About us

York Handmade Brick are one of the United Kingdom’s leading independent brick manufacturers. York Handmade aim to inspire and innovate with our range of beautifully crafted genuine handmade bricks.

York handmade bricks

YHMB was founded by 5^th generation brick maker David Armitage when a former brick works was purchased along with the 50 acre site and quarry near Easingwold in North Yorkshire. This had been the site of a former clay drainage pipe factory, and before that a brick works started in the 1930s. He brought his passion, enthusiasm, and many of the values from the renowned West Yorkshire brick manufacturer George Armitage & Sons and combined it with a vision to create bricks that elevate design into beautiful buildings, beyond what was possible with the mass market alternatives at the time.

In 2005, his son Guy Armitage joined the business. A loyal, enthusiastic, and highly skilled local workforce has been trained and accruing valuable brick making experience since 1988 and are at the heart of what makes York Handmade bricks special. The business has continued to develop the range of bricks and the factory processes to ensure the business grows its excellent reputation for manufacturing bricks of traditional values fit for modern applications.

Continuous investment at our factory has seen over £5 million spent on new plant and equipment combining modern kiln firing technology with moulding machinery bespoke to York Handmade Bricks particular requirements to enable a wide range of options of innovative and interesting bricks of character and durability to be made to specific customer requirements.

Individuality: Our ‘hands on’ manufacturing process allows for unsurpassed product flexibility, with imperial or bespoke sizes, shapes textures and colour blends available to order. By pre blending bricks prior to despatch we ensure a high level of consistency and quality of the products reaching the site.

Something Special: To enhance your designs York Handmade not only offer British Standard special shapes in all our blends but have the flexibility to produce intricate and unique no BS clay pieces to order, subject to accurate dimensional drawings.

Superior Service: With many years of accumulated experience in the brick industry, our sales team and dedicated brick making artisans will work closely with you to provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction, whatever the size of your project.

Our sales team can help advise on all aspects of brick work including brick matching, colour, texture and size selection, brick work detail or the many solutions that are possible with our bricks. Our bricks are used in a wide range of building projects from contemporary designed commercial city centre buildings to garden or landscape projects to developments with highly sensitive heritage requirements.

York Handmade are proud to have suppled a number of great projects in the last few years. This includes the RIBA Stirling prize award winning new library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, designed by Niall McLaughlin architects.

Quarry

We control our manufacturing process in North Yorkshire from ‘quarry to lorry’ which means our ethics and quality credentials are verified by trusted UK regulators and our manufacturing processes are subject to the stringent standards of UK law. We encourage customers to come to the factory and see our high standards for themselves.

Environmental

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. We are particularly proud of the biodiversity on our 13.5 acre site and 28 acre quarry. The photo is the factory pond which not only supplies the factory with water but also has an abundance of biodiversity including fish, other aquatic species, plants, and birds.

Our Process

Our process has been refined to combine our many years of brick manufacturing experience, passion, enthusiasm, and the highest standards of craftsmanship with the latest technology to enable us to efficiently produce the best-looking bricks for the customers’ requirements.

Steve Pittham (Factory Manager 1988 – 2024) David Armitage (Founder and Chairman) Guy Armitage (Managing Director) and Mark Todd (Factory Manager) visiting the construction of the new moulding plant designed to our specification in 2022.

Handmade Texture

Viking Texture

Ebor Texture

Other products

Client Testimonials

“We chose York Handmade’s bricks for their texture, range of colours and ability to produce the range of special shapes and sizes required. The colour mix was developed in close collaboration with York Handmade’s team. The end result echoes the tapestry-like quality of the college’s mediaeval walls and is a key part of both the interior and exterior of the new building.”

Tim Allen-Booth Associate with Niall McLauglin architects of RIBA Striling Award winner Magdalene College Library

“York Handmade’s bricks came highly recommended by Mark [the architect] and they have not disappointed. Their stylish look, their authenticity and their roughish texture were ideal for our house, built in the Regency style. We are absolutely delighted with the result, we couldn’t be happier.”

Mark B. North Yorkshire Self Builder

“Our company aims, where at all possible, to source and promote sustainable and natural products, which have a higher spec than you would normally find in a builders’ merchants. We are aiming to attract the discerning client, either architect or owner, who can see the value in natural products like slate, clay tile and clay brick. I have dealt with the excellent York Handmade Brick Company on and off over the past 20 years and this has given me the confidence in both the product and the people. York Handmade bricks have that kerb appeal, which make people go ‘Wow, that’s what I want’. We are not interested in volume-driven products – we much prefer York Handmade’s utterly unique clay bricks. And so do our customers.”

Finbarr McCarthy supplier to McCarthy Quality Homes in County Cork.

“When we look to use reputable local contractors working to our same values such as sustainability, quality and experience. Over the years, York Handmade Brick have shown their skill on various projects throughout the York and surrounding areas, with the ability to be able to replicate and manufacture bricks for the heritage sector. Working on heritage buildings is of a sensitive nature, therefore the ability of the contractors involved must be of the upmost quality and York Handmade tick all the boxes. We are very satisfied with the level of work undertaken by York Handmade. The attention to detail is fantastic, with a great brick matching to existing brick, together with excellent quality and swift turnaround. Pinnacle would be delighted to recommend York Handmade to other architects and conservationists and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with this excellent company again in the future.”

Jordan Ramnauth, special works manager at Pinnacle Conservation, York

“I was looking for a brick that was handmade with the right colours and the right size. The massive nature of the architecture, one side of the street facade is windowless apart from a half-moon opening on the ground floor, meant that the brick had to be visually strong. Overall, it was a winning combination of colour, form, texture and cost.”

John Cretton of QDS Leisure – Hotelier in Switzerland

“The open texture of their bricks was a good match and perfect for this project. We have built up an excellent relationship and we had a wonderful behind the scenes tour of York Handmade’s factory when we came over to York for the day. They couldn’t have been more accommodating.”

Paula Baron of the National trust – Dunham Massey Hall