A NORTH Yorkshire brick maker has launched a new product line to meet demand from property developers in the South.

York Handmade Brick Company has begun to manufacture the iconic yellow stock bricks which were used to build millions of houses in London in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

York Handmade, based at Alne, near Easingwold, has already received an order for 30,000 London Yellows, with an order for another 100,000 in the pipeline.

Guy Armitage, managing director of York Handmade, said: “This is a tremendously exciting and prestigious new project for us. There is a massive demand for the historic yellow bricks which defined late Victorian London and we are now able to satisfy it.

“The traditional London brickworks which supplied the yellow bricks have now been built on, as London expanded outwards towards Middlesex, Essex and Kent, so now the vast majority of these bricks are produced overseas. It seems only right these such a quintessentially English brick should be made in England.

“The buoyant London housing market is encouraging many home-owners in the capital to invest in their houses, with refurbishments and extensions, thereby fuelling the demand for bricks to match what is already there. This has provided us with a tremendous opportunity.”

York Handmade is working closely with Stevenage-based Marshmoor Bricks, who will distribute York Handmade’s bricks to builders’ merchants across the south of England.

Alex Wheeler of Marshmoor Bricks explained: “As well as selling to key builders’ merchants who serve London, we will be promoting these special bricks to London architects.”