Brick by brick: Meet West Yorkshire's only heritage mason fixing Wakefield's historic buildings

Mr Gillard set up his building business, Gillards Building Services, six years ago after completing a bricklaying course at Castleford College as an adult.

With the help of the additional needs needs team at the college for his ADHD, he succeeded on the course and eventually ended up working on sites after the recession in the late noughties.

The masonry conservation specialist restructured his business four months ago to The Yorkshire Lime Company, where he now only works on historic buildings.

Mr Gillard said: “After working as a bricklayer, I wanted to get out of the general building game and just work on traditional properties.

"I believe we need to save every traditional building, not just the listed ones. All the coal mining homes in Castleford, for example, need saving and will outlast any new build that is only expected to last 20 years.”

Mr Gillard believes he is the only heritage-trained mason in West Yorkshire and is currently undertaking a masters degree in Conservation Masonry at the Scottish Lime Centre Trust in Dunfermline in Fife.

He is also under the mentorship of Nigel Copsey, a research associate of the department of archeology at York University and building conservation repair consultant and practitioner.

The 36-year-old only uses traditional building materials and processes during restorations, namely lime pointing and brickwork repairs. Lime torching is used to regulate moisture levels within the roof space, something roof felts don’t do.

He is currently working on the restoration at Westgate Unitarian Chapel, which was built in the 1700s, and is fully booked for various other projects in the first half of 2023.

He wants to encourage and invite young bricklayers with an interest in conservation who may have additional needs to complete work experience at his company.

Mr Gillard added: “The help I received in college is so important. When I was in school, ADHD wasn’t heard of, people thought we were just naughty children. In this type of work, you get to get everything off your mind and get lost in your work.

"As a person with ADHD, I often get hyper-focused, it is a trait of autism. When I zone in on something, I excel in it. I’m a perfectionist at what I’m doing.

"I often think about what the building was like 300 years ago and the people who used it. It is nothing like what I got taught at school.

"I’ve asked the college if they want to send people who have problems with their mental health or additional needs to the site, to do a bit of work experience.”

“I should give thanks to my aunt, Julie Gillard, who supported me through everything and my fiancée, Laura Feltz, for keeping me going and putting up with the long days,” the mason added.

"I would also like to thank Sarah Cobham, from Dreamtime Creative, who gave me the wonderful opportunity to work on Westgate Chapel.”

Before the restructure, Gillards Building Services won the Corporate Live Wire Yorkshire Prestige Award for the 2020-22 Building Company of the Year.

For more information, vist https://www.theyorkshirelime.company/.