Twenty-four people

in an Ancoats mill.

We design and build websites for brands that have outgrown their first one. Same studio, same street, since 2018, and the same people from first call to launch day.

The Valden studio inside Hope Mill: long desks under tall mill windows in morning sun
The Valden studio inside Hope Mill: long desks under tall mill windows in morning sun

Unit 4, Hope Mill
113 Pollard Street
Ancoats, Manchester

Founded 2016
24 designers and developers

Unit 4, Hope Mill
113 Pollard Street
Ancoats, Manchester

Founded 2016
24 designers and developers

Ten years, one street

2016

2018

2019

2020

2022

2024

2026

From a spare room in Levenshulme to a corner of a cotton mill, one launch at a time.

From a spare room in Levenshulme to a corner of a cotton mill, one launch at a time.

2016

2016

Two people, one spare room

Ruth and Tom start Valden in Levenshulme with two clients and a borrowed printer.

2018

2018

Unit 4, Hope Mill

Six of us move into a corner of a cotton mill on Pollard Street, Ancoats.

2019

2019

The first online store

Our first Shopify build, for a Leeds homeware maker, sells out its launch range in a weekend.

2020

2020

Care plans begin

Every site we launch now keeps a named developer after launch day.

2022

2022

Twelve people, Framer joins

Framer and Sanity join Webflow and Shopify. Motion becomes its own discipline.

2024

2024

Maison Verel

A Shopify Plus store that lifts conversion from 1.9% to 3.4%.

2026

2026

Twenty-four, and booking

Forty-one sites launched. Casa Ondara, Arkel and Strade in the last eighteen months.

2016

2016

Two people, one spare room

Ruth and Tom start Valden in Levenshulme with two clients and a borrowed printer.

2018

2018

Unit 4, Hope Mill

Six of us move into a corner of a cotton mill on Pollard Street, Ancoats.

2019

2019

The first online store

Our first Shopify build, for a Leeds homeware maker, sells out its launch range in a weekend.

2020

2020

Care plans begin

Every site we launch now keeps a named developer after launch day.

2022

2022

Twelve people, Framer joins

Framer and Sanity join Webflow and Shopify. Motion becomes its own discipline.

2024

2024

Maison Verel

A Shopify Plus store that lifts conversion from 1.9% to 3.4%.

2026

2026

Twenty-four, and booking

Forty-one sites launched. Casa Ondara, Arkel and Strade in the last eighteen months.

How we work

Four rules we wrote down in 2016 and still hold ourselves to on every project.

Four rules we wrote down in 2016 and still hold ourselves to on every project.

01 / 04

One fixed price, agreed before anyone starts work.

Scope changes are written down and priced before they happen. Nobody receives an invoice they did not expect.

02 / 04

The people on the first call are the people who build it.

No account managers passing notes. Your designer and developer are in every review, from workshop to launch.

03 / 04

Your team should never need us to change a headline.

We plan the content model around how you work and train the people who will run the site day to day.

04 / 04

Launch day is the middle of the project, not the end.

Every site gets thirty days of fixes. Most stay with us on a care plan and keep improving every month.

The people you’ll meet

Eight of the twenty-four. Every project has a named designer and developer from the first call.

Eight of the twenty-four. Every project has a named designer and developer from the first call.

Ruth Hallam

Co-founder, creative director

Since 2016

Tom Ashworth

Co-founder, technical director

Since 2016

Amara Okafor

Senior designer

Since 2021

Vikram Desai

Client partner

Since 2019

Niamh Gallagher

Lead developer, Webflow and Framer

Since 2018

Daniel Cheng

Lead developer, Shopify

Since 2020

Sofia Marchetti

Motion designer

Since 2022

Graham Pike

Care lead

Since 2020

And sixteen more designers, developers and producers. We are hiring a Webflow developer

Ruth Hallam

Co-founder, creative director

Ran the web team at a Manchester publisher for nine years before starting Valden. Still art-directs every project and reads every line of copy before launch.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Ruth Hallam

Co-founder, creative director

Ran the web team at a Manchester publisher for nine years before starting Valden. Still art-directs every project and reads every line of copy before launch.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Tom Ashworth

Co-founder, technical director

Chooses the platform, sets up the content model and reviews every pull request. Happiest when a client edits the site without calling us.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Amara Okafor

Senior designer

Leads design on hospitality and retail projects, including Casa Ondara. Works out the booking flow before she draws the homepage.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Vikram Desai

Client partner

Twenty years in agency and in-house marketing. Writes the proposals, runs the first workshop and keeps the fixed price fixed.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Niamh Gallagher

Lead developer, Webflow and Framer

Builds the CMS your team actually uses and trains them on it. Keeps a running list of every edit a client finds awkward, then fixes it.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Daniel Cheng

Lead developer, Shopify

Has built eleven Shopify and headless stores with us, from Maison Verel to the Strade drop pages. Tests every checkout with real cards.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Sofia Marchetti

Motion designer

Designs how pages move, from scroll timing to hover states. Previously in broadcast graphics, so she cares about the frame rate.

Ruth Hallam
Ruth Hallam

Graham Pike

Care lead

Looks after every site on a care plan: updates, monitoring, reports and the small changes that arrive on a Friday afternoon.

Come and see the mill

Most projects start with a coffee in the studio. Ring the bell for Unit 4 and come up to the second floor.

Most projects start with a coffee in the studio. Ring the bell for Unit 4 and come up to the second floor.

Hope Mill, a red-brick cotton mill beside the Rochdale Canal in Ancoats

Hope Mill from the Rochdale Canal

Unit 4, Hope Mill

113 Pollard Street

Ancoats, Manchester M4 7JA

Hours

Mon to Fri, 9:00 to 18:00

6 min walk

New Islington tram stop

10 min walk

Northern Quarter

12 min walk

Manchester Piccadilly

3 min walk

Ancoats Marina

Get directions

Meet the team

before you hire us.

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