Our History

Today Bellway is the fourth largest volume housebuilding group in the UK operating out of 22 trading divisions and directly employing over 3,000 staff. We also officially opened Woolsington House, our new and bespoke headquarters for Bellway Group. Click here to watch the build from foundations to finishing touches.

Bellway retained 5* status for the third consecutive year and in the last year alone sold over 10,000 homes. A proud member of the 5% club Bellway launched a dedicated Site Management training scheme and a Graduate scheme which aims to attract new talent to the industry.

Bellway reached the milestone of having built over 100,000 homes since its formation over 60 years previously.

This was an award winning year with Bellway voted “Major Housebuilder of the Year” by Building Magazine and “National Volume Housebuilder” in Wessex.

For the first time in Bellway’s history the average selling price for the year exceeded £100,000.

Bellway continued to grow throughout the 90s to become one of the top five volume housebuilders in the UK with both conventional owner occupier developments and innovative urban regeneration projects.

Bellway obtained two firsts at the Ideal Home Exhibition and built an entire showhome village at the venue in Earls Court, London, showcasing the homes of tomorrow.

During the 1980s Bellway expanded nationally, building homes across Great Britain. The local housebuilder had become the local, national housebuilder. The company won a What House? innovation award every year from 1985 to 1989.

By this year John T Bell and Sons had launched its South East division and had developed a substantial housebuilding operation with sales reaching 1,500 units.

On the 17 May the private housebuilding side of the business was demerged from the commercial side, under the leadership of Kenneth Bell – Bellway Plc was born and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

By this year John T Bell and Sons had launched its South East division and had developed a substantial housebuilding operation with sales reaching 1,500 units.

On the 1 February John T Bell and Sons began the construction of Cramlington new town in a public private partnership with Northumberland County Council – the first such partnership in Britain.

By the 1960s John T Bell & Sons was well established throughout the North East and had expanded into Scotland. During this decade Bellway consolidated its reputation for quality and value with a policy of designing houses for local markets using local materials.

Kenneth Bell, the youngest of the brothers, joined the company and new approaches to design layout and finishes were developed.

John and Russell Bell, newly demobbed, joined their father John T Bell in a small family-owned housebuilding business in Newcastle upon Tyne. Even though there was a shortage of materials and formidable amounts of post-war red tape, the family managed to lay the foundations for a successful national housebuilding business.