Member Article

York Handmade Brick Co. secures £50k contract for the Prince of Wales’ Dumfries House

York Handmade Brick Company has supplied 47,000 specially-made bricks for Dumfries House, a Scottish restoration project masterminded by the Prince of Wales.

The contract was worth £50,000 and the quality of the bricks themselves was praised by Prince Charles at the prestigious opening ceremony this month, which was also attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

David Armitage, the chairman and managing director of York Handmade, commented: “We were glowing with pride about the quality of our bricks and were delighted when Prince Charles himself mentioned them in his opening speech.

“This was an extremely exciting and challenging project for us, superbly supervised by our sales manager Mark Laksevics.

“It involved creating bricks which fitted in perfectly with the ravaged boundary wall of the walled garden as well as unique specials for the Belvedere Folly and the Education Centre at Dumfries House.”

Oliver Middlemiss, the estates manager at Dumfries House, said: “We were delighted with the products supplied by York Handmade.

“We wanted this project to show off the best of British brickwork and these bricks, laid by our team of highly accomplished brickies, has certainly achieved that aim”

York Handmade was originally approached in March 2012 by Sam Templeton, the builder on the project, to supply a few dozen bricks to repair an area of brickwork on the Walled Garden wall.

The opening of the garden at Dumfries House came almost seven years to the day since Prince Charles led the consortium that first purchased the house in June 2007.

In a speech thanking those who helped restore the garden, Prince Charles said: “It was always my intention in saving Dumfries House we should open the house and its estate to the public for the community to share and enjoy.

“As well as being a visitor attraction, I hope the garden is a source of much enjoyment and pride for the local community, which has done so much to support this house and estate.”

The garden is one of the largest of its type in Scotland and had been neglected for around 80 years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .