As a leading Cumbrian housebuilder with a well-deserved reputation for creating beautiful places to live, High Grange has an intrinsic understanding of the importance of specifying the right materials for its developments.
Founded by father-and-son team Ron and Gary Reed nearly 30 years ago, High Grange is proud of the principles on which—both metaphorically and literally—it is built. Chief among these values is a total commitment to quality and to developing homes that perfectly reflect the tastes and character of the eventual owners.
Gary explains: “We are a relatively small firm, so we focus on smaller developments that are big on quality. We always say that no two of our properties are ever the same, as they are tweaked and developed throughout the build process to meet the exact requirements of the buyers, who inevitably like to put their individual interpretation into it.
“As a Cumbrian housebuilder, we want the homes we build to complement the outstanding natural beauty of our local region, so specifying the best materials for a project is absolutely vital.”
A good example of this is High Grange’s Keekle Meadows development, a collection of luxury homes situated on the edge of the Lake District National Park. Ranging from dormer bungalows to six-bed family homes, these properties combine spacious interiors with stylish and eye-catching exteriors that utilise quality building materials to deliver real kerb appeal.
Gary continues: “Keekle Meadows is one of our larger sites, and upon completion will comprise 250 homes. Due to the care we take in specifying the right products and our commitment to quality building processes, we typically complete 10-14 homes per year.
“With the development situated in the heart of West Cumbria, it is essential that the bricks used to build the homes complement the wider brick vernacular. Therefore, using bricks from a local supplier was paramount.”
It was this desire to build with local bricks that led High Grange to Ibstock. Although Ibstock is a well-known manufacturer nationwide, its network of factories across the UK enables it to manufacture bricks using local clay, ensuring products imbued with regional character can be used in specific developments.
For High Grange’s Keekle Meadows development, Ibstock’s bricks are primarily sourced from its Birtley factory, situated across the Pennines in Chester-le-Street. The main bricks used to build the homes at Keekle Meadows are Ibstock’s Beamish Blend, the Birtley Olde English including the Buff and Grey, and the Northumbrian Cottage.
Gary says: “It is important that the bricks we build our homes with have texture and character—traits the Birtley bricks have in spades. One of the primary benefits of using bricks such as these is how they age. As the years pass and the bricks are subject to the typically changeable weather we get up here, their appearance undergoes subtle changes, weathering to an elegantly timeless finish.”
What makes Birtley’s output unique is how the bricks are made. Birtley specialises in authentic waterstruck bricks, utilising a process unlike anything else across Ibstock’s wider network.
Waterstruck bricks have a distinctive finish thanks to the use of water in the moulding and demoulding process. In the standard softmud process, wet clay is pressed into moulds that are lubricated with water, rather than sand, to prevent sticking.
As a result, Birtley bricks have an attractive, smooth finish. Thanks to the waterstruck process, bricks made this way also have a degree of irregularity, giving them a rustic air that makes them the perfect product for high-value projects where striking the right aesthetic tone is key.
Gary adds: “I often say that there is no greener means of building a house than using bricks. Good bricks are made to last, and houses that are built today should be expected to stand for hundreds of years. Using bricks manufactured relatively locally to our developments further enhances the sustainable credentials, meaning we can minimise the miles travelled to get bricks to our sites.
“We also find that there is very little wastage with Birtley bricks, thanks to their quality. Anything that can’t be used, perhaps due to damage, is crushed and turned into aggregate, meaning we can operate totally closed-loop sites for construction materials.
“I’ve been in the building game since I left school, and while I have seen trends come and go, the power and ubiquity of brick in our natural environment has remained constant. That’s thanks in no small part to manufacturers like Ibstock, who continue to produce best-quality products that are built to stand the test of time.
“I always say we measure the success of our business on the smiles of our customers, and it’s no overstatement to say that Ibstock’s Birtley bricks go a long way in delivering the ‘wow factor’ for buyers.”
By blending timeless craftsmanship with the finest local materials from Ibstock, High Grange isn’t just building homes—they’re shaping lasting legacies in the heart of Cumbria.
For more information about the full range of products and services offered by Ibstock, please visit: https://www.ibstock.co.uk
To learn more about High Grange, please visit: https://highgrange.com