Building on a family trade

David Armitage’s life can be measured in bricks.

He joined the famous Yorkshire family firm of George Armitage & Sons in 1961 after university, when he was 21, and worked originally as a trainee fitter in the Howley Park Factory in Morley, before moving to the machinery manufacturing firm Bradley & Craven still as a trainee fitter, but was at that time primarily involved in commissioning new equipment at brick factories.

Due to difficulties on the sales side at the family firm, he was then brought back to George Armitage & Sons as a sales representative in 1963, covering a part of West Yorkshire, a position he held until 1966 when he became sales director.

He later became marketing director as well and held this job until the sale of Armitages to fellow brickmakers Marshalls of Elland in June 1988.

Once the sale of Armitages had been completed, Mr Armitage bought a majority holding in the York Handmade Brick Company, a company of which he is now outright owner and chief executive.

York Handmade is based at a site at Alne, near Easingwold, which had previously manufactured a combination of clay pipes and bricks since 1933.

It is the most modern small brick-making factory in the UK, with a turnover of more than £2 million a year and employing 28 local staff, who help to produce 4.5 million bricks a year.

Mr Armitage said: "It has given me enormous pleasure to help real brickmaking return to the Vale of York.

"Rural manufacturing has been in steady decline during the past 20 years, but the York Handmade Brick Company has bucked this trend in spectacular fashion. That makes me very proud."

The past few years have been extremely busy for the York Handmade Brick Company, with projets including the Shard, London Bridge Place and Carmelite House in London, Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, York Racecourse, York Art Gallery and Halifax Library.

Infact Mr Armitage's own house at Nun Monkton, has been constructed entirely of York Handmade bricks. He lives there with his wife Gilly and his hobbies include golf, bridge, tennis and messing about in the garden.

What job would you like to have other than your own and why?

"I would like to be involved in either sports commentating or journalism. I have always enjoyed a range of sports but in particular cricket, rugby, football and golf. So there is plenty of scope in all these sports for writing and commentating.

"In that career you would get to travel the world, meet some fascinating people and I think it would give you a great deal of job satisfaction."

Greatest achievement?

"I am very proud of the fact that I bought York Handmade Brick as a run down company in 1988. At that stage it rather resembled a battle field in the Iran/Iraq war which was going on around that time.

"My ambition was to develop a successful local business, employing persons from the local area, many of whom would not have jobs of this quality without our presence. We have largely been successful in this objective despite having to battle the recession from 2008-2013.

"It is also a source of great pride that we have made a major contribution to modern flagship buildings. All these buildings are a great advertisement for the company, for brick as a product and most importantly for the employees who work here."

What do you need to make life complete?

"I am now coming into my twilight years so I don’t have too many demands to achieve this objective.

"As ever, I hope for good health for my family and friends as well as myself and the opportunity to ensure I have made a contribution in their lives in a variety of ways.

"I have had a loyal wife for 17 years and she is my friend and soulmate. What more can you ask. I have that together with four wonderful children and four grandchildren."

Why do you make a difference?

"I like to think it is my commitment to people around me within my business life and within my family life that makes a difference. I know this is not original but it is fundamental to everything that I strive to do. Using a combination of enthusiasm and diligence to achieve a better life for all those with whom I live and work.

What makes you most angry?

"Bureaucracy, especially the unnecessary degree of it in some fields of life is a major annoyance.

"I also get very angry about the fact that some sections of society are always complaining. We are very fortunate to have the democracy in which we live and although it is easy to disagree with people on the opposite side of the fence in ones politics we should never forget the fact that we are most fortunate to have survived two World Wars and come out the better for it.

"It is true that there are still imperfections in society but it is certainly not half as bad as the comments, trolls, tweets and some sections of the media would have us believe. It would be nice sometimes to hear balanced comments from balanced people in the media rather that this endless chronic criticism."

Epitaph

"Without going over the top he tried to consider other people in everything he did whether this is in the family or at work. In a quiet way he tried to make other people’s lives happier and to treat people fairly no matter what their background is or their colour, creed or religion. He tried to put in more than he took out."