A YORKSHIRE brickmaker is currently helping to rebuild an historic two-mile estate wall near York.

York Handmade Brick Company of Alne, near Easingwold, is restoring the Allerton Park estate wall – 50 years after chairman David Armitage helped repair the very same wall.

He said: “I remember my previous company, George Armitage & Sons, repairing the Allerton Park wall in the 1960s. It is a privilege for me to return to Allerton some 50 years later to restore the wall to its former glory.

“The wall is one of the best-known estate walls in Yorkshire as it runs alongside the old A1 motorway between Boroughbridge and the A59 York-Harrogate road.

“It was badly in need of restoration, as it is exposed to the elements and takes a constant battering from the heavy traffic beside it.”

The company has supplied more than 85,000 of its bespoke Old Clamp bricks which blend in with the existing Victorian bricks.

Mr Armitage said: “They will look even more similar once they become a little more weathered. We believe the intricate brickwork, including plinths, does justice to the iconic wall and provides an elegant boundary to the Allerton Park estate.”

The company has worked on other estates including Scampston Hall, near Malton, Broughton Hall near Skipton and Dumfries House in Ayrshire for Prince Charles.

Jane Winter, director at Ilkey-based Collington Winter Landscape Architects, who has project managed the restoration work, said the Allerton Park boundary wall was first built by Richard Arundell in 1745.

York Handmade Brick has worked with Keighley-based building contractor R N Wooler to deliver the project.