FRIDAY the 5th of April and finally a decent day comes along when I met up with one of those guys who must work in the very worst of all weathers to get a job done. Marc Beardsley is the owner and force behind Airedale Fencing – one of Yorkshire’ s leading fencing contractors. Based in Eccleshill Bradford, Airedale Fencing coveri the whole of the West, North and South Yorkshire. However, they have done job’ s as far away as Bournemouth before now.

Marc has spent more than 30 years in the fencing trade, trained on the job by his entrepreneurial father Brian, who as well as having a fencing business was also a property developer and builder. Marc very quickly learnt and became extremely adept at all aspects of the fencing business, effectively running that side of the business along with his sister Nicola who runs most of the administration side. This was a partnership that worked extremely well, as Lo and behold who runs the office at Airedale along with Marc? Yes you guessed it Nicola. Nicola is invaluable as Marc does all the site visit work and still

likes to spend time“ on the tools” although his three permanent gangs might have a slightly different view.

Marc’ s skill is without question as there are many fencing business’ s in the area where the current owners were trained by and employed as part of Marc’ s gangs. Right now, Airedale has 3 full time gangs with 2 sub contract gangs they can call on( both fully trained by Marc as it happens).

Another claim to fame is that Marc was the guy who installed a mile of security fencing around the old Mintex Factory site in Bradford prior to the redevelopment.

Once upon a time Airedale had 10 gangs on the go which is a major task to keep on top of. Marc took the decision to reduce the number of gangs to both ease his workload and allow him time to spend“ On the tools” which was just not possible when he had so many.

With such a long track record of success in a very competitive market place I asked Marc what his secret was.“ Quality, getting the job done in a timely fashion and at the right price” Marc’ s first port of call is always quality

– he will not let any of his team loose on a job until they are fully competent, so not only does he train everyone rigorously he will take time in looking for reliable committed staff, which in this day and age isn’ t easy. Thankfully recruitment is a rare occurrence as most of the Airedale guys have been there for 10 years plus.

Everyone at Airedale is a team player, something I could sense when I turned up for the interview and was greeted by the team I’ d come to photograph who were there even before Marc, with a

cup of tea at the ready. All the teams are prepared to not only start at the crack of dawn and work late but also put in weekends if the job dictates.

The range of Airedale’ s work is wide from all types of Agricultural work to full commercial installations and domestic when required. Alongside all the fencing they do they have a comprehensive service for all gates from wooden to fully automated steel gates and barriers

There’ s always a wide variety of jobs, everything from 10’ s of

metres of livestock fencing to post and rail Paddock’ s through to 3-metre-high prison mesh that they installed around all of Yorkshire water’ s depots. They have a full range of all the latest equipment which means they can work on the toughest sites from bleak hills and mountainsides to brownfield and full construction sites. The teams love those challenges of awkward, cramped sites and tough terrain. However, the odd level ground simple job in bright sunshine doesn’ t go amiss occasionally.

When I asked about significant challenges, Marc thought for a moment and concluded“ Most jobs offer varying challenges its down to knowledge, and application of your skills to ensure the job is done right”.“ However, it’ s not all plain sailing, most utility pipes these days are plastic, so they are not as easy to locate as the old ones, so it’ s down to the feel of the ground, how it moves and familiar clunk”“ One Friday night years ago we were completing the final post on a job and bang we hit a water pipe! Oops no early Friday finish”.

I asked Marc about the future. They have just gone limited, moved into new premises and are planning to close their old yard to build one at the new site.“ Maintaining our high standards of staff and workmanship is paramount and our strong reputation”

Well certainly with Marc and the Airedale team, if you have Livestock or premises to secure you can rest assured on a job well done!