RH Irving Construction is involved in a wide range of projects as it approaches 50 years in business

RH Irving Construction’s work will be a familiar sight to many.

From those jetting off on holiday from Manchester Airport, to people living in newbuild homes, to the hundreds of thousands who flock to garden centres each weekend.

This year the company, which is based in Longtown, is beginning work on another high profile contract; the multi-million pound task of restoring the historic lido and promenade at Grange-over-Sands, overlooking Morecambe Bay.

Hylton Irving, who is still the company chairman, began R H Irving in 1975 as an independent groundworks operator, with early jobs including working as a subcontractor for John Laing Group during the construction of Manchester Airport.

Over the last half century the company has grown its offer to work on a wide range of civil engineering, construction and infrastructure projects, as well as new builds including Houghton Hall Garden Centre, in Carlisle, and around 10 other garden centres across the country.

It also works alongside house builders such as Story Homes, Gleesons and Persimmon Homes installing essential infrastructure on new build developments, including roads, sewerage and other utilities.

"In recent years we've maintained our core civil engineering expertise and capabilities whilst successfully developing and growing our construction operations,” says business development manager Ian Wishart.

“We have successfully delivered a wide range of construction projects as main contractor, including a newbuild factory and offices for Cademuir Engineering in the Scottish Borders and a newbuild Maturation Warehouse for Annan Distillery in Dumfries and Galloway.”

Other projects of note include the Johnston Centre project in Kirkcudbright which involved the refurbishment, upgrading and alterations to a Grade B listed building and large new garden centres in Falkirk and Stokesley, North Yorkshire, for Klondyke Group.

Current projects include a new build service centre for motor dealer Arnold Clark in Carlisle and a complex town centre regeneration project in Dumfries high street providing both newbuild affordable housing and commercial space.

This is alongside extensive civil engineering works at a Scottish Water reservoir site near Gretna.

The company, which employs 100 people with a turnover of around £20m a year, built and moved to new offices in Longtown in 2005.

Managing director Mark Moodycliffe is confident the company will continue to grow and prosper over the coming years.

“We have secured nearly £12m of work in the first quarter of this year and, looking forward, have a strong pipeline of potential future work,” he says.

“Our success has been the result of lots of hard work by many people over the years. We rely on the commitment, expertise and enthusiasm of our staff and I am proud and privileged to be leading the RH Irving team.

“I am particularly proud of our very low staff turnover and the fact so many of our team have been with us for many years. I believe this reflects the supportive, collegiate and positive culture we actively promote within the company.

“With an eye to the future, we have an active ongoing apprenticeship and trainee programme across a variety of roles within the company.

“We support our apprentices and trainees through college, university and other training, enabling them to secure a range of professional qualifications which, alongside, ongoing work experience will help ensure the company has the committed, trained and qualified staff it needs in the future.”

This year the company is starting work on the £6.8m project to restore the lido and promenade in Grange-over-Sands, which it hopes to complete next spring.

Work on the lido will include an upgrade of the central pavilion and the development of a landscape feature within the former pool area.

The male and female changing rooms will be mothballed internally for refurbishment at a later stage, although some stabilisation work will be carried out on the roof and terraces, as well as cleaning and decoration on the outside.Repairs will be made to the concrete terracing around the perimeter of the pool, including concrete repairs to the diving board structure.When the work is complete, people will have full access to the seating terraces that overlook the central pool space. Work on the 1900m-long promenade will include the removal of unstable sections and repairs to the seawall.It is hoped that in time Westmorland and Furness Council will work with a commercial partner so the site can be run as a swimming pool once more. The lido, which was constructed in 1932, is one of only four remaining listed coastal lidos in England. It remained open for 61 years until its closure in 1993.

“The project is a good fit for our civil engineering capabilities and in-house expertise,” says Mark. “It’s also great that a Cumbrian company will be delivering the project. As a locally based company we will ensure local economic benefit is maximised through using local suppliers, sub-contractors and our own locally based staff.” Like all businesses in the construction trade, RH Irving has been facing the challenges of rising prices and highly pressured supply chains, particularly over the past year or so. However, Mark says the Grange lido is just one of a number of jobs it has coming through to keep it busy in the future.“We have noticed a slight slow down in jobs coming forward over the past few months due to wider economic uncertainty, price volatility and resultant reduced confidence to invest,” he says.“However, we have a strong and varied secured workload and I am confident our commitment to delivering value to clients, excellent relationships with our supply chain, strong and growing reputation and collaborative and constructive working approach will ensure our ongoing sustainable growth continues over the coming years.”