Service
Specialist Removals across Dorset, Somerset & Wiltshire
Marley Moves runs specialist removals across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, pianos, antique furniture, fine art, sculpture, gallery installations, exhibition logistics. The cases where standard removal kit and standard handling aren't quite enough. We've moved baby grands off Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, antique inlaid sideboards out of Bath crescents, framed art collections across Bruton properties, gallery installs in the Hauser & Wirth orbit, and listed-building piano relocations from period homes in Sherborne and Salisbury. Same in-house Marley crew as our standard removals, just with the specialist kit (slings, piano dollies, climate-aware loading, custom crating). Same insurance cover as our standard removals, with extended cover available at quote time for higher-value items where it matters. Free pre-move survey on anything significant so the quote reflects the care needed.
Get a fixed quote within 2 hours
5.0 ★★★★★ Google rating · Family-run · Insured £2.5m · Or call 01747 637070
What's included
Piano specialists
Uprights, console pianos, grands, baby grands. Slings, piano dollies, the right crew size. Concert grands by arrangement.
Antique furniture handling
Blanket-wrap on every piece, corner protectors, careful handling on listed-building original floors. Wax-lined boxes for inlaid pieces.
Fine-art crating
Foam-corner protection on frames, bubble + flat cardboard sleeves for prints, bespoke crates for sculpture and oversized canvases.
Climate-aware loading
For humidity-sensitive items (instruments, oils, antique woods) we route the truck to avoid temperature shocks and time loading for stable conditions.
Extended insurance available
Standard cover £50k goods-in-transit. For higher-value items (over £50k) we can extend cover at quote time, additional certificate ships with our standard one.
Gallery + exhibition installs
Worked in the Bruton (Hauser & Wirth orbit) arts catchment for years. Install briefs followed, plinths handled, timing coordinated with curators.
Piano specialists
Piano removals across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire
Piano removals are a recurring part of our specialist work because most domestic firms either won't take them or quote a markup big enough to put the customer off. We move uprights, baby grands, and full grands from any of the towns we cover, with the right skids, slings and crew for the gradient and the stair run. Common patterns by town:
Piano removals Bath
Listed Georgian terraces on Bath's crescents are the trickiest piano moves we do, narrow Georgian stairs, original timber floors, and parking suspensions through B&NES Council booked two weeks ahead. Routine work for our crew.
Piano removals Bournemouth
Mid-century seafront flats and the larger Talbot Woods family homes generate steady piano work, often a downsizer thinning a baby grand into a smaller flat or a buyer collecting from auction.
Piano removals Salisbury
Cathedral Close listed properties and the SP1 Georgian terraces both come with restricted access; we've moved uprights through the St Ann's Gate archway and grands through the Bishop Wordsworth's School music block routinely.
Piano removals Sherborne
The boarding-school surroundings (Sherborne Boys, Sherborne Girls, Foster's) generate term-boundary piano moves into and out of the music departments, usually paired with a wider domestic relocation.
Piano removals Shaftesbury
Gold Hill is the headline piano job, no vehicle access on the cobbles means a walk-up or walk-down from the Bell Street car park with slings on the steepest gradient on our patch. Done it for everything from upright to baby grand.
Every piano move is quoted bespoke after a free pre-move survey (we need to see the instrument, the access, and the destination room before we commit to a fixed price). Insurance is in addition to our standard cover, so the instrument is protected for its replacement value rather than the load average.
Who it's for
- Piano owners, uprights, grands, baby grands, console pianos
- Antique-furniture owners (inlaid, period, listed-building contents)
- Private art collectors and dealers
- Sculpture owners (stone, metal, ceramic)
- Galleries running install or exhibition turnover
- Auction houses needing post-sale delivery
Free fixed quote
Like the sound of us?
We send most quotes back within two working hours, fixed in writing before move day, with the insurance certificate in the same email. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.
How it works
From quote to settle-in
- 01
Free survey
We see the piece(s), the access, the destination. Especially important for pianos, large sculpture, listed-building moves.
- 02
Bespoke quote + insurance check
Fixed price in writing within two working hours. We flag if extended insurance cover is sensible and put you in touch with the right partner.
- 03
Specialist preparation
Custom crates built if needed, climate-controlled scheduling for sensitive items, parking permits sorted at both ends.
- 04
Move + install
Right crew size, right kit, delivered and positioned. Installs include wall-mount, plinth assembly, lighting alignment if briefed.
Pricing
Indicative prices
Final price is always confirmed by written quote within two working hours, with no surprises.
Stairs, access and instrument size determine the price.
- Upright or grand
- Slings + piano dolly
- 2-4 crew as needed
- Insured + bonded
Add to a standard removal where significant antique content is present.
- Listed-building aware
- Blanket-wrap throughout
- Wax-lined for inlaid pieces
- Pre-move survey included
Quoted per brief after a free pre-move survey.
- Custom crating
- Climate-aware loading
- Gallery install experience
- Extended insurance available
Frequent questions
What people ask about Specialist Removals
Yes, both. Uprights and console pianos: standard specialist work, usually 2-3 crew, slings and a piano dolly, 2-4 hours of careful handling. Grand pianos and baby grands: legs come off, dust-cover wrapped, slings underneath, 3-4 crew minimum. Concert grands by arrangement (we'll quote bespoke after a survey). Insured £50k goods-in-transit per load; higher cover available for instruments worth more.
Yes, antique-furniture work is a substantial part of our Bruton, Sherborne, Bath, Salisbury catchment. Blanket-wrap on every piece as standard, corner protectors, careful handling on listed-building original timber floors, wax-lined boxes for inlaid pieces, double-walled crates for Wedgwood / glass collections. We'll do a free pre-move survey on anything significant so the price reflects the care needed.
Yes, framed paintings and prints get foam-corner protection plus bubble wrap and a flat custom cardboard sleeve. Large pieces and unframed canvases get bespoke cardboard crates. Sculpture (stone, metal, ceramic) custom-crated to size. Climate-aware loading where humidity matters. We've handled gallery installs in the Bruton arts orbit and private-collector moves across Bath and Salisbury.
Piano-only moves: from £250 depending on stairs, access and instrument size. Antique-furniture moves combined with a standard removal: typically a £100 – £300 uplift on the standard price. Art and sculpture: bespoke per-item, quoted after a free pre-move survey. Gallery installs: contact us for a custom quote, depends on the install brief and timeline.
Standard cover is £50k goods-in-transit per load. For higher-value contents (antiques over £50k, art collections, instruments) we can extend cover at quote time, your insurer or a marine-cargo specialist provides an additional certificate that ships alongside our standard one. We'll always raise this proactively at the survey if it looks relevant.
All 16 of our regular Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire towns. Bath, Bruton, Sherborne and Salisbury are our most-frequent specialist catchments, the listed-property and arts overlap drives the volume. Long-distance UK specialist work also offered (Dorset to London, Bristol, the Midlands, the North) at fixed-price-per-route quotes after survey.
Related services
You might also need
Packing
Full or part, proper materials, careful crew
Marley Moves runs full and part packing services across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, with proper materials and a methodical room-by-room approach. We use proper materials throughout: acid-free tissue for crockery and ornaments, double-walled boxes labelled by room, bubble wrap and foam for art and electronics, double-walled crates for the most fragile pieces, blanket-wrap on every item of furniture. Most customers add part packing for the kitchen and breakables (the bits where things go wrong if you do it yourself in the last 48 hours) and self-pack the books, clothes and bedding. Full packing, entire house, is offered for time-pressed moves, families who simply don't have the bandwidth, and properties with serious antique or art content. Pricing depends on volume: typically £100 – £700 added to a standard removal. Quoted in writing within two working hours.
Learn more →House Clearances
Sensitive, licensed, properly insured
Marley Moves runs sensitive house clearances across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, probate, downsizing, end-of-tenancy, post-bereavement, hoarder-property situations. We hold an Upper Tier Waste Carriers Licence with the Environment Agency (so we can legally remove and tip waste, many cheaper outfits can't), and we route donatable items to our regular charity partners (Sue Ryder, Salvation Army, Air Ambulance) rather than straight to landfill. Probate clearances are a substantial part of what we do, we work to the executor's or solicitor's timeline, photograph rooms before starting, identify items the family wants kept or rehomed, and only landfill what genuinely can't be saved. Free pre-clearance visit before any quote, so the price reflects what you actually want cleared rather than a worst-case estimate from photographs. Most jobs run a single day; bigger probate properties (4-5 bed, decades of accumulation) split across two.
Learn more →House Removals
Fixed-price written quotes in 2 hours
Marley Moves is a Dorset house removals company, family-run from our yard in Shaftesbury, SP7, with a Henstridge yard in Somerset, BA8. We move studios to 5-bed family homes across Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, plus UK-wide long-distance removals from Dorset to anywhere from London to the Lake District. You speak to Connor directly from the first call to the keys-in-hand at the new place. Most of our work clusters in a triangle between Shaftesbury, Sherborne and Warminster, with regular runs out to Salisbury, Bath, Bournemouth and Poole. We're not the cheapest Dorset removal company, though we're typically 10–25% under the national-chain quote, and we're not BAR registered. What we are: properly insured, properly equipped, on time. That consistency is what every five-star Google review on this site is built on.
Learn more →Areas we cover
Local to your move?
Free fixed quote
Like the sound of us?
We send most quotes back within two working hours, fixed in writing before move day, with the insurance certificate in the same email. Pick whichever bit fits your pace.