York Handmade’s demonstration was a key element of a Bricks and Beer evening, organised by global professional services firm Arup in Ancoats, Manchester.
The event was held at the Manchester Brick Specialists design centre, just a short distance away from the iconic Murrays’ Mill, for which York Handmade provided 100,000 bricks in 2006.
The company’s work on Murrays’ Mill, which was built at the beginning of the industrial revolution and is the oldest surviving steam-powered cotton mill in the city, was short-listed for the Best Refurbishment project the at the prestigious Brick Awards in 2007.
Mark Laksevics, senior sales manager at York Handmade, commented: “This was a fabulous brick-making session for architects, developers and engineers, featuring that great combination of bricks and beer, courtesy of Arup. The evening also featured an insightful and informative presentation about bricks and beer from the brick guru himself Alexis Harrison.
“My York Handmade colleague Lee Brimicombe and I were then delighted to demonstrate the ancient, but clearly still relevant, art of hand-throwing bricks, I think everyone had a very entertaining, informative and very muddy time.
“I’d like to say a special thank you to Jamie Ollieuz of Manchester Brick Specialists for inviting us to come and make a mess of such lovely surroundings.”
Sandra Scolastra, associate director of Arup, who arranged the evening, enthused: “I’d like to thank York Handmade for participating in such an interesting and instructive event. It was such a success. The company’s station of brick making was the highlight of the evening and they certainly knew how to entertain our guests”
Mark continued: “It was very appropriate that this event took place so close to Murrays’ Mill, which is a project of which we are incredibly proud as a company. At its peak, the mill was a marvel with visitors coming from the rest of Britain, Europe and America to see this vast building, illuminated by gaslight and operated by 1,300 men, women and children.
“We had to manufacture new bricks, which matched the old building perfectly. The old bricks were particularly difficult to match because of their unique nature – the original bricks were handmade on site from clay excavated from the canal basin itself, and so the quality was variable.
York Handmade chairman David Armitage commented: “We have been able to emulate the appearance of these original bricks, using a mix of three brick types at a standard agreed size – these new bricks were used for individual brick replacements, local re-building in numerous areas, and the reinstatement of the missing upper storeys of the Murray Street Block North.”
York Handmade has also provided 385,000 specially manufactured bricks for 3 Circle Square in the heart of Manchester’s innovation district and 250,000 bricks for Chetham’s School of Music in central Manchester. Together these contracts were worth £930,000.