more. A 30 sq ft room takes one room of furniture and boxes, a 50 a studio or one-bed flat, a 75 a two-bed flat, a 100 a two-bed house, a 150 a three-bed house, a 200 a four-bed house, and 250 sq ft or more a five-bed house or business stock. We will measure your inventory during the survey and recommend the right size.
Four weeks. After that you pay month-by-month — no long contracts and no early-exit fees.
Yes — by appointment during depot hours, normally with 24-hour notice. Many customers store their long-term archive items and access only occasionally; some access weekly during transition periods.
Every weekly price includes £5,000 of cover as standard, so there is nothing separate to arrange for an ordinary household load. If your inventory is worth more than that we can extend the cover through our broker, or you can check whether your existing household contents policy follows goods into a professional remover’s store.
Subject to availability — yes for cars and motorbikes that have been drained of fuel. Boats and large items depend on dimensions; ask us.
From the blog
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Read article →Call us today for a free, no-obligation quote — or use our online form. Whether it's a one-room move or a full international relocation, we've handled it before.