Our History

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Today Bellway is the fourth largest volume housebuilding group in the UK and in the last year alone sold more than 10,000 homes. The company operates out of 22 trading divisions and directly employs over 3,000 staff. We have retained our 5 Star Homebuilder status in the National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey (Home Builders Federation) for the third consecutive year. A proud member of the 5% club – which is committed to employee learning – we have recently launched a dedicated site management training scheme and are about to launch a graduate scheme aimed at attracting new talent to the industry.