With so much to look forward to as we celebrate our 45^th anniversary year, we thought we’d delve into the Beal Homes history books and share a few landmark events that have helped us to become the successful house builder we are today.

Beal Homes is a family-run business, and has been since it was founded in 1968 by John Beal and his brother, Raymond Beal. The brothers’ first project was to complete a partially finished house in Hornsea, followed soon after by their very first new development – a house and two shops in Hedon, East Yorkshire.

Hedon has proven to be an important location for Beal Homes. In 36 years we built over 500 homes in the town, at St Augustine’s Court, Acklam Road, Merryman Garth, Red House Farm and Leaf Sail Farm. Leaf Sail Farm, built in 1998, is one of our most successful developments to this day.

As well as Hedon, over the years we have built high quality homes in Hull, West Ella, South Cave, Preston, Market Weighton, Scotter, Stallingborough, Healing and Nettleham.

Since the 1970s, we have been based on Hedon Road, however, it wasn’t always the large building it is today (which is now too small for us, hence the move!). We started life in a portacabin that was too cold in winter and too hot in summer. In the 1980s, we built larger premises next door then made the move into our existing building, Holderness House, in 2003.

In 1995 we acquired the first development site on land that is now known as Kingswood. Since the very beginning, we have been the only local developer building at Kingswood and have completed 4 major developments there with over 600 houses. We’re still building at Kingswood today and have an agreement to purchase a share of the remaining land which will last until at least 2020.

In 2003, we acquired Eastman Securities Ltd, a Lincolnshire based developer. Part of that acquisition included land at Burton Waters, near Lincoln, and we immediately started work on creating over 300 unique marina homes. This development now encompasses shops, offices, restaurants and leisure facilities, and we are currently in the process of building The Quays, one of the final residential phases on the marina.

We will soon be moving into our new, purpose-built, 11,000 sq/ft headquarters. This is an exciting move, not only for us, but for our customers. The majority of the ground floor will be dedicated to a customer selections centre, where Beal Homes’ customers will be able to design their new home to their individual requirements. We recently introduced a customer selections centre at our existing head office and it has set us apart from our competitors – we can’t wait to get started on the new one!

John Beal’s son, Richard, became Managing Director of the company 17 years ago, after starting at the very bottom of the ladder digging trenches on site in 1987. Since then, following John Beal’s retirement in 2010, Richard has taken over the helm of the company as Managing Director/Chairman, driving forward his vision for quality, design and high standards. He recently introduced the First Step range of properties for first time buyers and insists that the team maintain a close, personal relationship with customers by building no more than 150 homes each year.

45 years after that first project in Hornsea, Beal Homes remains a family-run business. Who knows, in several years’ time, Richard Beal’s eldest son, Charlie Beal (pictured), could follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and lead the company into a new era.